Banned Book Month-Who are the people that want to ban books?

I’ve read several blogs, newspaper articles, and social media posts about banned books in the past four weeks. All these sources take the side of the novelists and the publishers. They say banning books is wrong and a repression of freedom. There are articles advising us to read banned books.

What about the people that want these books banned? Where are their posts? What is their side? They must have reasons.

2020 was a year like no other according to several newscasters. There was an unbelievable pandemic similar to the one a hundred years ago. We had an economic crash just like 1837, 1857, 1929 and 2008. There is violence and loosening morals everywhere.

What can be done? How do we protect the children? There are parents who believe banning books is the first step. There are books that children are not ready for.

What type of books?

If you take a stroll through a major bookseller chain store, you will find the Politics and Current Affairs section. There are books by disgraced politicians, insurrectionists, and sexually deviant pundits that were fired by cable news channels. There is no call to ban those books because those on the book covers believe in America. Those authors believe in the freedom of speech to spread their opinions.

In the religion section, there are multi-millionaires using religion to line their pockets. There is no call to ban those books. They believe in America and freedom of church in state.

History is war and land-grabs, but kids don’t read those books. Adults don’t read history books either.

There are thousands of books about adult men sleeping with the babysitter. No one is banning those books because that happens in life. How can we ban books where that happens every day to celebrity husbands?

The on-line bookstores are no different. There is a series of books about women who seek romantic relationships with dinosaurs. “Ravaged by the Raptor” “Pleasing the Lizard King” “How to Meet and Seduce Dinosaurs.” These books have five star reviews so they must be artistic and not something to ban.

The place where adults are focused on banning books is the YA section. “Maus” and those naked mice are too much for children, that’s why the McMinn County Schoolboard in Kentucky banned that book. Judy Blume was banned in several places through the years. Her books about young girls’ issues with puberty are not the kind of things girls going through puberty should read.

Pope Benedict believed that the Harry Potter series needed to be banned due to the witchcraft and wizardry. It’s not relevant that the series borrows heavily from the neo-religious “Chronicles of Narnia.” We can’t have children flicking and swishing wingardium leviosa or levioosah.

Children can be emotionally scarred from violent books. If anyone who read the “Wizard of Oz” in 1904 would attest, the flying monkeys were brutal. The Tin Man accidentally cuts his own body to shreds in “Tin Man of Oz.” Just because those books are beloved for over a hundred years, doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic to those who only saw the movie.

Apparently the one book that shouldn’t be banned is the dictionary because people don’t understand what a ban is. According to “USA Today,” the week “Maus” was banned, it became the number 1 best selling graphic novel. Judy Blume had sold over 82 million books. Some of you reading this have stopped to look up “Ravaged by the Raptor.” People were arrested for having “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” and yet it was a best seller. Book sellers celebrate banned books. Marketers make being banned a source of pride. It guarantees sales.

It’s almost like banning a troubling book is ineffective.

What other options are there?

I’ve read blogs have suggest that organizations don’t really want to ban books. They believe books like “The Diary of Anne Frank” or “Maus” should be moved to another part of the library till a solution comes around. I’ve read blogs that say “Invisible Man” or “How to be Anti-Racist” should be in a separate place that is just as good as the rest of the library. LGBT books should be moved to a smaller room with a door that has a poster of a teen pop star on it.

Citizens for a New Louisiana has a website where a lot space is spent on protesting “Let’s Talk About It” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan. It’s a book with pictures and descriptions about sex education. The cover of “Let’s Talk About It” and the inside pages say it’s for confused or nervous teens. It is for discussions between adults and teens.

The organization names the librarian, who was then ridiculed and harassed. There is no naming the “responsible mothers” that protested the book. Why do they hide? I can’t believe they fear the harassment and threats the librarian withstood. They are “responsible.” Why does this group have more space on donating to their non-profit group than their reasons for banning a book?

momsforlibraries.org has places to sign petitions. They have posts about book banning across the country and how they are against it. They have one tab in their “take action” section for donations. They put their names on their petitions to protect librarians.  Aren’t they responsible enough to hide their names?

I would learn more about these groups but I’m not donating to them so…