Rambling Responsibility: Banning Books

This linked article is an interesting one (the comments are interesting too). It is about a parent and author having an ongoing issue about banning books. The parent wants the school his child attends to ban the author's book. Read the letter from the parent and the response from the author.

I do not usually write posts like this, but here goes. This is my humble opinion, yours might / will be different. That is what makes us human.

We have a responsibility to educate the youngsters of this world. Whether it be to smile at them and say thank you when they shop in our stores. Whether it be to ensure the Government in office is the one that is going to care for their future. And we must read and write words. Words are important. They feed the mind, they form the future of our world.

The word HATE is an issue with the parent in the article I found. It is a word that is used flippantly around the world. It has two faces, the innocent and the evil one. I hate Mondays, I hate enough to kill...see the two faces?

When we write, we write for ourselves, then we write for our audience. We do not consider our book will offend, upset or disturb the mind of another - unless it is our intention to do so. The act of writing a book, getting it published and presenting it to the world today, is the reading material of the future generation.

Books I read as a child are now banned. Why? I was not affected by them. BUT- OTHERS WERE. Do they have a right though, to prevent the present day readers from making up their own minds?

See, we all have different views, different styles of absorbing material. The one thing I do say is that we should be allowed to find out for ourselves.

My three children were fed books for breakfast. They all had different likes and dislikes. Two are girls, so they enjoyed different things to their brother. He HATED theirs and they in turn HATED his. I controlled their reading material to a certain level, then decisions had to be made.

Our neighbour was a librarian, she pointed out to me that D1 was advanced for her reading age. The material on the shelves she was allowed to use on her junior ticket, was not stimulating enough for her. We agreed that she would select suitable books for D1 and have them at the desk for pick up. After the second week, D1 approached me. She was upset. I had taken away a pleasure for her at the library. Her right to choose a book, to lift it off the shelf, to hold it and read the blurb.

I was in a quandry; what was I  to do? I discussed it with DH, he does not read books, but understands their importance in the life of another.

She was 10 years old, very intelligent and a stable character. We made a decision and told my librarian friend, D1 could choose her own reading material from the YA section if they would agree a ticket for her.
I have no regrets, D2 was not interested as she HATED kissing bits in the books when she sneeked a peek.

All became highly educated adults( D1 became head girl). I know they will feed their children (when they have them), the same book food. They will let them taste and decide. I am certain they will be annoyed to see books they read, being banned because another disapproved of them.

The reader who demands banning books, cannot differentiate the word HATE from the word HATE. That is the educational part, teaching the meaning of the word. Where the word has two faces, show them the correct word in the correct environment. Not ban them from finding that out for themselves. That is not education, that is closing a mind.

Rant over.