This year’s “Banned Books Week” is especially important this year due to last month’s choice of the GOP’s Vice-Presidential candidate. On most things, I’m very moderate. I like to think of myself as just left of center.
On the subject of book-banning, I’m almost militant.
I love my books. Most of them are hard-cover, many are leather-bound, and quite a few of them are signed by the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Mary Matalin & James Carville, Garry Trudeau, Barbara Bush, Muhammed Ali, Ann Rice, and local friend and former “New York Times” columnist, Rick Bragg.
Some of these books have fond memories behind them. Ten years ago, my friend Tom was working at a bookstore in Chicago, and Alice Walker showed up for a booksigning. Knowing how much of a fan I am of hers, he was kind enough to send me a signed copy of her book, By the Light of my Father’s Smile.
The following year, Jacksonville State University hosted Gerald Charles Dickens, the great-great-grandson of my all time favorite author for a reading, and to celebrate “Guy Fawkes Day.” As a student and English major, I was ecstatic. Most of my volumes of Dickens are signed by him.
In 2003, Former President Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity came to our county. The opening ceremony was held at Paul Snow Stadium at my alma-mater. I bypassed some scary Secret-Service men to get to the field, and accost the former President. I had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to tell him that he was the most decent President we have ever had and of course, have him sign two books that I brought with me. He was very gracious; much to the chagrin of those Secret-Service guys who cast me some dirty looks.
Ahh. Memories.
As an undergrad majoring in English, I would make it a point to buy my books new, and not sell them back. Years later, they are still adorning my collection on my bookcases for reading or reference.
I have hundreds of books, yet I could most likely tell you where and when I aquired them. When I’m not writing or working at my day-job, I’m reading. Good books like other fine arts and humanities are treasures that everyone can enjoy.
Imagine my dismay when I read the Time magazine article, A Rough Record from Sept. 2, 2008. Yes, I learned about Sara Palin’s Mayoral race in Wasilla, how she inserted big-time politics into a small town, (Is abortion really an issue in a small town Mayoral race?) and polarized the small community.
The thing that really caught my eye was a comment from Wasilla’s former Mayor, John Stein:
“Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving “full support” to the mayor.”
That passage sent chills down my spine. A woman who is a 72 year-old’s heartbeat away from being President of the United States would love if she could, to ban books.
Woman, you just hit me where I live.
I have a lot of books that have been banned somewhere at one time or another. Among them are The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling, Lolita by Vladamir Nabakov, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkein, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. God help the person who tries to outlaw my books.
When I go out to buy a book, I want the freedom to choose which book to buy. I don’t want someone choosing for me. Ms. Palin, I direct you to what Alfred Whitney Griswold, President of Yale University from 1951-1963 had to say with regard to your policy on books:
“Books wont stay banned. They wont burn. Ideas wont go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.”
“Could Hamlet have been written by a committee, or the Mona Lisa painted by a club? Could the New Testament have been composed as a conference report? Creative ideas do not spring from groups. They spring from individuals. The divine spark leaps from the finger of God to the finger of Adam, whether it takes ultimate shape in a law of physics or a law of the land, a poem or a policy, a sonata or a mechanical computer.”
I will now point you the reader, to a list of books that at one time or another have been banned. The list may surprise you. In addition I ask you to celebrate freedom; read a banned book:
I will now adopt an NRA stance with regard to my books. Ms. Palin, you can have my banned books when you pry them from my cold, dead hand.
My thanks to the late, great Charleton Heston for loosely borrowing his quote. Now for a few chapters of Nicholas Nickleby.
