robertv3

"... a new library board stacked with conservative appointees — some of whom did not even have library cards."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/04/17/public-libraries-books-censorship/

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(Incidentally, I love public libraries. _And_, I think they're a good example of something.)

Y360AZ

[quote=robertv3]"... a new library board stacked with conservative appointees — some of whom did not even have library cards."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/04/17/public-libraries-books-censorship/

How do I look at that without subscribing. That's what I get. No choice, but to subscribe if you wanna read it.
So link is NG.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Maybe the Dewey Decimal System? Or Pay Pal ads.

Kevyn

[quote=Y360AZ]
I had no problem with the link. You must have freeloaded too many articles.

Bevvy

A library is not supposed to be an adult book store

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

And the flip side you don’t address~~

You mean such as these groups??

The takeover of the Democrat Party by the radical element is nearly complete.

Censorship and checks on free speech are shockingly back on the table.

Now Democrats are banning books for an unbelievable reason.

Leftists who believe that speech is violence are gaining a foothold within the mainstream of the Democrat Party.

The “speech is violence” mantra has been used as justification by the radical Left to deplatform speakers from college campuses, push for online censorship, and even destroy public property.

Now books are being banned from middle school and high school curricula.

The Burbank Unified School District in Los Angeles recently barred To Kill A Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and others.

From Newsweek:

Until further notice, teachers in the area will not be able to include on their curriculum Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” Theodore Taylor’s “The Cay” and Mildred D. Taylor’s “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.”

Four parents alleged that these books could cause harm to their children, and, in turn, BUSD decided to exclude these novels from its curriculum.

All it took was four leftist parents to complain, and the entire school district buckled.

The Left has learned that people will often bend the knee under the slightest bit of pressure.

Worse yet, the books in question highlight the ills of racial intolerance.

Students and free speech groups are pushing back, but it’s yet to be seen if common sense will win out.

The National Coalition Against Censorship wrote a letter to the school district that said, “[W]e believe that the books . . . have a great pedagogical value and should be retained in the curriculum.”

The Burbank ban comes off the heels of Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage being assailed by radical transgender activists including one who works for the ACLU.

Shrier’s book was initially banned from Target, but was ultimately put back on the shelves after conservative media highlighted the censorship.

Her book was also blocked from advertising on Amazon.


https://culturewatchnews.com/democrats-are-now-banning-books-for-an-unbelievable-reason/


Or how about why books are being banned by others??

In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott wrote in a letter to the executive director of the state’s Association of School Boards last week that parents have the right to “shield their children from obscene content in schools” and public schools shouldn’t provide “pornographic or obscene material” to students.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/30/us/book-banning-american-library-association-statement/index.html

MidnightRider

Me too, they keep the creative juices flowing. That good example is of the 50s and 60s. When we worked for stuff.

robertv3

Regarding Burbank, you say, "All it took was four leftist parents to complain".

Why do you think those people were "leftist"? Maybe they weren't "leftist".

I read about the Burbank situation now at: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-11-12/burbank-unified-challenges-books-including-to-kill-a-mockingbird and I find a lot of mixed information in that article, including:

this (from an assistant professor of history at USC):

"Typically these book bans come down from people who are concerned about the books’ challenge to established order ...". (Does _that_ sound like book bans _usually_ come from "leftists"? No, quite the opposite!)

and this (from parent Carmenita Helligar):

"The true ban is that there aren’t other books of other voices that could ever be on there."

And this (from student Sungjoo Yoon):

"I’ve been in classrooms where teachers, white teachers specifically, unconditionally say the N-word without anybody’s concern or single out a single African American student to become the spokesperson for the entire class. I think that’s where the harm is coming from."

I acknowledge that _some_ efforts to ban books come from politically "Left" people (and the above-mentioned article I read explains, in detail, _both_ why some people (who could be on the Left) _do_ want to ban some books _and_ why some others (who could also be on the Left) _don't_ want to ban the exact same books in the exact same school district at the exact same time.

You're blaming the "Left" or "Leftists" for a problem (or set of problems) that comes mainly (if not totally) from "Conservatives" (opposite to "Left").

Some bans might make sense. It would depend on the reasons. For example, if there were a totally slanderous book, a ban on it might be justified.

robertv3

A word about Huckleberry Finn: I read Huckleberry Finn when I was around 15 years old. The value I found in it was not about racism, but rather about religion.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

The article is relative to exactly what is going on in schools. And you really don’t even need the article if you have paid any attention to the slanted news media coverage of burn books, ban the books, screw the books…. Burbank is a very liberal city of Cali and had you read more even the teachers were concerned about the Black Lives Matter riots and protests threatened if the books weren’t removed...They surely are not affiliated to the Republican party now are they??
Free speech is at issue at every turn.. Cancel culture the leftist mantra in full swing…

And no, bans on books that have even been required reading is cancel culture on the whims of some over zealous leftist screaming racism as used for just about anything anymore… Like removing all the statues of history as if it’s going to remove the history itself another leftist cancel culture BS.

I’ll stand on my post and you may stand on yours. Neither of us can deny, deflect or divide what we witness with our own eyes, here with our own ears, period.. Thank you for your opinion..
Consider Berkley University many controversies over “ conservative speakers” ..Literature passed out on campus grounds that has also been banned..

One such example for you..

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/01/25/u-s-justice-department-sides-with-conservative-students-in-uc-berkeley-free-speech-suit/

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Were you offended by what you read?

robertv3

No, not at all. Rather, I got some comfort from it. I found some of it quite thoughtful. That's part of Huckleberry Finn, by Twain. There was a lot of the second half of the book I found boring though -- that's the part with the pretend king and duke and ending with play by Tom Sawyer.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Thank you for your honest reply.. I too read it “ as required reading in school” and wasn’t so excited about it until I started reading it..Typical reminiscing of the things kids did and the innocence of child pranks and fun is all I really thought.. There was a bit of racism and religion context as I think about it now, not then, when I read it..But nothing offensive about any of it.. I actually enjoyed it..

robertv3

We read Julius Caesar and Macbeth as required reading when I was a high school student, although we didn't call it "required reading", they were just things the class read together. Some people could call those objectionable because they have thoughtful discussions of difficult life problems (and also there's violence in them). In particular now I'm recalling that, in Julius Caesar, Brutus had to think about whether to murder his best friend for a more important good, so there was a question of whether "the ends justify the means". I mean, really, a person reading that had to think at least a little about whether it might occasionally be alright to murder someone. So the play includes or embodies a thoughtful discussion about such a situation (like a murder) and whether such an act is occasionally justified. I think we were high school sophomores when we read that. I don't remember any ad hoc discussion, it was all just in the play itself.

Regarding that kind of situation regarding whether ends justify means, I guess that occasionally ends justify means, but usually they don't, and I hope to not get myself into situations when an end justifies a bad means. So I try to think ahead and arrange my life so that, for example, I won't have to murder anyone. Ach! Did I just say that? I mean, I want to arrange my life so that I will never have to resort to bad means. There, now it's sanitized.

But Julius Caesar pales in comparison to the horror of even a single Fire-and-Brimstone sermon, and I heard one of those when I was really young, maybe around 8 years old. So far I haven't heard anyone even mention banning sermons like that or exposing young children to them.