I have been in some discussions lately about censorship and freedom of speech, mostly because of those Time and NYT articles about Sarah Palin and banned books and I am not getting into all of that here because that’s not really what this blog is about. You should just know that I do care passionately about freedom of speech, about keeping books on the shelves. I care because those things enable me to freely say what I believe, and because of that, I defend the rights of others to say things I deeply disagree with.
In one of the classes I am taking, we just read the ALA Freedom to Read Statement. It ends with the following words, words that gave me goosebumps because I found them so inspiring:
We state these propositions neither lightly nor as easy generalizations. We here stake out a lofty claim for the value of the written word. We do so because we believe that it is possessed of enormous variety and usefulness, worthy of cherishing and keeping free. We realize that the application of these propositions may mean the dissemination of ideas and manners of expression that are repugnant to many persons. We do not state these propositions in the comfortable belief that what people read is unimportant. We believe rather that what people read is deeply important; that ideas can be dangerous; but that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours.
Somebody get me that on a t-shirt. (Or maybe just that last part if the rest is too long.)
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5 Comments
Oh, I DO love that.
This one’s shorter: “I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
I know it’s a tangent, but it’s the first thing I thought of.
I’ll get right on that t-shirt. You need to start eating a lot of donuts though because you’ll have to wear settle for XXL. Preach it, sister!
DOn’t you think that this is hard on some people (like me a little) because we get our faith mixed up with our politics. For instance, I checked out the link you gave to the banned books site. And some of the books, (being gut level honest here), made me cringe due to subject matter. I thought, “well, I wouldn’t want my kids reading that stuff anyway”. But, I had to mentally step back and realize, that just because i disagree with what they say, I do not disagree that they have the right to say it. it makes me uncomfortable in a major way, but that’s just part of it. I love that you challenge my thinking…keep on…
(A long answer.)
My faith absolutely influences what I choose to read and what I think is appropriate to read or purchase for my family. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying, “Those topics make me uncomfortable and I don’t want my kid to read them.” The problem is when someone tries to keep other people’s kids from reading something.
It’s tricky, though, because I so fiercely believe that it’s important that I have the right to speak freely about my beliefs that I have no choice but to respect that, in order to protect my own right, I have to protect the rights of those I deeply disagree with. If I am the only one who has the freedom to speak, it’s not any kind of freedom that I want anything to do with.
I think that book banning is more about fear than politics. I am not interested in reading a lot of the books that show up on those lists (Gossip Girl was really terrible because it was terrible, not just because of the sex and drugs), but there are some that are quite excellent and are banned/challenged because of fear and ignorance and misinformation (The Kite Runner is an amazing powerful book that has some difficult things). I happen to think that exposure to ideas isn’t really going to hurt any of us. It will either change our minds or it will help us cement what we believe. Ideas and information can, as the Freedom to Read Statement says, be dangerous. But that’s because learning and growing are good, dangerous things. I have read a lot of things that shocked me and stretched me. I read a lot of things before I was ready for them. But I would be hard-pressed to think of a book that has hurt me.
I think that it’s much more important that parents talk to their kids about what they are reading than for people to try to prevent kids from reading anything. If parents would take the time to be involved with what their kids are reading, well, those are incredible teaching (and learning) moments. I see that sometimes at school, and it’s always a beautiful thing to be able to witness.