in Uncategorized 1,743 Words

Book Banning is Democracy Banning!

I’d planned to blog about flash fiction today but somehow in the big scheme of things, flash fiction doesn’t seem very important at the moment.

There are a number of trends in the United States that trouble me. The one I’m addressing today is book banning.

When you ban books, you are in fact banning democracy. You don’t see it that way, but you are. You are forcing your will on other people.

You do not have the right to tell anyone besides your minor children what they cannot read. Period.

You can try to force your fear of knowledge on your children until they are 18 years old.

I’m not talking about age appropriateness. I’m talking about banning books so they aren’t available to others in a library, classroom, or other place in which people go to find books.

What are you afraid of?

Are you afraid Little Johnny might find out that he’s not the center of the universe just because his skin is white? Are you afraid Little Mary might find out that there are people in the world whose skin color is different from hers?

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Are you afraid your teenage child who believes they were born in the wrong-gendered body might find out they are not alone in this world? They already know you have rejected them.

The case in Hanover County, Virginia

Every week I see a headline about another school board voting to ban books. The one I learned about last Thursday is Hanover County, Virginia.

I have visited Hanover County, Virginia. I thought it was beautiful area. In light of what the Hanover County Board of Education did last week, though, the physical beauty I remember about the area is now tarnished. I pity the children of that county, for their right to read is in serious danger has been taken away.

According to reports, the Hanover County, Virginia school board voted 5-2 on June 13, 2023 to adopt a new school library policy. If the reports I’ve read are accurate, the new policy gives board members full discretion over banning books from school libraries, classrooms, school buildings, or school divisions. I’m not sure what a school division is, but apparently it is a place where literature goes to hide.

Photo by Eliabe Costa on Unsplash

By majority vote, the Hanover County, Virginia board of education can remove books from the district’s schools without input from ANYONE. That includes you, parents. The parents who pushed the board to this point probably didn’t anticipate that they themselves would be taken out of the equation. My hunch is that they thought they’d have the inside track on future book bannings. That’s the way it usually works with narrow-minded anti-books people.

The Hanover County, Virginia board of education wasn’t satisfied to stop there. By a majority vote, the board can now dictate “any and all materials of its choosing in the library, classroom, school building(s) and or division.”

According to the Hanover Public Schools website, those school board members are not even elected by the citizens! They are appointed by the County Board of Supervisors. Those seven appointed individuals now have complete authority over every book that will be in your child’s school library and classroom in Hanover County.

How’s that working for you now in Hanover County?

Is that what you wanted?

I couldn’t help but notice the motto of Hanover Public Schools is: “Inspire. Empower. Lead.” What a sad joke that appears to be in light of last Tuesday’s book banning decision! Where is the inspiration?

And where on earth is there any empowerment in the Hanover Public School board’s decision? It seems to me the only people who have been empowered are the APPOINTED members of the school board. You didn’t get to elect them, Hanover County citizens… and you can’t vote against them because their names aren’t going to be on the ballot.

And as far as the “lead” part of the motto goes, this is what you call leadership?

On the Great Seal of the Hanover Public Schools it says, “A Tradition of Excellence.” Was your “tradition of excellence” formed by banning books? I doubt it.

During the same meeting the board voted to ban these 19 books. A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Silver Flames, All Boys Aren’t Blue, Choke, Flamer, Haunted, Identical, Let’s Talk About It, Looking for Alaska, Lucky, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Red Hood, The Bluest Eye, This Book is Gay, Sold, Tilt, Tricks, Water for Elephants, and Infandous.

Perhaps you’ve read some of those books. We read Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruenin the book club at our church. I don’t remember being scarred for life by it. I’ve also read The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison.

In The Bluest Eye, an 11-year-old girl of color struggles with society’s idea of beauty: blond hair and blue eyes. She prays for her eyes to turn blue so she will be considered beautiful.

The Bluest Eye was first published in 1970. The story is set in Lorrain, Ohio in 1941. The book has become a lightning rod for book banning. Reading it gave me some things to think about. It helped me to try to see the world through that 11-year-old girl’s brown eyes.

Photo by Joe Ciciarelli on Unsplash

We’ve come a long way in race relations since 1941. We’ve come a long way in race relations since 1970, when I was in high school. There is no societal benefit, though, in going backwards. There is no societal benefit in banning a book that presents a black child’s perspective on a world that doesn’t accept her humanity.

Why would the Hanover County, Virginia school board members be afraid to leave The Bluest Eye on a school library shelf? Fear.

Fear

Fear. It all comes down to fear.

What a horrible way to live a life… afraid. You ban books and you arm yourself to the teeth because you’re afraid. The most ironic and sad thing about it is that most people advocating for the banning of books today in the United States profess to be Christians.

Photo by M.T ElGassier on Unsplash

Where in the New Testament does it say that Jesus instructed His followers to hate others?

Where in the New Testament does it say that Jesus instructed His followers to live in fear?

Where in the New Testament does it say that Jesus instructed His followers to squelch knowledge?

If you think Jesus would spend His time and energy today banning books and persecuting people whose skin differed from his or who were struggling every day to try to figure out why something about their birth-assigned gender just doesn’t feel right, then you and I aren’t worshipping the same Jesus.

If you think Jesus loves you because you vote Republican and hates you because you vote Democrat, then you and I aren’t worshipping the same Jesus.

I don’t usually preach on my blog, but…

Jesus Christ encourages His followers to love one another… and I don’t think he meant for us ONLY to love the people we agree with. We don’t have to love the language other people use or the evil things they do, but Jesus urges us to love them because we are all creations of God.

One of the first songs I learned as a child, probably right after “Jesus Loves Me,” was “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” It goes something like this: Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world:  red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Photo by Joeyy Lee on Unsplash

I’ve tried to cling to those words my whole life. I believe we are all precious in God’s sight. I don’t think God wants us to hate other people. I don’t think God wants us to discriminate against other people based on color, gender, ethnicity, national origin, or any other “box” we tend to people “others” in.

I don’t think God wants us to squelch the opportunity or right other people have to read and learn and think about anything they want to read, learn, or think about.

I don’t understand why there’s an element in the United States today who think the best use of their time is to dictate what anyone else cannot read.

We don’t have to be comfortable with the message within a book, but in the United States of America we have we used to have the right to read.

Book banning is a very slippery slope. You don’t want a book in a school library? How long will it be before you don’t want it in the public library? How long will it be before you have a book burning… you know, like they had in Nazi Germany?

Photo by Brendan Stephens on Unsplash

How long will it be before you decide people of a different skin color don’t have the right to an education… you know like in the United States a century ago? How long until you start burning students alive in a school dormitory like happened at 11:30pm Friday, June 16, 2023 at Lhubiriha secondary school in Mpondwe, Uganda?

Photo by Megan Escobosa Photography on Unsplash

God gave us brains. I think He desires for us to use our brain power to do positive things, not to tear other people apart, but maybe that’s just my opinion.

What do you think?

Since my last blog post

I continue to be frustrated with cyberspace, but life goes on. There are many things more important than having access to Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read – one that will take you away from the stresses in your life, entertain you, educate you, and give you a new perspective. Look for a book that will stretch your mind. Perhaps The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison.

Spend time with friends and family. Remember the treasure they are, even if they don’t agree with you about politics.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

33 thoughts on “Book Banning is Democracy Banning!”

  1. When a list of banned books comes out, my first instinct is to buy, read and share every book on the list.

    I have learned so much about other cultures and points of view by reading books that others might consider inappropriate for a “good Christian”.

    I have had some of my most spiritual conversations in a secular book club. The book that comes to mind is
    The DaVinci Code.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Bravo!!! AND CONGRATULATIONS!!! Janet you have said it all, perfectly and precisely. I fully agree. Banning books is banning democracy and establishing a very dangerous precedent and a nebulous path towards the future. I believe Jesus is the Son of God and His word is God’s Word and I have read (and read daily) the Bible and nowhere does Jesus establish a clique of bigots, self-righteous superiors or social deciders. On the contrary, he criticised the Pharisees for imposing upon others what they would not even move with the tips of their fingers. I will re-post your article as this needs to be read and understood by all and spoken about. Thank you! And all the best!

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Pingback: Book Banning is Democracy Banning! – JaZzArt en València
  5. Pingback: Reblog: Book Banning is Democracy Banning – e-Quips

  6. Exactly! I hope that’s what happens in Hanover County, VA and in Florida and other states where book banning is being used as a weapon against our democracy and our individual right to read. Some books are meant to make us uncomfortable and I don’t understand people — particularly Christians — who shy away from such books. Thanks for reading my blog and taking the time to comment.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. Thank you so much, Francis! This news report out of Virginia really struck a chord with me. Thank you for reblogging my post so many more people will see it! I decided God didn’t give me this platform to just write about pleasant things. Thank you for your thoughts on this important topic. You’ve expressed yourself better than I about Jesus and His teachings. “The Great Commission” comes to mind. He did not instruct His followers to go into the world and beat others into submission to their way of thinking. Have a great week as June marches on….

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Thank you so much for seeing this on Francisco’s blog and then sharing it with your readers! As you say, I am appalled but not surprised. I’m afraid Americans are going to get so accustomed to local governments and local school boards banning books that soon it will just go in one ear and out the other. I’m often guilty of thinking I can’t make a difference as one person, but I hope my blog post today will reach some people who really need to stop and think about what they’re doing that hurts all of us. Thanks for sharing my post and thank you for taking the time to send me a comment.

    Liked by 2 people

  12. It is my pleasure Janet. You are right, Jesus instructed his apostles to go and preach the Gospel of Love, not to control others or take rights away from the people. It’s a shame that people like those who would ban books call themselves Christians!

    Liked by 1 person

  19. I know, Liz. I can’t get my mind around it and everything else that’s happening to this country! And here we go down the same road in 2024 as in 2020 and I just can’t bear it. I never thought I’d see so many people in the US to be so narrow-minded and willing to be led like sheep to the slaughter.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Thanks for addressing such a ludicrous and ridiculous issue. When I heard the Diary of Anne Frank was being banned. I was done! Here it is 2023 and you would thing the thought process of those who have the authority to make decisions for the moral majority had their 1953 thinking caps on. Thanks for such a great post! Blessings and Peace!

    Liked by 1 person

  25. In most districts I am aware of the school board is elected. Even if they are appointed there will be some elected official or officials that are in control of and run the schools. If the citizens are unhappy with decisions and choices made by the board about books or other materials selected by the board to be ysed in schools they can complain to the responsible elected official, and if they don’t get satisfaction elect someone else as a replacement.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. Well said. What I don’t understand is how people can miss the obvious. These books are tools, made from a past that was imperfect. We can learn so much from them. It is not the books, any books that are the problem. The problem lies in our ability to blame everything but ourselves for the problems we have. We can’t change the past but we can make a different future and its not by destroying things.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Absolutely, Barbara! Very well stated. I can’t understand people being afraid of a book or being exposed to an idea or thought that might not strictly align with their own. I can’t imagine living with that level of fear 24/7.

    Like

  28. Thank you so much for your comment. It is appalling how widespread the practice of banning books is today. It’s happening more now than in any time in my memory and I’m 70 years old. Thank you for reading my blog!

    Liked by 1 person

  29. You’re correct. It has been my experience that most school boards are elected. I was a bit surprised when I looked into the situation in Virginia and found that, at least in that particular county, school board members are appointed. It is true that they serve at the pleasure of elected officials and elected officials can be voted out of office eventually, but in some areas such as banning books in school libraries, the damage is already done. A strong signal has already been sent to the students. Reading about this case made me realize how little we sometimes know about people running for local office. Perhaps in the era we’re living in it’s time to ask all candidates for school board where they stand on book banning. Every school district my area has a policy to handle individual book challenges and, so far, reasonable heads have ruled. My fear with the set-up in the Virginia case is that the professional librarians/media specialists in the district were apparently left completely out of the debate. Thank you for taking the time to read my post and leave a comment.

    Like

  30. That’s true, Laleh. When they hear a book has been banned, they’re more likely to look for it so they can see for themselves what all the fuss is about!

    Liked by 1 person

  32. Thanks to Pat for reblogging this post. And thank you to Janet for writing it in the first place. Great post. Indeed it;s all about fear and control! It’s a way of controlling the minds of our young people and society as a whole really. Everyone must conform! Great minds “DON’T THINK ALIKE” really despite the old adage! Let’s nurture difference and diversity….

    Liked by 1 person

  33. Thank you, Elaine, for finding my post and thank you, Pat, for reblogging it! I’m encouraged by the response my post has had. Sometimes I think I’m the only one who thinks the citizens of the United States have gone crazy. It’s reassuring to get feedback from people who realize what a problem we have today and the slippery slope we’re on. My best to you, Elaine. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!

    Liked by 1 person

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