Book Banning Week

There is no book banning crisis, it is all a figment of you imagination!

There Is No Book Ban-demic
It sounds scary, but it isn’t really happening.
The National Review
By Abigail Anthony
September 30, 2023

PEN America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting free expression, recently released an annual report documenting “3,362 book bans affecting 1,557 unique titles” in public schools across the United States during the 2022–2023 academic year. The report says that 88 percent of book bans occurred in Republican states, and “over 40 percent of all book bans occurred in school districts in Florida.”

These statistics support what PEN America has dubbed the “Ed Scare.” The problem? PEN America’s overly broad definition of a “ban”:

PEN America defines a school book ban as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other governmental officials, that leads to a previously accessible book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished. [Emphasis added.]

PEN America clarifies the following in its methodology:

For example, if a book that was previously available to all now requires parental permission, or is restricted to a higher grade level than educators initially determined, that is a ban. In some cases, books are removed from shelves for “review,” but not returned for a weeks or months. If students cannot access the book, that is a ban. [Emphasis added.]

Although we live in fraught political times, any person with more than two brain cells knows that restricted access is not a “ban.” By PEN America’s definition, if a school made a book available only to certain students on the basis of age or grade after it was previously available to a larger subset of students, then the book has been “banned,” despite its obtainability.

Semantics! The bottom line… they want them off the shelves. Also bear in mind that the National Review is conservative-right-libertarian editorial magazine.

How Libraries Are Fighting Book Banning
Banned Books Week begins on Sunday, and the city’s library systems are mobilizing to support the freedom to read.
New York Times
By James Barron
September 28, 2023

“The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack.”

That line came from a statement issued by the American Library Association — not yesterday or last week, but in 1953.

Still, it seemed unusually timely after last week, when there was a bomb threat to a library in Brooklyn and a report from the American Library Association described a troubling increase in efforts to remove books from libraries nationally.

It was also timely because Banned Books Week begins on Sunday. All three library systems in the city have designated Wednesday as “Freedom to Read Digital Day of Action” and will encourage people to post images of their favorite books online.

[…]

The Brooklyn Public Library, which last year began “Books Unbanned” to reach readers in places where restrictions might force books off library shelves and out of classrooms, is starting a podcast called “Borrowed and Banned.” In seven episodes, it will address “the ideological wars Americans are having with their bookshelves,” the library says.

The Queens Public Library will post decals that say “All Books Are Welcome Here” at library entrances and has scheduled online talks with Samira Ahmed and Phil Blinder, two authors whose books have been challenged or banned.

The conservatives… we are not banning books we just want them hidden so not one can find them or have to go up to the and beg to read them in front of everyone else. Can you imagine a twelve year old going up to the librarian and asking… “Can I read “I Am Jazz” where everyone can hear? And then having this adult staring down on you and asking… “And just why do you want to read that my little man?” The right-wingers say that is not banning.

“You don’t ban Toni Morrison [A bestseller author whose books were on the New York Times’ Best Seller list for 25 weeks.] unless you are trying to prevent people from understanding a very profound truth that they need to understand,” he said.

But… but… “We aren’t banning books!” Yeah right.

On eve of Banned Books Week, St. Louis-area libraries become battlegrounds in culture wars
St. Louis Post – Dispatch
By Jane Henderson
September 29, 2023


Missouri has opened its door wide to book challenges, including in St. Charles County. There, protesters at meetings have called sex education books “gross” while others speak against censorship efforts.

On the flip side, Illinois has passed a law to defend libraries [I’m going to try to bring that law here in the next legislative session.]. But that doesn’t mean book advocates aren’t on alert there, too.

In Collinsville, increasing numbers of people attend board meetings in the Mississippi Valley Library District. In September, more than 35 people, some wearing shirts proclaiming “United Against Hate” and “Ally,” crammed into a small space and many cheered loudly when patrons spoke in favor of keeping the library’s offerings diverse.
The conservatives counted on voter apathy and got their pundits elected.

• In May, the new president stated she didn’t want a “social agenda” in the library. That same month, the new vice president offered that she opposed drag queen story times (a position stemming from a single event in 2022). She said that she wasn’t discriminating against “gay people.” When someone asked about LGBTQ people “sharing their stories,” she responded, “They can find their role models elsewhere.” A recording of the meeting is posted on the library’s website.
• In the meantime, a children’s book on sex education was quietly reshelved in the Collinsville library’s “parents information” section after an informal complaint by one new trustee. The book, “It’s Perfectly Normal,” listed for ages 10 and up, has also been a target in the St. Charles City-County Library.
• The board president removed rainbow bookmarks in June that were part of a “Libraries Transform” campaign.

[…]

In Florida, an analysis by the Tampa Bay Times found that some 600 of 1,100 formal complaints since July 2022 came from just two people, one a man who founded the Florida chapter of No Left Turn in Education. The newspaper says, “The data illustrates how a tiny minority of activists across the state can overwhelm school districts while shaping the national conversation over what books belong on school library shelves.”

Grooming!

That is what they say about having books on shelves that are about Black history, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ people.

But tell me who are the groomers? The group who believe everything should be on the libraries shelves or the group who says we only want our material on the shelves?

At its June convention, one ALA panel summarized efforts to challenge books: “Research shows that the movement to ban books is pushed by advocacy groups, using inflammatory language such as ‘grooming’ ‘pedophile’ and ‘pornography’ publicly, and then submitting lists with hundreds of books for censorship. Many of these groups espouse ‘Christian nationalist political views,’ or declare a mission to reform public schools.”

If you believe in “Parent’s Rights” should the parents choose for their children and not a bunch of strangers?

Meanwhile, another group of parents,

‘Let’s just flood the libraries’: Mt. Juliet couple donates 500+ Christian books to schools amid book banning debate
WKRN
By Kendall Ashman
September 28, 2023

A Mt. Juliet couple hopes to flood out books they consider obscene and pornographic, by donating over 500 gospel-centered books to high school libraries. All of this comes after multiple books have been pulled from Wilson County high school libraries.

“I went out and I told Dave we need to flood the schools,’” Holly Ashley said.

For the past year, book banning has become a focal point during Wilson County School Board meetings. However, instead of taking part in the debate, Dave and Holly Ashley created a campaign called The Shine the Light.

“Instead of removing [books], let’s just flood the libraries with some positive and theological truth,” Dave said.

On their own dime, the Ashleys donated dozens of books to five Wilson County high school libraries written by Christian authors.

“And it’s just not theologians’, former educations, people that have lived and experienced the homosexual community,” Holly said.

On the four-page list, titles include “What Does the Bible Teach about Homosexuality? A Short Book on Biblical Sexuality”, “The Excellent Wife”, and “It’s Good to be a Man.”

I have no problem with this as long as they allow other books on the bookshelves and not hidden away.