Book Banning Should Be Banned
Contributed by Randi Perlman
Thank you, Nancy Racek!! Nancy’s article “Books Are Not the Enemy” appeared in the mid-July issue of The People’s Paper. I couldn’t have said it better myself. What’s with all the book banning? And who gives anyone, except parents, the right to dictate to anyone else (or their children) which books they and their family can read?
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, I practically lived at my local library, alongside many of my friends and their families. I LOVED to read and devoured just about any & every book on the library shelves! I even skipped third grade due to my reading level, which was off the charts. I have pursued reading [and writing] throughout my life and was an English major all the way through college. It has enabled me to enjoy speaking, writing and editing, for myself and others, as an integral part of my career.
Banning books was NOT a “thing” back then and was not an issue. Now, the same people continually clamoring for less government interference in our lives are the loudest voices shouting to ban books others choose to read or allow their children to read. One result of this latest assault on our personal freedoms, as Nancy so eloquently stated, is the boon it has created for the authors and sellers of these so-called banned books as folks like myself, Nancy and others race to find and read them all, both for the sheer enjoyment of reading as well as to see what all the fuss [should not] be about.
What’s next? Will those same voices clamor to ban The People’s Paper if it prints the writings of someone they disagree with?? Where does it end???
The very premise of this fast-growing PEOPLE’S Paper, written BY the people and FOR the people, should make it abundantly clear to all who read this or submit content here that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are two of our dearly held rights as U.S. citizens. No individual or group of individuals has the authority to deny us those rights. I will hold onto the books of my choice as tightly as others hold onto their guns, and hope I can find any book I choose to read at my local, or ANY, library…