Is It A Classic or Is It Contraband?
Most of us take the First Amendment, and the rest of the Bill of Rights for that matter, for granted. If you want to read the book selected by The New York Times as the best American novel of the last 25 years, you go to your local bookstore or library for Toni Morrison’s Beloved. You don’t worry that you won’t be allowed to buy it.
But everyday, someone, somewhere in this country bans access to books. Overly concerned parents in Fayetteville, Arkansas are attempting to remove over 50 titles from public school libraries including Morrison’s Beloved. Among the other books they seek to have removed is Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, written in 1899, purportedly due to "vulgar language, sexual explicitness, or violent imagery that is gratuitously employed."
Fayetteville’s morality brigade is joined by numerous others. The American Library Association estimates that nearly 600 titles were reported challenged or banned last year in various schools and libraries across the country.
Not all attempts to restrict access to books happen in the same ways. The USA Patriot Act still allows the government to subpoena the records of private citizens at bookstores and libraries
in ways booksellers and libraries consider unconstitutional. The threat of government snooping can have a chilling effect on one’s reading choices.
Likewise, prisons are increasingly denying inmates access to books. Two prison systems returned books we had mailed to inmates on behalf of family members. In one case, the prisoner’s sister was sending him two self-help/inspirational books. The other prisoner was not allowed to receive General Principles of Constitutional Law, published in 1891. A not so quick phone inquiry in the first case revealed that the "offenders" must now place an order for books on our "order form," have it vetted by their caseworker, and, if cleared, the state of Missouri will process a check out of the offender’s account for it.
If you find any of this disturbing, then I hope you will join us in observing this year’s Banned Books Week by coming by the bookstore and making a purchase. We are donating ten percent of
our sales that week to the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. You can even make a further donation or become a member of the ACLU while you’re here. No organization does more to defend our civil liberties, including our First Amendment rights than the ACLU.
Although we have often donated a percent of our sales at events to co-sponsoring not-for-profit organizations, Banned Books Week 2006 marks the first time we have made this level of
financial commitment. We firmly believe that a healthy ACLU is an investment in our future. We hope you’ll come by the store the week of September 25 and be as generous as you can.
But everyday, someone, somewhere in this country bans access to books. Overly concerned parents in Fayetteville, Arkansas are attempting to remove over 50 titles from public school libraries including Morrison’s Beloved. Among the other books they seek to have removed is Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, written in 1899, purportedly due to "vulgar language, sexual explicitness, or violent imagery that is gratuitously employed."
Fayetteville’s morality brigade is joined by numerous others. The American Library Association estimates that nearly 600 titles were reported challenged or banned last year in various schools and libraries across the country.
Not all attempts to restrict access to books happen in the same ways. The USA Patriot Act still allows the government to subpoena the records of private citizens at bookstores and libraries
in ways booksellers and libraries consider unconstitutional. The threat of government snooping can have a chilling effect on one’s reading choices.
Likewise, prisons are increasingly denying inmates access to books. Two prison systems returned books we had mailed to inmates on behalf of family members. In one case, the prisoner’s sister was sending him two self-help/inspirational books. The other prisoner was not allowed to receive General Principles of Constitutional Law, published in 1891. A not so quick phone inquiry in the first case revealed that the "offenders" must now place an order for books on our "order form," have it vetted by their caseworker, and, if cleared, the state of Missouri will process a check out of the offender’s account for it.
If you find any of this disturbing, then I hope you will join us in observing this year’s Banned Books Week by coming by the bookstore and making a purchase. We are donating ten percent of
our sales that week to the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. You can even make a further donation or become a member of the ACLU while you’re here. No organization does more to defend our civil liberties, including our First Amendment rights than the ACLU.
Although we have often donated a percent of our sales at events to co-sponsoring not-for-profit organizations, Banned Books Week 2006 marks the first time we have made this level of
financial commitment. We firmly believe that a healthy ACLU is an investment in our future. We hope you’ll come by the store the week of September 25 and be as generous as you can.
posted by Left Bank Books at 12:03 PM
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