LET'S MAKE MAKEBELIEVE
One of the more interesting phenomena of our current time here in the great midwest is the contrast between what life is really like and what our legislature thinks it ought to be like. At the risk of beating a dead horse, our legislature can not help itself. It must act in a manner that defies the real.
If you were to read novels; and, I mean serious novels - - novels that reflect the world we live in, which is something novels attempt to do, your understanding of the world has improved and you, as a person, are hopefully better able to cope than you were previously. Obviously, some do it better than others, but the purpose of a novel is to show us ourselves and the people around us. A novel should, if a serious effort, give us a better understanding of the world we live in.
These are the books that our book banners want banned. They are the serious novels that reflect us and the people we live with. It is called fiction not because it is not factual - - it is not factual in the sense the earth is round. But a good novel is a reflection of the world from which it came and if you read a novel that so reflects the world we live in, your understanding of your own life and those of the others around you is improved.
To ban a novel, especially one of critical acclaim (which they all are by the way), is simply to deny a reality which a good book presents. I have come to the conclusion that I don't my kid to understand the world he or she lives in; I would rather have them live in some makebelieve world of my own creation. My child is better off ignorant than knowledgeable; better off not knowing there are people in their community and city and state and country that are not like them and have no intention of becoming like them. They simply don't need to know what is happening around them.
Our legislature has made it its goal to limit what we know. This is not a proper function of our legislature as it appears to be in Russia and China and other places such as Iran. To say that my kid does not have access to a particular book or that my kid doesn't have access to the internet or that my kid doesn't need to know anything more than what they want him or her to know is not for our legislature to determine. Unfortunately, the people we currently have in our legislature believe they have the right to think so and it is unfortunate.
I am not advocating for a certain party nor am I advocating for a certain person; I am advocating for some restraint in our elected officials. We have a functioning society without their interference and guidance. We can do it without their impositions. They need to give it a rest and let us go about our business as we see fit.
Richard E. H. Phelps II
Mingo
