The Library

 THE LIBRARY

A library normally has thousands of books.  We should take this as a fact, as a basis of our discussion.  A second well-known fact, or projection if you must, is that I, or you, or anyone will not read all the books available in any given library.  These two notions should be uncontestable to anyone who has ever been in a library.

We currently have a set of people who complain and not only complain, but demand that certain books should either not appear in a library or if present, be disappeared so that they no longer are available to those who might want to read them.  

These people have the view that their opinion of a book should determine its availability to the public in general.  The current hullabaloo in Bondurant is a case in point.  As a person who reads books, the idea that some person or persons unknown to me can decide what I have available to read, is simply untenable.  Who are these people?

If you don't want your kid to read a book, tell your kid not to read the book.  What is so difficult about this?  If you do not have the ability to keep your kid from reading a book that your kid wants to read, you might want to reconsider your role as a parent.  Or, consider your own deficiencies in not understanding that not every one has your view of what is appropriate reading and what is not.  

I understand that this library thing has a religious element.  When it comes to a book about gay people or gay kids or a gay life, objections are raised that may have their basis in a person's religious beliefs.  But you know what!  I don't have the same belief and your belief should not have any effect on me or others who do not share your particular belief.  If I want to read a book about a particular subject, what is it to you!  By the way, what is your view of THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO or of the KORAN or of MEIN KAMPF?

I would project that if you are a person that doesn't want your kid to read a certain book, you are a person that is perfectly content that your kid not read any book.  Books are considered dangerous things and the view appears to be they can cause a great deal of trouble to someone set in his or her ways and therefore some will do whatever necessary to maintain a maximum amount of ignorance in themselves and in their children.

This piece is not an exercise in literary criticism, but what the book deniers do not understand is that a novel is not written for the purpose of convincing the reader to behave or identify in a certain way, a novel is written to tell you the way things are - - life as it is.  Denying access to a novel about gay people does not keep you from being gay, but it does deny you the knowledge that there actually are gay people and they lead gay lives.

The question is "Why should your kid be as ignorant as you?"  Are you the ruler in charge of ignorance; the maintainer of unknowing?  This fight for ignorance and set beliefs has been fought for centuries.   And as we can see, the fight continues and we must recognize it for what it is.  It is not a war against gay people or sex or unrecognized behavior, it is a war on books  - this is what it has always been. 

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo