author Lois Lowry on book banning: The Nazis did it, the Taliban...

[villager]

"I think the fact that recently they have banned a book of mine that has been happily in print for 24 years says something about how things are changing, sadly, in our country. People who are afraid -- and we have many reasons to be afraid, in today's world -- look for ways to control small things in an effort to feel safe.

I'm concerned that they have lost sight of the real values of this country, the things laid out in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights: the freedoms we have based our democracy upon. It doesn't bother me at all if one mother tells her child she may not read a certain book. I think that's the role of a mother, to try to guide her child's growth. But to extend that prohibition to other people's children? That's horrifying to me. And to have a school board uphold that?

To tell people that they may not read? To remove books from a library??? The Nazis did it. The Taliban did it. Book-banning has been an early signal in the past, of oppressive regimes. It makes me fear for our country."

http://www.downhomebooks.com/lupdate.htm

[toymachines]

1. very true words

"'It makes me fear for our country.'"

I hate having that feeling.

[villager]

2. I've had that feeling since, well, the 80 election for sure...

...but maybe since 1968, as a kid, when the news of that year's assassinations hit me....

[XemaSab]

3. Anastasia Again! of all books....

You know, I've long wondered what mysterious factor in my childhood made me a flaming liberal, and now I know.... it was reading "Anastasia Again!" when I was 11.

Reread the Anastasia books a few months ago, and they're DAMN witty.

Probably she was banned for writing a children's book about the Holocaust and the smuggling of Jews from Europe. *cough*

Got to love Lois Lowry... met her in Oakland when I was 14, and she's really nice. Got "Number the Stars" signed. Hardback. Then my darn cat peed on the book.

[villager]

4. they say cats are Republicans...

...because they don't like change. Hmmm...

(no, don't flame -- I love cats, grew up with 'em -- and dogs, concurrently)

But yes, see, the book probably made you "think." Or "feel." Can't have that. Not in a school, certainly. Not in the "home."

[XemaSab]

5. No flames here

But I can see how having that book in Florida might make the difference in the next election. Maybe we should smuggle copies in, a la "The Moon is Down."

[villager]

6. yes, banned literature should be smuggled into fascist countries...

...like Florida...

[Bluehammer]

7. really...

they've done it to a Lois Lowry book, but they seem to have forgotten "Mein Kampf." I wonder how that makes Miz Lowry feel...

[villager]

8. apparently, she's a more dangerous writer than Hitler!

n/t