Book Banning, "A light in the Darkness"

I want to thank the Daily Press editors for giving me another valuable topic to write about. 

A light in the darkness

 

Daily Press Opinion dated 5-7-2023.

 

 

The Daily Press offers an opinion. "Book bans dimmish the scope of experiences available to young readers." As one might guess, the Daily Press editors consider book banning to be a "crusade" to narrow the scope of experience available to young readers, and though it will not satiate their curiosity, The Daily Press believes book banning coddles readers instead of challenging them." The Daily Press provides a list of books that may be banned, such as classics like "To Kill a Mockingbird," the "Diary of Ann Frank," or perhaps "1984" by George Orwell. Where some believe these books are identified as sexually explicit. There are other books banned for sexual reasons that The Daily Press refuses to consider. Books like the "Harry Potter" series.

 

 

The Daily Press leaves out other banned books for consideration. An entirely different topic as to race where book banning is still in place today. Such classics as "Tom Sawyer," "Huckleberry Finn," "Gone with the Wind," "The Catcher in the Rye," and "Of Mice and Men." We all know the authors as these well-known classics. According to CNN, Books that touch on race are the most banned books in America today.

 

Another topic of banning the Daily Press refuses to consider; The Daily Press and other news outlets ban topics from their opinion page and cartoon section of the newspaper. These bans are based on race, conservatism, and traditional American values.

 

Another topic The Daily Press editors refuse to consider is cancel culture. Whereby a minority of the population bans and attempts to cancel culture for an opinion concerning race, sex, or politics. A small minority of zealots take upon themselves the idea of revenge by posting poor reviews of restaurants, business shaming, doxing a writer's home address, and in some cases calling a fellow American Citizens' place of work to get them fired from their job and what for, an opinion?

 

Another topic the Daily Press refuses to consider is banning religious books like the Bible or Quran in schools. Jonathan Friedman, the director of the Free Expression and Education program for PEN America, a free speech organization that tracks book challenges, wrote, "To our knowledge, objections to the Bible in the last year have occurred as a reaction to efforts to ban so many books," Friedman said. "In each case where it was banned, it seems to have been inadvertent, and the decision was, to our knowledge, reversed." But in one Missouri district, the Bible was removed temporarily to check its compliance with state law, amid more than 200 other books. That is not common, Caldwell-Stone said but isn't surprising given the new trend in mass book bans across the country. "When you choose censorship as your tool for controlling access to information and controlling individuals' ability to learn more about various ideas," she said, "inevitably it's going to sweep up ideas and materials that you actually agree with." According to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom director, the Bible has faced sporadic book challenges for years. "If students want to read the Bible, it should be available in school libraries, Caldwell-Stone said. And so should books about atheism or pieces critiquing the Bible, among other religion-related texts." Caldwell-Stone writes, "Part of education is critical thinking skills, understanding all the arguments from all points of view and sorting through them and deciding for oneself what one believes or wants to think about a particular topic," she said. "And so, I think that should be available to readers despite what one group or an individual thinks of those books."

According to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom director, the Bible has faced sporadic book challenges for years. "If students want to read the Bible, it should be available in school libraries, Caldwell-Stone said. And so should books about atheism or pieces critiquing the Bible, among other religion-related texts." Caldwell-Stone writes, "Part of education is critical thinking skills, understanding all the arguments from all points of view and sorting through them and deciding for oneself what one believes or wants to think about a particular topic," she said. "And so, I think that should be available to readers despite what one group or an individual thinks of those books."

The Daily Press goes on to opine, "Put differently, one is American — adhering to our national commitment to free expression and free speech — and the other is not. Book banning may go by different names but is antithetical to our intrinsic national values." This statement by The Daily Press is hypocritical when the same newspaper bans free expression and free speech from its opinion page. Opinions the paper does not agree with.

The Daily Press concludes its opinion with the following. "Some books are mirrors in which we see ourselves, others are windows to other experiences, but each holds a light in the darkness that book bans aspire to extinguish. We must protect that light at all costs, knowing that keeping a wide variety of books available to young readers will illuminate the path to a better, brighter future."

I would submit that diversity, defined as "a range of things," is lost on the Daily Press. Only The Daily Press (the media in general) can answer for what appears to be the banning of opinion, supports cancel culture, and what may appear to be some but not all books should be banned based on race, sex, religion, and conservative American values. Here, The Daily Press "limits critical thinking skills, understanding all arguments from all points of view."

I want to ask The Daily Press whether banning books (all books or some books the media may disagree with based on sex, religion, race, etc.) is the same as banning opinions and supporting cancel culture. As you are quoted as believing, "banning may go by different names but is antithetical to our intrinsic national values." Cancel culture and opinion writing are the same types of censorship. 

 

Reference: Education Week, Author of "Why the Bible is getting pulled off school bookshelves." Eesha Pendhanker