It started with a post on social media from a very good friend. We have known each other longer than either of us will admit to and when I saw her post it came as quite shock as it was nothing like the person I have known for so long. She posted a list of "banned" books in America and although that wasn't a surprise the comments made with the post were. In part, she said, "so much for America being the land of the free." As a writer I find the whole idea of censorship offensive. But I realize, cringing my way through some books and movies, that there are lines that probably shouldn't be crossed. However, honesty compels me to admit, I don't want to be the one to draw the line.
So when I read "the list" I was surprised that the list had been created at all. The Giving Tree had been banned in a single public library in Colorado. One library! That equates to banning? Apparently an overly zealous parent thought it was sexist. There were two books on the list (Charlotte's Web and Where the Wild Things Are) that received state wide censorship but the banning was based on religious grounds. There are some people who believe that talking animals are an insult to God. As an aside, I am sure God can fend for Himself, but apparently the people in Kansas felt otherwise.
But the truth was as I sat and read this list, with the statement "so much for America being the land of the free" in my mind, I found myself becoming annoyed. We all know that social media is, for the most part, a joy. We can stay in touch with people, half a world away, on a daily basis. But it has its limitations and so I don't usually allow myself to dwell on the posts that I don't agree with. But this one offended me because it was written by someone who is not American, who has never lived here and yet her daughter is at university here and her son has married an American. Not only was she insulting people she really didn't know, but people who were educating her daughter and her future grand children.
What is it about America that gets under everyones skin?
It is a question that I have truly tried to find an answer to this week. I came to the conclusion that the idea of genuine freedom is something most people don't understand. It takes genuine freedom to get a book banned from a local library because a mother is concerned that her son may read The Giving Tree and develop an identity crises! The idea is ludicrous. But that is just the point, she has the freedom to have, and act upon that idea. Freedom isn't real freedom if it only protects intelligent, profound and enlightened ideas. Freedom has to protect all ideas - including the idiotic ones!
And then there was Ferguson.
The chief of police for the troubled and divided city of Ferguson, finally apologized for the death of a young man with his hands up, head bowed, trying to surrender. The response was further rioting. Far too little far too late, was the feeling of a lot of people. Most of us, with a scintilla of human emotion, can understand the resentment. But most of us over the age of 30 also know that further rioting will not bring about the reconciliation that is so desperately needed. Nor will it bring about the calm and rational reasoning needed to bring justice to the Brown family.
Finally, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.
No blame is attached to Herr Lichtenberg, he was born in 1742, but something he said was used to twist, divide and hurt the country I was born in. I refuse to give the name of the small being who used this quote to write a speech supposedly given by the president of Zimbabwe, my home country. The speech was so evil and vile that it was sent and resent, posted and shared until it reached my group of friends. I was originally horrified but the claim that the president was going to "kill 50 million white people" sounded a little off to me. I doubt that there are 50 million white people in the whole of Africa, never mind one small country, to kill. When I researched this "news source" I found a disclaimer that gave this quote.
He wrote: "I ceased in the year 1764 to believe that one can convince one’s opponents with arguments printed in books. It is not to do that, therefore, that I have taken up my pen, but merely so as to annoy them, and to bestow strength and courage on those on our own side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us.” – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.
The writer then went on to say that the blog was written for his own amusement.
Then I thought back to the mother who was worried about her child reading The Giving Tree. Freedom of ideas is something that we have all wrestled with, no matter our background, our intellect, our education or social status. And we have all wrestled with this for centuries.
Freedom is something we all wish and strive for. Whatever our reasons, I truly hope we are evolving.
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