BOOK BANNING IN 'MERICA

Let's face it, the reason some right-wing conservatives have become rabid about banning books in America is because for now at least the burning of intelligent, articulate people is not allowed, and banning--or burning their books, which is what I was going to say--is, in their minds, the next best thing. Sadly, we live in a country in which creativity and intelligence are not only not prized but shunned, a country in which ignorant people take a look at the cover of a book or its title to decide its worth without ever reading a word of it. Is this something I might see on my cereal box in the morning, they ask themselves. Or, is this something donald trump would like? Worst of all, does it elicit questions, like, what does this drawing mean, or what does this title mean? 

The unfamiliar is threatening, even evil. High falutin words are dangerous. Descriptions of lust or sex, a bad example to children, who are not supposed to know anything about sex until they get pregnant accidentally while teenagers. Science is a threat. Too many questions, a no-no. Ignorance really is bliss--I swear to God I saw that in the bible, some cheerful book-banners might dare to say.

I believe there's a first-grade level handbook of Right-wing Christian Edicts being passed from pew to pew in churches where people simultaneously hug guns and children while gazing righteously at icons of Jesus on the wall that is instructing followers to shun anything that remotely reeks of the left or of a bright, inquiring mind. And it's this that is feeding the book-banning hive. 

Is the book more challenging than a third grade reader? Ban it! If we don't already know the story from a TV movie, ban it! If you have to look up words, or if the writer has a funny name or is BIPOC, ban it. If you never saw that title on your bookshelf growing up, just ban it for gosh sakes, burn it, bury it. After all, we don't want to have to read the damn book to determine whether it's any good!