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Book Burning??? Are you serious?
Reading articles like this where people want to burn books both infuriates me and terrifies me. The main problem is that I can see where these parents are coming from - to a degree. They want to decide what is appropriate for their children to read.
Fine. With the issue aside that I strongly suspect they will raise intolerant children who share their same bigotry and bias, because how could they not since they aren't allowed to make up their own minds, it is the parents right to decide just this question of appropriateness.
My problem is that since when does it become the duty of the library to protect someone else's children? The library catalogs the books in the way that ALL libraries would catalog these books. (Librarians on my list, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the point of the current cataloging system?)
If parents want to keep their children from reading inappropriate things, then I suggest they read the books first. And if they don't like them, they can tell their kids no. Quit being lazy, intolerant book-burning freaks, and start being parents already.
Besides, parents have different views on things. To some, The Perks of Being a Wallflower may be deemed inappropriate for some children by their parents, and others might reject books where entire families are legally executed for the crimes of the father, daughters are offered by their fathers as rape victims, and innocent men are hung from crosses only to rise from the grave three days later.
My point: both books should be available and parents should get off their butts and make their own decisions and stop expecting libraries to do a parent's job. Otherwise, I suppose, we'll have to burn all the books and welcome back the Dark Ages.
Fine. With the issue aside that I strongly suspect they will raise intolerant children who share their same bigotry and bias, because how could they not since they aren't allowed to make up their own minds, it is the parents right to decide just this question of appropriateness.
My problem is that since when does it become the duty of the library to protect someone else's children? The library catalogs the books in the way that ALL libraries would catalog these books. (Librarians on my list, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the point of the current cataloging system?)
If parents want to keep their children from reading inappropriate things, then I suggest they read the books first. And if they don't like them, they can tell their kids no. Quit being lazy, intolerant book-burning freaks, and start being parents already.
Besides, parents have different views on things. To some, The Perks of Being a Wallflower may be deemed inappropriate for some children by their parents, and others might reject books where entire families are legally executed for the crimes of the father, daughters are offered by their fathers as rape victims, and innocent men are hung from crosses only to rise from the grave three days later.
My point: both books should be available and parents should get off their butts and make their own decisions and stop expecting libraries to do a parent's job. Otherwise, I suppose, we'll have to burn all the books and welcome back the Dark Ages.