Animals
Letter to the Editor in today's Sun Herald.
Keepers of standards, or cultural bullies?
I am writing about the book-banning issue that recently occurred in the Jackson-George Regional Library system, and which was reported in the Sun Herald. A best-selling book was pulled from the shelves for board review because one individual found it offensive and made a complaint. The library board will review the book later this month. A similar incident occurred last year at an area book store.
What kind of society are we becoming when librarians and booksellers, who of all people should vigorously stand up for and defend the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment, allow themselves to be intimidated by individuals who for whatever motivations would become self-appointed regulators of what we read, see and think?
As I recall, the bookstore manager was actually visited by the police and threatened with arrest, and lawyers from the headquarters office advised him to remove the book in question. What kind of lawyers were these? Is constitutional law only an elective now in law school?
I live just outside Picayune, where some business owners have been visited by local church deacons and threatened with boycotts if they continue to distribute a particular free periodical which church officials do not approve of. Most of the businesses bowed to this pressure.
No one seems to be willing to stand up to these cultural bullies. Maybe we should just give in, close the libraries and bookstores, let the churches amend and approve our business plans, and replace the tax code with tithes.
Sadly, there are many sheep in human clothing who would be perfectly happy with just that.
MAC TUCKER Carriere
- Library News
Online enhancements will take the guesswork out of searches for patrons of the Jackson-George Regional Library System. I reserve the majority of the books I get on-line and then drop by to pick them up, so this is welcome news to me. For those who haven't...
- Joan Karkos & Lysa Harding Steal Books To Keep People From Reading Them
JoAn Karkos said she was "horrified" by the content of an acclaimed sex education book, "It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health." She has checked out copies from two libraries and refuses to give them back. Take...
- Book Returns To Circulation
The Library Board for the Jackson-George Regional Library System voted 3 to 1 Tuesday night to make a best-selling book by comedian Jim Norton available to library patrons again upon request. The book has been out of circulation since an Ocean Springs...
- The Public Library's Role Is To Serve The Entire Community
Karpen said that removing a book from the public library has been considered constitutionally suspect. "Many courts have noted that the public library's role is to serve the entire community," she said, "not to reflect or cater to any specific viewpoint....
- No Book Should Be Expected To Please Every Reader
The trustees have been asked by the library system's director, Michael Hamlett, to decide the fate of "Happy Endings: The Tales of a Meaty-Breasted Zilch" by comedian Jim Norton. A library patron in Ocean Springs objects to Norton's book being...
Animals
I couldn't have said it better myself
Letter to the Editor in today's Sun Herald.
Keepers of standards, or cultural bullies?
I am writing about the book-banning issue that recently occurred in the Jackson-George Regional Library system, and which was reported in the Sun Herald. A best-selling book was pulled from the shelves for board review because one individual found it offensive and made a complaint. The library board will review the book later this month. A similar incident occurred last year at an area book store.
What kind of society are we becoming when librarians and booksellers, who of all people should vigorously stand up for and defend the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment, allow themselves to be intimidated by individuals who for whatever motivations would become self-appointed regulators of what we read, see and think?
As I recall, the bookstore manager was actually visited by the police and threatened with arrest, and lawyers from the headquarters office advised him to remove the book in question. What kind of lawyers were these? Is constitutional law only an elective now in law school?
I live just outside Picayune, where some business owners have been visited by local church deacons and threatened with boycotts if they continue to distribute a particular free periodical which church officials do not approve of. Most of the businesses bowed to this pressure.
No one seems to be willing to stand up to these cultural bullies. Maybe we should just give in, close the libraries and bookstores, let the churches amend and approve our business plans, and replace the tax code with tithes.
Sadly, there are many sheep in human clothing who would be perfectly happy with just that.
MAC TUCKER Carriere
- Library News
Online enhancements will take the guesswork out of searches for patrons of the Jackson-George Regional Library System. I reserve the majority of the books I get on-line and then drop by to pick them up, so this is welcome news to me. For those who haven't...
- Joan Karkos & Lysa Harding Steal Books To Keep People From Reading Them
JoAn Karkos said she was "horrified" by the content of an acclaimed sex education book, "It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health." She has checked out copies from two libraries and refuses to give them back. Take...
- Book Returns To Circulation
The Library Board for the Jackson-George Regional Library System voted 3 to 1 Tuesday night to make a best-selling book by comedian Jim Norton available to library patrons again upon request. The book has been out of circulation since an Ocean Springs...
- The Public Library's Role Is To Serve The Entire Community
Karpen said that removing a book from the public library has been considered constitutionally suspect. "Many courts have noted that the public library's role is to serve the entire community," she said, "not to reflect or cater to any specific viewpoint....
- No Book Should Be Expected To Please Every Reader
The trustees have been asked by the library system's director, Michael Hamlett, to decide the fate of "Happy Endings: The Tales of a Meaty-Breasted Zilch" by comedian Jim Norton. A library patron in Ocean Springs objects to Norton's book being...