Mamacita says:  I despise cowardly adults and their attempts to censor everything they personally disagree with.

All of us should be able to restrict what comes into our own homes, of course.  All of us have that right, in fact.

However, when we step outside our own doors, we encounter all kinds of things, and if we don’t have the skills and knowledge to take the world in context, we are a sorry lot indeed.  Sorry, and un-American.  That’s a pretty strong statement, but I’m not backing down.

A sorry lot.  That’s a really good way to describe people who censor and restrict what other people are exposed to because those people have personal beliefs that should rule the world.  Which they don’t and which they shouldn’t.

What are book-censors afraid of?  That their children will read a book and ask a question their parents don’t know the answer to?

Here’s where I repeat the thesis statement of this post.

Honestly, if a child’s question is going to topple the beliefs of your household, maybe you should step back and examine those beliefs.  That is, if your preacher will allow it.  I believe in this statement so completely that I will say it again at the end of this post.

Of course, adults are right to fear a word in a book, although not, as in this instance, because it names a body part. They are right in the implied assumption that books have enormous power and influence. Children who read widely understand more about the world; they have a
foundation for making better decisions. They think, and because of that, they may even challenge their parents’ beliefs. For some, a scary idea, but isn’t a thinking child preferable to one who accepts the world at face value and has no aim to change it for the better?  -Susan Patron, ‘Scrotum’ as a Children’s Literary Tool, Feb 27, 2007.

Have I ever mentioned before how much I despise censorship and chicken-hearted, close-minded parents?

And by the way, I read every book before I pass judgement on it, unlike many people who base their literary opinions on what their brother’s next-door neighbor’s pastor (who didn’t read it either) said about it in the pulpit.

Books must be read before opinions can be made, and especially before opinions can be intelligently voiced. I think sometimes that so many people form opinions about a book without reading it themselves, because they’re afraid the book might actually make them think.

Such people don’t think much, and any kind of new exercise will hurt at first.  Discernment is a skill that censors chose not to hone.  A flabby brain doesn’t think much.

Don’t EVER accept anyone’s statements about a book unless that person has read the book themselves. And don’t say anything about it yourself until YOU have read the book yourself.

Nothing you say will have any credibility if you haven’t read the book.

“I don’t have to read it; I heard what it’s about and it’s TERRIBLE!!”

This attitude makes me tired. This argument isn’t viable.  If your belief system is so shaky that a book can topple it, maybe you’d better step back and take a good long look at your belief system.

Until you actually read the book, whichever book you’re currently horrified about, don’t talk to me about it. I don’t care what you have to say because you’re an idiot, a parrot, an echo. You have no intellect of your own.

After you’re read it, come talk to me. I love to talk about books.

In your own home, you have authority and can dictate what is and what is not allowed.  Outside your own door, you are not in charge.  No, you are not.  People with discernment have no fear of the world.  People without this very important skill are scared of everything.

On a related note:  I don’t really trust people who haven’t read the Harry Potter series.  If these people won’t allow their kids to read Harry Potter, I don’t like them much, either.

Bring it.