USA Censorship and Books

I apologise for the harsh title of this post but facts are facts. Last year I read and reviewed a book called the Freedom Writers Diary, which was also made into a movie starring Hilary Swank.

It was an excellent book written by Asian, Caucasian, Latino, Hispanic and African-American teenagers about their own lives in the inner city of Los Angeles. These students were all expected (by the teachers) to drop out, end up in jail or on the streets or worse. Instead every one of them graduated from High School. These teenagers learnt to rise above the poverty, the drug abuse, the guns and other crimes in their neighbourhoods. They learnt to beleive in their dreams, to make goals for themselves and to strive to reach those goals. And one of the things they did was to set up a Freedom Writers Foundation.

Well today I read a news article that says this.

An Indiana teacher who used a much lauded bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, to try to inspire under-performing high-school students has been suspended from her job without pay for 18 months.

This high school teacher attended a work shop at the Freedom Writers Foundation. She was DENIED the opportunity to allow her students to READ and learn from this book - The Freedom Writers Diaries. Apparently one school board member objected to the language. ONE person objected to swearing - language that everyone speaks and hears all day, every day, even me.

One has to wonder if it was the swearing the board member really objected to - or whether it was the clear message of the book that kids can turn their lives around, and take charge of their own destinies. There are some in academia, unfortunately, who can't stand it when kids don't live down to their expectations. The real obscenity here is not the swearing, but the refusal by the board to give this teacher permission to use a very powerful tool to help these kids excel. WRH Rivero

What makes this worse is that in todays world, this story is not reported in the US media. No, we have to read the non-American press to find stories like this.

Freedom to Read Week - starts next week

Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Here is the list of books currently on the Challenged list. (PDF file)

The Book Thief - Times Two

The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

Liesel is 10 when she moves in with foster parents Rosa and Hans Hubermann. She, of course, is the book thief of the title, and the books she steals — from the cemetery where her brother is buried, from a Nazi bonfire and from the mayor's library — are symbolic of her struggle to understand the horrors of war. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends.



Everyone has been raving about this novel. I'm sorry to go against the flow, but it does not appeal to me at all. Mainly because it is set in Germany before World War 2, and I am sick and tired of WW2 being thrust in my face every day. WW2 is over, done with and finished. Many things were stolen in that war - Books, Artworks, Dreams, Lives and Innocence. Things that we mourned over, and put behind us. And some of us moved on with our lives. Some of us have not. Most of us alive today were not even born when the last war ended. So why must we be continually be reminded of things that were stolen 60 years ago? Why should I care?



The Book Thief - The True Crimes of Daniel Spiegelman By Travis McDade

But I do care about what is being stolen today. I care that more and more of our art, music, stories and dreams are being ignored or are now deemed as no longer important. Thats where the second The Book Thief comes in. This story is also about Books being stolen. Not just any books, but rare books, old books, books from our past, books about our past. History Books.




HISTORY. Our History. Human history. History is supposed to be able to teach us what we did wrong back then, so we dont make the same mistake now. For some reason Man does not seem to want to learn that lesson. Books were stolen in the last war. Will more books be stolen when the next war starts?

Thanks also to Philobiblos for bringing this book to my attention.