They Burn Books, Don't They?

May 10, 1933

On May 10, 1933, university students burn upwards of 25,000 “un-German” books in Berlin’s Opera Square. Some 40,000 people gather to hear Joseph Goebbels deliver a fiery address: “No to decadence and moral corruption!”

https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1933-1938/book-burning

Throughout the years, parents, churches and other organizations have taken it upon themselves to place our history in the trash and ignite it until it was ash. Why? Well, many reasons. Some say these books are morally corrupting our youth, spreading lies and propaganda, and others want to shield the young for seeing certain writings.

I remember as a child watching a movie called Footloose. It was at that time my favorite movie. I’ve probably watched it 20 times and still it never gets old. The one part in the movie that always stood out to me was when Reverend Shaw Moore and others in the church took it upon themselves to cast books into the fire. If the children read certain things, it would cause them to act out, do drugs, or God forbid, advance their minds enough that they wouldn’t believe everything told to them. I didn’t know at that time why this bothered me so much, but I now understand my anger.

As a writer, I have spent many hours in my own mind creating worlds to escape into. Some would call them immoral, but for me, these are cheap vacations within my own mind. Places, people, and things I would never be able to achieve if not for the words in those books. I can only imagine the horror that the writers on the newest list of books being burned feel. I feel shame for those groups of backward thinking individuals who find themselves searching for a new novel to add to their hate list. How dare they pick and choose what others read? Shielding a child is one thing, but how will our new generations know about the past if we refuse to allow them to read it? Let’s face it. Life is not peaches and cream and the world’s not pretty right now. We can’t brush things under a rug or toss them in a fire and expect the world to change. It’s just not logical.

Tennessee 2022

A Pastor in Tennessee has decided that the books Twilight and Harry Potter are demonic and written to corrupt the minds of children. If read, these children will become witches, vampires, and shapeshifters. So, what does he plan on doing? Burning them, of course. We can’t allow our kids to fall into the evil pages of these authors and become supernatural.

Also, in Tennessee the book Maus is on the banned book because of graphic content about the Holocaust. News flash: the Holocaust was not pretty, nor should it be covered up to make others less shocked. The Holocaust was a shocking a horrible event that we need to learn about, so it never happens again. The book contains female nudity and violence. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/26/tennessee-school-board-bans-holocaust-comic-maus-by-art-spiegelman.html

In Texas, parents and school officials have banned over 50 books because of controversial content. Many of the books being LGBTQ and interracial. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-library-books-banned-schools-rcna12986

Present time, there are 330 books being deemed questionable.

I’m horrified to think that someone could tell me, or a child, what they are allowed to view. Should we censor movies and television as well. Oh wait, we do. We use a rating scale to tell viewers that there might be graphic or unsuitable content for children. Books have that as well. It’s in the book's description. There is no quick fix to this problem, but maybe as a parent, educator, or administrator, we should sit down and explain to people what they are reading. You don’t shove adult rated material into the hands of children without explaining to them what they are about to view. Just in case anyone wondered the only thing that happened to me after reading Twilight was, I found myself wondering why these so-called creatures of the night sparkled in the sunlight and walked around during the day. I never grew fangs or flew from tree to tree, though many times the whole tree thing might have been quick transportation.

Before we shield them, teach them.