Ed’s columns are inspirational—they force me to think. Communities can push back by having community-wide “book of the month” book club discussions of aforesaid banned books. Religious institutions can push back; they have religious study groups, too; they could include those bad, banned books on their lists of adult study, book clubs or sermons. Business might be more circumspect on what they can do; still, others like Raygun choose to dive in the middle of it all. Nonprofits can choose to honor the banned books with giving gift certificates to local independent book stories. I do need to get my “I Read Banned Books’ tshirt, too.
Every time I read or think about the governor's book ban, I play rmy recording of "Inherit the Wind" and fast forward to Henry Drummond's courtroom speech,
"Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!"
The Governor and Legislature are intent on making Iowa a theocracy. Anyone who does not conform to their vision and norms may face serious consequences. Enough is enough. Wake up Iowans. Use your voice to keep our freedoms.
Ed, this is a perfect example of what needs to be understood about the Republican Party in Iowa. Liberty and freedom are both at risk here, and they continue to drive a stake through the heart of our democratic form of government. I believe you did anexcellent job of clearing the air of the political BS and getting to the bottom of this legislative brouhaha !
You were one step ahead of the story in Sunday's Register, Ed. It pointed out how some small towns have merged municipal-school libraries and the complications involved. Do you have separate collections? Kind of reminds me of the "adult" section of the old Family Video stores -- which of course was hard to keep a mischievous kid from bolting into while you were browsing for Pokemon videos -- which were just a few aisles away from the unsequestered mad-slasher movies. Draw more attention to the forbidden fruit and...well...
I imagine the next step will be putting the "verboten" materials in a brown wrapper, or behnid the checkout desk.
This righteous indignation kind of reminds me of our own Meredith Willson's tune "Ya Got Trouble" from "The Music Man." Watch out for those rebuckled knickerbockers, dime novlels in tne corn crib and stray copies of Cap'n Billy's Whiz Bang.
Methinks we have more than a few Prof. Harold Hills under the Capitol rotunda these days.
The concept of “void for vagueness “ has eluded the legislators and Governor? Or perhaps as you say it is all quite deliberate. Then they can try to eliminate judges who understand what freedom of thought is…..All very chilling!!
Ed’s columns are inspirational—they force me to think. Communities can push back by having community-wide “book of the month” book club discussions of aforesaid banned books. Religious institutions can push back; they have religious study groups, too; they could include those bad, banned books on their lists of adult study, book clubs or sermons. Business might be more circumspect on what they can do; still, others like Raygun choose to dive in the middle of it all. Nonprofits can choose to honor the banned books with giving gift certificates to local independent book stories. I do need to get my “I Read Banned Books’ tshirt, too.
Great piece, Ed.
Every time I read or think about the governor's book ban, I play rmy recording of "Inherit the Wind" and fast forward to Henry Drummond's courtroom speech,
"Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!"
The Governor and Legislature are intent on making Iowa a theocracy. Anyone who does not conform to their vision and norms may face serious consequences. Enough is enough. Wake up Iowans. Use your voice to keep our freedoms.
Ed, this is a perfect example of what needs to be understood about the Republican Party in Iowa. Liberty and freedom are both at risk here, and they continue to drive a stake through the heart of our democratic form of government. I believe you did anexcellent job of clearing the air of the political BS and getting to the bottom of this legislative brouhaha !
Exactly!
You were one step ahead of the story in Sunday's Register, Ed. It pointed out how some small towns have merged municipal-school libraries and the complications involved. Do you have separate collections? Kind of reminds me of the "adult" section of the old Family Video stores -- which of course was hard to keep a mischievous kid from bolting into while you were browsing for Pokemon videos -- which were just a few aisles away from the unsequestered mad-slasher movies. Draw more attention to the forbidden fruit and...well...
I imagine the next step will be putting the "verboten" materials in a brown wrapper, or behnid the checkout desk.
This righteous indignation kind of reminds me of our own Meredith Willson's tune "Ya Got Trouble" from "The Music Man." Watch out for those rebuckled knickerbockers, dime novlels in tne corn crib and stray copies of Cap'n Billy's Whiz Bang.
Methinks we have more than a few Prof. Harold Hills under the Capitol rotunda these days.
It’s maddening and frightening. And I cannot imagine being a schoolteacher or librarian right now. 😢. Thank you for drawing attention to this issue.
The concept of “void for vagueness “ has eluded the legislators and Governor? Or perhaps as you say it is all quite deliberate. Then they can try to eliminate judges who understand what freedom of thought is…..All very chilling!!
This situation is a disaster and one more burden for educators. librarians, and parents.
Yes. 😢