Okay, just one more thought about Sarah Palin. According to TIME magazine, former Wasilla mayor John Stein said, "[Palin] asked the library how she could go about banning books. The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor. This book-banning thing is worrisome.
But why? What's the problem with banning books?
Well, the obvious answer is that we should be able to decide for ourselves what we should or shouldn't read. Politicians like Sarah Palin should not be deciding what books we have access to.
Often books are banned because they present a view of the world that is "abnormal" in some way. Some of last year's controversial children's books include one about a child whose father is in prison, another about a schizophrenic homeless woman, another that has the word "scrotum" (in a description of a dog).
The article "The Outsiders: Kids need controversial books like The Higher Power of Lucky," by Lisa Carver during the "scrotum" scandal, eloquently explains why it's such hubris to assume that just by having only books about "normal" families, you'll bring such a thing about. No matter where or how you grow up, you face complicated situations, confusing questions and powerful feelings and a book that acknowledges some part of your experience can make you feel less alone. She writes:
Not mentioning in children's books so-called controversial subjects (they're not, really; they're just life) in order to protect children is the same as how, in the 50s, blacks or Jews or single parents weren't part of stories. Not because they didn't exist back then, but because everyone somehow tacitly agreed to pretend they didn't. There is no Other. There's just us, and we're a motley crew.
We still don't know what books Palin wanted off the shelves, but it's nerve-wracking that she thought she should have the power to choose whose voices could be heard.
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 6)
16. Book banning...all kinds of things are banned in the United States.
Smoking is banned in public buildings; shock jock Howard Stern is banned from public airways, shock jock Don Imus was banned from the public airways for 3 or 4 months; various fire arms are banned for private ownership, there is a ban on prayer and pledging aligence in some public schools, ban on cuban cigars; there is a movement to ban home schooling, ban on the insecticide DDT; ban on drilling for oil; in some states there is a ban on owning pitbulls.
Asking the local librarian to move certain books to another section of the library isn't a ban. Sounds more like relocation to me.
Willet at 10:50AM on Sep 13th 2008
17. Isn't it funny how the same American politicians that would like to instigate wars in countries all over the world--supposedly to protect the freedoms of those people--are the same politicians that want to strip their own citizens in the United States of basic human rights and freedoms, like reading?
Is freedom good enough for people of foreign countries, but not good enough for people in the U.S.? How about we secure our rights in our own country before we go traipsing around the world, claiming to be "liberators."
When I need Palin's protection from a book, I'll let her know.
JP at 12:37PM on Sep 13th 2008
18. Sarah Palin is a religious fundamentalist nutjob, so I'm betting that Darwin's "Origin of Species" was at the very top of her banned book list.
Francis Xavier Pope at 12:43PM on Sep 13th 2008
19. Sigh. Have any of these people every read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury? They should. I think banning books is crazy. Let people decide for themselves.
Emma at 10:17PM on Sep 13th 2008
20. I do not believe in any censorship and that includes the Bible. It is up to parents to censor for their children, which I think that they do not do enough of and it is up to you to censor for yourself.
jennifer at 2:37PM on Sep 13th 2008
21. "We still don't know what books Palin wanted off the shelves..."
This is the list of books that then Mayor Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla lilbrary:
> A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
> A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine LEngle
> Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
> As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
> Blubber by Judy Blume
> Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
> Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
> Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
> Carrie by Stephen King
> Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
> Christine by Stephen King
> Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
> Cujo by Stephen King
> Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
> Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
> Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
> Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
> Decameron by Boccaccio
> East of Eden by John Steinbeck
> Fallen Angels by20Walter Myers
> Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
> Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
> Forever by Judy Blume
> Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
> Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
> Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling
> Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
> Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
> Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
> Have to Go by Robert Munsch
> Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
> How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
> Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
> I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
> Impressions edited by Jack Booth
> In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
> It's Okay if You Dont Love Me by Norma Klein
> James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
> Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
> Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
> Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
> Lord of the Flies by William Golding
> Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
> Lysistrata by Aristophanes
> More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
> My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
> My House by Nikki Giovanni
> My Friend Flicka by Mary OHara
> Night Chills by Dean Koontz
> Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
> On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
> One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
> One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
> One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
> Ordinary People by Judith Guest
> Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
> Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
> Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
> Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
> Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
> Separate Peace by John Knowles
> Silas Marner by George Eliot
> Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
> Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
> The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
> The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
> The Bastard by John Jakes
> The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
> The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
> The Color Purple by Alice Walker
> The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
> The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
> The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
> The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
> The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
> The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
> The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
> The Living Bible by William C. Bower
> The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
> The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
> The Pigman by Paul Zindel
> The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
> The Shining by Stephen King
> The Witches by Roald Dahl
> The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
> Then Again, Maybe I Wont by Judy Blume
> To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
> Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
> Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
> Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween
> Symbols by Edna Barth
cazobserver at 11:21PM on Sep 14th 2008
22. Alaska is a beautiful state, but it's politicians are largely corrupt in one way or another. Sarah Palin is no slouch. There is no end to this endless parade of devout Christian liars. She is claiming "executive priveliege" in the Trooper investigation. Does this give anyone pause??? She iand Liar John are going to bring us "GWB III the Debacle Continues". Take Bushie, add a pony tail, skirt and pumps. Then add a little lipstick on that pig and you have it!!! Sarah GWB Palin. Gawd help us...
Sal at 2:45PM on Sep 13th 2008
23. Whether or not Mrs. Palin actually tried to ban any "specific" books from a public library (as she said in answer to the question during her interview), there is documentation thet she "inquired" how "banning" of books could be done. It is noteworthy that most of us do not object to limiting the kinds of books available to children, but it is clearly unconstitutional to prohibit published material from a publicly supported (for which please read tax supported) library. Under proper circumstances, childrem will not have access to materials that their parents (who should be the ONLY deciding authority) wish to withhold from them. If parents wish to provide certain books objected to by other parents, they would be able to obtain these books from the part of the library "for adults only" or from other sources. On the other hand, to attempt to "ban" any other text from a public library flouts freedom of the press and other protections in our constitution.
If book banners' argument in favor of censorship is carried to its logical conclusion, a fundamentlist Christian might be horrified to find that there are parents who would now object to any children's books dealing with the Bible, creationism, anti- abortion beliefs, etc. from the same libraries on the same grounds that "these books can be damaging to the minds of (fill in the blank).
On the other hand, comparing efforts at book banning
to banning of other public activities is specious, because no one is ever "forced" to be exposed to any of the books in a library, whereas public billboards, TV, radio, (but not films to which people must actively choose to be exposed by buying a ticket, for example), or public smoking (which impacts on the rights of others without their consent), etc. cannot always be avoided by those who would be "offended" by them.
Needless to say, the great concern that Sarah Palin's "inquiry" while Mayor of a small town in Alsaka raises in some of our minds pertains to what this may say about her willingness to support other possible attempts to restrict constitutionally supported rights and freedoms without reference to the rules of law (i.e. initiating a constitutional amendment to ban abortion perhaps) or by abuse of power granted by the electorate (perhaps as Vice President or even President).
Harvey at 2:55PM on Sep 13th 2008
24. "Google" The KEATING 5!!!
AngelsInOurLives at 3:27PM on Sep 13th 2008
25. Walt, I believe you meant factcheck.org actually. And while it is true that Palin never banned any books, the story deserves a bit more thought.
First of all she did raise the question of book banning with the librarian, a Mary Ellen Emmons. At least on two occasions and possibly three. Secondly, it would appear that she did fire the librarian eventually.
From factcheck.org :
Palin initially requested Emmons’ resignation, along with those of Wasilla’s other department heads, in October 1996. Palin described the requests as a loyalty test and allowed all of them (except one, whose department she was eliminating) to retain their positions. But in January 1997, Palin fired Emmons, along with the police chief. According to the Chicago Tribune, Palin did not list censorship as a reason for Emmons’ firing, but said she didn’t feel she had Emmons’ support. The decision caused “a stir” in the small town, according to a newspaper account at the time.
The entire story raises more questions than book banning, it raises questions about management style and abuse of power.
Ed at 3:54PM on Sep 13th 2008
26. Irish at 18: was that list genuine, or was that meant as satire? Where did that come from?
Clif Kuplen at 4:13PM on Sep 13th 2008
27. Remember Nazi Germany? There is a memorial in Berlin to the books banned/burned to promote the cause of the 3rd Reich, Master Race. Am I calling Palin a Nazi? No, but we should be mindful of those who step in with mind-control. The Republicans can't have it both ways. Either they want this smaller government they brag about, or they can have the Ministry of Information qualifying what Americans may possess in their libraries. Government off My Back, means just that, no government reading over my shoulder, no government in my Uterus. No government listening to my cell phone conversations. Seems like the Republicans really want a larger more intrusive government when it comes to my privacy.
Marlene at 4:38PM on Sep 13th 2008
28. Not that long ago a poll showed that a majority of American Democrats believed that right-wing talk radio should be illegal. So much for freedom of speech.
Bob at 6:48PM on Sep 13th 2008
29. Not that long ago a poll showed that a majority of American Democrats believed that right-wing talk radio should be illegal. So much for freedom of speech.
Bob at 6:48PM on Sep 13th 2008
xx
It's already illegal, so of course it 'should' be.
Monopolization of the airwaves by a handful of trusts is restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Anti Trust Act.
You don't need to do anything but enforce Sherman, and the media will no longer be monopolized by a single political party.
And if glenn beck boohoos about it, he could consider his job outsourced due to incompetence and seek retraining.
Clif Kuplen at 7:00PM on Sep 13th 2008
30. You don't need to do anything but enforce Sherman, and the media will no longer be monopolized by a single political party.
xx
You are so right! And the American people aint gonna be fooled no more either. The American people know who the real commies are and those just pretending to patriotic and all that stuff. People like you and me.
Doofus at 7:59PM on Sep 13th 2008