Hello my friends of the Omschool. I know, I know, I just wrote a pro-censorship post and now I'm contradicting myself with an anti-censorship one. So the first one was actually not so much in favor of censorship as delaying children reading books books that aren't age-appropriate, aka books that are too mature. Today I'm taking on full-out censorship, banning books and the See You at the Library initiatives.
When Kirk Cameron (yes the child actor) initiated his "See You At the Library" thing last year, his proclaimed intent didn't match his true agenda. His mission is supposedly to return to American, Constitutional and Bible values. It was really a hostile takeover of libraries. They didn't want a meeting room like anyone else using the library would be given. They demanded to read in the library proper where everyone was forced to listen to readings of their fundamentalist books.
As a person who treasures the sanctity and QUIET of the library, I'd be opposed for this reason alone! Supposedly this was an alternative to "drag queen story hours" (the ignorance baffles). My children have enjoyed many events at the library and never once was there an agenda besides learning to love reading. So as a person and a parent who treasures her civil liberties, I would not want my children being proselytized at story hour. By any one of any persuasion. But that's not all they did.
They further wanted a shelf purge of anything that didn't fit with their narrow definition of appropriate literature. AND librarians were to be punished and fired if said books were left on shelves. This is the kind of slippery slope mentality that led to book burning in Nazi Germany, just saying. These advocates don't just want freedom to read what they want, they want you not to be free to read what you want.
Why am I so vehement about this? Because it violates the American, Constitutional and Bible values they supposedly promote. American values are all about being able to worship as we choose (or don't choose). We are protected against state religions and enforced observances. We believe in separation of church and state. I'm a Catholic but I don't want mandated prayer, Bible reading etc. That destroys the purpose which should be done is secret and from the heart. And, make no mistake, fundamentalists like these have no use for any religious observance other than their own, despite the fact that it predates theirs by 1,900 years.
Our constitution promises freedom of speech and the press. The American Library System is the backbone and bastion of that freedom. The Bible is all about diversity, inclusion and equality. Jesus abhorred hatred, shaming, judgementalism, hypocrisy and double standards. He railed against Pharisees and the self-righteous.
I call this "Make America Stupid Again."
As a homeschool parent, I knew a fair number of other parents who
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