Censoring

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE being victimized by censorship, best I can remember, was in high school, senior year let's say. Our school district, conservative in a conservative town, had an index of forbidden books, one of which was the great novel "The Catcher In the Rye", by J.D. Salinger. It seemed like every student had a little red paperback copy of it stashed in his or her locker, just for spite. The banned book list was, as I recall, supposedly fairly long, but I never verified that fact, nor did I now of any other banned titles. Evidently I was quite content to read between the allowable lines, with "Catcher" being the exception. But I do recall reading this book, enjoying it relating to it, relating to Holden Caulfield's struggles as a sixteen year old. I grok. Fast forward to my distant future, and I recall how shocked and angry I was when I discovered that my website, this website, had been blocked in the public library of a very small town near where I lived. One of the librarians in particular obviously didn't like me, and I almost suspect that one day she took a look at what I had been working on at the library computer, found out, and, being a right wing religious extremist, censored me. Far as I know, I remain blocked to this day... Heaven forbid that any of the good upright God fearing folks in podunk Arkansas should actually take a peek a the subversive writings found on this website. (see previously published essays, about 5000 of them, and counting,) I may have learned to hate censorship from my mother, who hated it, so she often said. I hte banning books, which is what Republican conservatives across these fruited plains are now, as everyone knows, engaged in doing - banning books in public schools. The good people, the open minded progressive, iltellectually free spirited and free minded peole all hate censorship of any kind. All fascists and proto - fascists seem to end up censoring their opponents. It is no secret that there are trillions of trashy books in thte world. Most people have read at least one. When you consider that each year tns of thousands of books are published on the United Atates and online alone, this is hardly surprising. Indeed, there are books which nobody should read, movies nobody should see, no songs nobody should sing. But that does not give anyone the qualifications or right to restrict another's cultural experiences, with the sared exception of the responsibility a parent has for the welfare of the child. And ethats the way it should be. Children grow up, and become responsible for their own reading list soon enough. The trick is to not try to stop them.