Prizing Perfidy, Banning Books

ITS OFFICIAL: The great state of Texas is the book banning capitol of the United States, in freedom's land. But don't hand the crown to the Lone Star State just yet; the competition for this dubious distinction is far from over,for Florida, although lagging a bit behind at the moment, is a book banner's mecca, an increasingly bright red state where any book which ever dares to contradict the conservative establishment and orthodoxy is in jeopardy. Book banning seems aimed at preserving the traditional white Christian dominant social structure. For the moment, in terms of total number of books banned state by state statewide, Texas is in the lead. Texas and Florida are the two largest red states in the country, though there is a very strong progressive minority, which aint a minority by much, in both states. Both states could flip from red to blue in the fairly near future, ith immigration from latin America and north America. Books most likely to be banned are of two kinds; those which deal with racism, and those which deal with gay and transgender people. In these United States, their are, it turns out, plenty of both kinds; racists and anti-racists, and gay and transgender folks, who, over the past few years, seem to be "coming out of the wood work", so to speak, as the Pride movement grows and spreads, and tolerance and acceptance do likewise. Banning books which acknowledge and discuss racism in America, and banning books which deal with gay and transgender people altogether, as if they didn't exist, is already causing a considerable amount of "pushback" as we like to say nowadays, with much, much more to come. Simply consider the insanity of trying to indoctrinate America's children with the idiotic lies that there is no racism in America today, and the gay and transgender people do not exist, and must be completely ignored. The African-American and gay and transgender communities are both bigger than you might think, well organized, and ready to continue the fight, for recognition and equality. Plus, they have the entire progressive movement on their side, even as the entire conservative community seems arrayed against them. Once book banning-burning begins, it knows no limit, but expands to fill up the anger and hatred of its proponents. Book banning-burning always gets out of control, and must be stopped by the sane. Some of the books which have already been removed from public school libraries or which are up for consideration for removal would shock you, and include Steinbeck's masterpiece "The Grapes of Wrath", and Upton Sinclair's literary masterpiece "The Jungle". Books like that must never be banned, but rather, should be required reading for all Americans. When I was in high school, J.D. Salinger's jewel of a modern novel "The Catcher IN the Rye" was banned. It almsot seemes like there was a copy of the little red book in every locker, including mine. Its a great book; highly recommended for all American teenagers, though for all I know it is banned in Texas, Florida, and every other benighted right wing state in these United States, of which there are alarmingly many. In a free country like the U.S.it is only natural and quite predictable that a thriving counter culture will develop based on banned books. Banned book bookstores, bookclubs, and web sites are springing up all across our fruited plain, with more arriving every day. Banned books in this country are going to become famous, and, (heh heh), alluring, tempting, irresistable. Book banning in America is, like most evils, the exclusive purview of your basic Chrstian conservative Republican Trumper community. No surprise there. This movement must be defeated and stopped. Long live the intellectual free market of ideals! Stop American fascisim now! Many if not most banned books throughout history, as well as now, are protest books, books which "Show us our shame" as a great writer once said, books which criticize society by exposing its evils. The entrenched establishment power structure never likes or wants protest and criticism. But as Goethe said: "The world advances only because of those who oppose it."...Read at least one banned book every day. They are, after all, the best books.