Censoring, Part I

OF ALL THE MANY VILE FORMS of conservative behavior currently manifesting in America, of all the vile planks in conservatism's rotten platform, of all the poisonous programs embedded within the right wing agenda, perhaps none is more vile, perhaps none is more vile, harmful, reprehensible as censorship. In particular, book censorship. The practice of creating, maintaining, and expanding a list of books prohibited within schools. This behavior is beginning to seem a bit popular, "trending" as we say nowadays, within America's evangelical Christian conservative Republican pro Trump community, yes, the same infamous crew, the usual suspects, the ones passing laws eliminating gay and transgender people and accurate history from school currricula, suppressing voter turnout, and so forth. Throughout America society and culture in general, obviously, there has been in recent years and decades a trend towards greater acceptance of "sexual minorities", gay rights, and so forth. Conservatives don't like this, and are attempting to "turn back the clock" culturally. New generations of talented writers have written and published increasing numbers of children's books featuring gay and transgender people, encouraging equality for them with enticing plot filled fiction. These book are popular. And they are exactly the kind of book that American conservatism wants to prevent young children from reading. All this clearly demonstrates the utter moral depravity and intellectual bankruptcy of American conservatism, and its desperate stupidity; the cow, as they say, is long out of the barn. A clever cartoon shows a little girl asking her mom why Bob and George are always toegther, holding hands. Mom says its because Bob and Geroge are in love, just like mom and dad. The little girls says "Oh. Can I have a cookie?"...The caption reads: "Scarred for life!". For the benefit of conservatives, please permit one to humbly remind you; Its way too late to try to get rid of homosexuality, or force it back into the closet. Tolerance and acceptance are what America chose, long ago, and has been pursuing, and continures to pursue, despite your best misguided, anachronistic attempts to the contrary. When I was in high school fifty years ago my conservative midwest town had a ban on certain books, a forbidden book list. It included the best selling novel "The Catcher In the Rye", J.D. Salinger's masterpiece about the psychological travails of teenagerhood in modern America. Quite naturally I got a copy and read it, which I think most of my classmates did as well. I can remember seeing it in many lockers when students had them open. The book stood out because of its bright red colored cover. Its truly a great novel. Kinda made me wonder the point of banning it. I still wonder. My dear mother, who was born in 1920, said many times that she is strongly opposed to censorship of any kind. My opinion is that all good Americans should be. The salient, unassailable fact about censorship - and this is born out by history - is that it never works. Word always gets out, even if only belatedly. Author Virginia Woolf, roughly paraphrazed, perhaps said it best: "You can lock the library if you like. But you can never lock up the human mind."