School district pulls 'To Kill A Mockingbird' from reading list; 'makes people uncomfortable'

[peggysue2]

13. Every year . . .

there are people/groups who come up with a list of banned books. This has been going on since I was a kid: To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, The Last Temptation, Lolita, Tom Sawyer, etc.

The important thing is to shine a spotlight on the book banners (who could easily become book burners), be they a religious group, a political entity and most particularly a school administration or any center of learning.

Censorship for any reason is a knife to the heart, a clear attack on democratic norms. The reasons get gussied up in all sorts of costumes--inappropriate language, sexual innuendo/imagery, heretical ideas. I give the Biloxi folks credit; they didn't try to hide their nonsense or wrap the reason up in faux-Christian mumbo-jumbo.

Makes people feel uncomfortable? That's called thinking, reconsidering, seeing the world from another's perspective. That's what fiction is meant to do. It's what art is meant to do--shake things up.

Everything old is new again. Ugh.