Censorship

Hi Everyone,

Sorry, I'm so late today. I totally forgot. My topic today is Censorship.

Do you believe in censorship? I'm adamant when I say I do not. It makes me angry when I think of being told what I can read or not read. If a book offends me I will not read it, but I won't anyone else they can't.

How dare a few people tell me what's good or bad for me, or my family? I have been taught right and wrong, and I'm perfectly capable of deciding for myself what is evil.

There are so many wonderful books that have been banned and if they stayed restricted, we would have missed out on so much. Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Twelfth Night and others by Shakespeare may have never been seen.

The book that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.
OSCAR WILDE

So many books show our shame. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou talks about her rape as a child. The book is often banned for sexual content, violent imagery, and vulgar language.

Other books that show society's shame are Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne just to name a few. All of these books have been banned, and yet they are considered classics today.

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
JOHN MILTON

Milton has expressed my feelings on censorship. This is such a valuable liberty that we have. Why would anyone want to take it away? My belief on this topic is that you will remain unconcerned until some right you wish to keep is seized from you.

Knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and conscience be not defiled.
JOHN MILTON

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Words can make you aware of the wrongs in this world, but if you do not read them, then you'll learn the hard way when the event occurs. I'm a strong opponent against censorship.

Even children's books are barred because someone thinks their child is being taught to be naughty or about witchcraft. Where are our imaginations? I grew up on Peter Pan, and even that book is not sacred. Some people have tried to remove it from libraries. There are those who look for reasons to remove a book, and often it's out of fear of the truth.

Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. If some books are deemed more baneful and their sale forbid, how, then, with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men. Events, not books, should be forbid.
HERMAN MELVILLE.

I do believe that not all books are appropriate for everyone, and each individual has the right to decide for themselves what is suitable for them and their families. Small children cannot make these decisions, but once they are on their own they have a right to make their choices.

Okay, folks, what do you think of censorship? Are you for it, or against it? All opinions can be expressed.

Until next month.

Sandy AKA Sandra K. Marshall
Author of The Odyssey Mysteries,
The Catalyst, Addiction and The Deceived
http://www.eirelander-publisher.com