“If your library is not ‘unsafe’, it probably isn’t doing its job.”

“Did you ever hear anyone say ‘That work had better be banned because I might read it and it might be very damaging to me’?”– Joseph Henry Jackson

I have never seen the reason or intelligence in banning a book; in all honestly it may be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard of. I’m disappointed that this year I missed banned books week because I always try to read a book that is banned or challenged during that week. I suppose that since I am in the process of reading Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon when I have the time it might count. I predict that eventually the idiots of this world will begin to protest and challenge that series too. After all, these are the people who want powerful books that mean something to be banned. As you can tell I am of the opinion that no book should ever be banned, regardless of its subject matter or ‘ideas’.

Most people who want a book banned have either not read the book, fear the book, do not understand the book, misread the book, find the book disagrees with their personal ideas or beliefs, are offended by the book, or some combination of those things. Case in point: the Harry Potter series. I am a huge fan of the books, and as an adult I probably get more out of it intellectually and philosophically than a younger reader, and let me tell you something about them. J.K. Rowling speaks on issues and ideas far beyong the ‘magic and witchcraft’ that many people fear; she writes about power, not just magical, and hope and fear. She writes about tolerance, loyalty, understanding, and true friendship. If people understood, truly understood, the books, then they would understand that and would not want to ban them. No book will teach your child to be a witch, so please get your head out of your ass for two seconds long enough to pay attention to what you are saying. No book will corrupt your child if you have raised them correctly.  Holbrook Jackson once said “Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice.” He is right. Those who fear such corruption of the younger generation, merely fear the fact that a younger generation might well become smarter than their predecessors.

“To prohibit the reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves.” – Claude Adrien Helvetius

Fear should not dictate your choices, and neither should blind prejudice and ignorance. That goes for more than just who you speak to or what you say. It applies to what you read and allow your children to read. Am I saying that your five year old should get her hands on your smutty Danielle Steele novel? Absolutely not, there are books not suitable for certain ages. What I am saying is that you shouldn’t ban a book because it might offend someone or because it mentions something you don’t believe in. So a book mentions homosexuality and you aren’t gay, big deal. That doesn’t make a book something to be banned and swept off the shelves. No book should be banned, no idea squelched, no knowledge forbidden. “An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” Oscar Wilde was a brilliant writer, and I’m almost positive many would have his writings banned. But ideas must be powerful, and they must not be hidden.  To ban a book is to say “You cannot think for yourself, or form your own ideas about what you read so I must do it for you.” And that, readers, is wrong.

“All of us can think of a book… that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf – that work I abhor – then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us.” Katherine Paterson once said, and she is right. The shelves of books must remain full, so that we may read and thus grow. Each book that is removed deprives our children and our future of ideas and knowledge. And when all the books are gone we will live in a world like George Orwell’s 1984, where the Thought Police may get us. I always think back to Fahrenhiet 451 a book that I read in high school and remains on my shelf to remind me. Books are not for burning, and to burn them is to give up freedom we so desperately need.

And finally there is the chief stupidity of banning books. That is the fact that banning a book drives us to read it, if only to see why it was banned. This semester in my Adolescent Literature course have read The Catcher in the Rye, and I still do not see the logic in banning, nor the reason for doing so. I actively seek out a book if it is banned, out of natural curiosity and rebellion. Tell a child not to do something, and that child will do it. Mark Twain once said “Adam was but human – this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.” As humans we can’t resist the things that are forbidden to us, we seek out what cannot have and are told we must not do; it is a part of our natures. To ban a book is to ask us to read it.

I know I quoted a fair few people, but they are smart folks who know what they were talking about. Banning books is stupid and wrong. To ban a book is to violate freedom and to treat a person as though they are not smart enough to think for themselves. In conclusion to this very long entry, I leave you with this thought. Read a banned book today, no matter what it is, and exercise your freedom to think for yourself.

Quote of the Day: “The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Stepping Over the Line, Mock Trial Style

So I wasn’t going to do a follow up entry on the tournament because to be quite honest there wasn’t much to talk about. We had some crazy judges, I thought we still did rather well, clearly I was wrong. Our scores were very poor. I’m very disappointed, and as the captain and senior mocker with the most experience many people look to me to find out what went wrong. The truth is I’m not exactly sure, and I will be up tonight reviewing ballots in between reading C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters and whatever other weekend homework I’ve got. I’ve got an idea or two about what went wrong, but I can’t be sure until I spend some time looking at the ballots. I do gladly take on the responsibility of being captain and being the one who has to buckle down and do the work. I’ve got the experience and I need to use it. Coaches come to me, other mockers come to me, and I’m barely staying sane. But I’m managing, as I always have. However, it is completely unfair to blame me for the team’s failings and to expect me to bear most of the load on my shoulders.

That brings me to the reason I’m doing this blog when I’ve already mentioned that I hadn’t planned on it. Last night Team Shagnasty had a scrimmage, like we do every Thursday night, and the Vilator, a coach, was the judge. All rounds that include the Vilator as judge involve not continuing straight through the round because he will without fail interrupt you and make comments during your directs, crosses, and closings, and generally that makes the round last forever. Also, the Vilator plays favorites, which is common and I’m used to it, and has little tact, which I am also used to. So Shagnasty was the defense and that meant that I directed the last witness, BNN President Kit Berkshire, and then closed. Vilator interrupts the Berkshire direct to rag on K about her British accent, which except for this crazy bitchy judge in round 1 all the other judges like. This would not have been a problem if that hadn’t sparked into a tirade about how our team was a waste to send to tournaments because we suck and basically implying that it was all my fault. Way inappropriate, embarrassing, and hurtful. I will not lie, it really got to me.

Now, I suppose you are wondering why I would be upset over this, since I am an adult and an experienced mocker who is used to criticism like this. Well here is why. First of all, it is terribly heartbreaking to be a captain who’s team comes out of a tournament with a record as bad as we did. It really upset me that we did that poorly, so to be constantly reminded of this is painful. It is also out of line to say that the team is a waste. It’s fucking October, the team was brand new with about four weeks of real practice and only two of us had ever been to a tournament. No one is on their A game this early, ever. He compared us to Mal’s team, which is ok because they did well, but to highlight that Mal’s team was up top while we were at the very bottom, and to do it so rudely, was inappropriate. Mal’s team is stacked, they have 4 returners who went to Nationals. The final blow of the night was when the Vilator looks directly at me and says this “It’s not fun to lose, is it?” Thus once more highlighting our failings openly and rudely in front of everyone, including Cornflake’s little sister, a guest. To me, that is stepping over the line, and I honestly am very pissed off about it.

So that is my mock trial entry, one I didn’t intend to write.

Quote of the Day: “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” J.P. Hartley, The Go Between

Team Shagnasty Prepares to Ride

This weekend Team Shagnasty and one other team, who hasn’t really picked a name that I know of, will be heading off to St. Louis, MO for the first tournament of the year. The Coaches feel that the two teams that would be best served and serve MTSU Mock best are my team and Mal’s team, and yes that’s Mal as in Malcom Reynolds captain of the Serenity from Firefly.  We have the most experience, especially Mal and I, and we have the ability to be prepared the fastest. I’m not quite sure how I feel about being one of the first teams out of the box on this one. But hey, we weren’t promised that we’d get the easy ride; in fact I seem to recall certain coaches informing the newbies that Mal and I would be openly tortured and torn apart because of our experience and the fact we have no excuse for experiencing the suckage.

As for my team, I think we are ready for this one, as ready as we will ever be anyway. There are things that  I know probably will not work,  but we found out a bit too late. I’ve got to finish the updates and fill in a few blanks, but they aren’t major. Everything is memorized and every thing is updated. We leave at 2pm Thursday and return around midnight Saturday, and hopfully we will return with hardware. The competition will not be difficult to beat if we are on our A game. And I’ve told my lovely team that we are always on our A game, no matter how weak the team we face.

So I am packing my bags, reviewing my work, and putting everything together so that I can be ready to meet Brandi after class for that long drive. I’m slightly, ok more than slightly, pissed off because some gorram reaver stole my flashdrive. Who in the ‘Verse steals flashdrives? I mean it has all my work on it, and now its gone. I have hard copies of everything except my notes, but still now I have to retype it all up and double save it so that I can re-edit material over time. Other than that things are smooth as silk so far, and I just have to pick up a few things for the trip.

Brandi puts it best when she gives us our pre-tournament pep talk. She always tells us that we are in the perfect moment of a tournament; there are no ballots lost, and both a perfect record and first place finish are possible. She reminds us that our goal is to make that moment last as long as possible. That’s where we are again, readers. Team Shagnasty is preparing to ride.

Quote of the Day: “I will choose that path that’s clear, I will choose free will.” Rush, “Free Will”