Freedom to Read

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

This is the 25th Annual Banned Books Week. According to the American Library Association, “BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.”

You will not believe the titles on this year’s list released by the ALA of books pulled from some libraries or schools.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
The Catcher in the Rye
Garfield: His Nine Lives
The Handmaid’s Tale
Harry Potter (the entire series)
Little Red Riding Hood
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate dictionary
To Kill a Mockingbird