Growing up in the United States in the 1950’s included The Wonderful World of Disney, every Thursday night. It had great shows like Davey Crockett, Mike Fink, Song of the South and many other historic works with the Disney touch. Tom Sawyer and Huckelberry Finn. Great family entertainment. In those days, we had Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix. In those days we had Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice. In those days we had the four blackbirds on the wire talking about a Flying Elephant called Dumbo! The words of Mark Twain were revered. The words of great writers were revered and honored. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Peyton Place by Grace Metalaious and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck….and so many more…..telling us something of our true American Society.
Today, school boards, Legislatures and Governors of various States are banning books in local schools. Banning books statewide. Removing books from Libraries because they may not meet the sexual reference or color barrier that they have determined to be SAFE for Children to read. In Junior high school they gave us a Boys Health Class in Sexuality and another for Girls. This was because Parents were not telling their children about the Facts of Life!
These Book Banning laws need to be challenged at the level of the Supreme Court. Book burning, Book bans in a Digital Age is akin to limiting Free Speech and goes against not only the spirit but the wisdom of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Based on the these bans, there is every reason to believe they could just as easily ban The Bills of Rights or the Constitution itself. If folks find written material offensive, they don’t have to read it, buy it or report on it. They can just as easily not mention it or when they do, say they would never read such a thing. Soon, we will be revisiting the Scopes Monkey Trial from 1925 with Clarence Darrow and Williams Jennings Bryan! How far back does Governor De Santis and Governor Greg Abbott want to go?
The right to speak one’s mind is supposed to be insured by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The right to free speech and calling anyone anything is insured in the Constitution. You should be able to call a corrupt politician anything that you want. Trumpster’s have no qualms about making every untrue statement they want about anything. We will fight to make sure they can continue to do that, we only ask that we have the right to respond to those comments in any way we deem necessary. The 1st Amendment is not just for one political party or another. It is for all the people, all the time and guarantees genuine and honest dialogue at the end of the day.
We ask that the various Appeals Courts of this country overturn book bans across the board. Bans against videos, films, written words in periodicals or even on toilet paper. Voicing our opinions is the major part of what this country is all about. If you wish to restrict what others read, buy, sell or enjoy in life….you are Anti-American in every regard. No doubt many things are offensive in life. For Example: Incest, Rape, Murder, Sex Trafficking, Slavery, Mayhem, Riots and Killing in General by convicted Murders or Medical Professionals. However; not knowing about these things dumb downs our society and we become the Kum-by-Ya Generation of stupid people looking through their fingers at the ills of society.
Greed, Homelessness and Corrupt Politicians; sold out to Special Interest Groups, Corporate Giants or Individual Oligarchs with more money than brains…..must also be mentioned in our society. These things do not occur in a vacuum. They are usually obvious and through books and the written word the knowledge is transferred, either by Facebook, Fox News, PBS, CNN or MSNBC or ABC, CBS or NBC. Right now these stations are covering House fires, shootings and muggings, car chases and meaningless information regarding mostly what-not info.
Unless, the courts act quickly, soon all actual important information will be censored and we will be guaranteed to know nothing for the foreseeable future. Do not mention Gays? Do not mention LGBTQ? Do not mention Black people? Do not mention Hispanics? Do not mention the evil that men and women do that is interred in their bones. The time has come to put the Supreme Court of the United States to the test. How will the Trump Court vote on the 1st Amendment? We will see…won’t we?
1st Amendment…..so over?
*The Supreme Court (The Sick Six Trumpsters that is) want to Ban Abortion……and reverse Roe vs. Wade and Roe vs. Casey. Even the Catholic Church stopped the practice of Book Burning in 1966. Perhaps the SCOTUS then want to bring back “the Index Librorum Prohibitorum” and the “Santa Hermandad”.for good measure!
*Opening up the knowledge of the world will be our best defense of the 1st Amendment. Back in 1989……we stayed at the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland. Their TV coverage was over 250 channels from all over the world. You could watch all the Chinese and Asian Channels, All the South American Channels, The Channels from the Middle East like Saudi and Abu Dabi TV and of course all of Europe.
Today we should be offering paid content applications for each of these areas for the United States. If the Swiss could do it in 1989……..perhaps we could get our heads out of the clouds and do the same thing today….for the people of the United States?
*Time to bail on Face the Nation? Margaret Brennan has gone off the rails. Her contentious, argumentative, redundant questioning has become a weekly common element
on Face the Nation. Margaret needs to be replaced for a few weeks.