Christian Civil Liberties Union Wants to Burn Books! WTF?
Book burning is synonymous with hatred and repression. Somehow, the Christian Civil Liberties Union (that’s a misnomer if I’ve ever seen one) has convinced themselves that’s the only option left for a young adult book in Milwaukee’s West Bend (Wis.) Community Memorial Library. The dastardly and evil book (tongue firmly in cheek)? One Baby Be-Bop, written by Francesca Lia Block and David Diaz, is a young adult book that features…da, da, daaaaaaammmm… a young homosexual man named Dirk. ALA reports that this so-called civil liberties group seeks:
the complainants seek the right to publicly burn or destroy by another means the library’s copy of Baby Be-Bop. The claim also demands $120,000 in compensatory damages ($30,000 per plaintiff) for being exposed to the book in a library display, and the resignation of West Bend Mayor Kristine Deiss for “allow[ing] this book to be viewed by the public.”
Christian burning Harry Potter books.
Please, notice that it doesn’t say that anyone of them read the book. It only states that they looked at it while it was on display. Not that would give their phony claim any more grounds for burning the books, but it does make them seem even more ignorant and spiteful.
I jumped on Amazon and was able to read a few pages. I think I found something that may have upset them.
Every Saturday afternoon his Grandma Fifi took him to see a matinee, where he could hide, dreaming, in crackly popcorn darkness. They saw James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. That was who he wanted to be. He practiced squinting and pouting. He turned up his jacket collar and rolled his jeans. He slicked back his hair carefully leaving one stray piece falling into his eyes. James Dean was beautiful because he didn’t seem afraid of anything, but when Dirk looked into his eyes he knew that he secretly was and it made Dirk love him even more.
Gasp, a boy loved James Dean and thought he was beautiful. How…gasp, gasp… well, actually, kind of, touching. Geez, I wonder what Dirk felt that he had to “hide” from being that everyone’s so open minded and cares about a child’s welfare.
Thankfully, the claim was unanimously rejected by the library AND community members weren’t going to take the CCLU’s claims lightly themselves. Over 1700 people signed a petition for and against the library’s actions:
700 signatures on the petition circulated by West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries, a group formed by the Maziarkas, and more than 1,000 on an anti-restriction petition from the newly formed West Bend Parents for Free Speech.
Yes, that’s one petition of 700 for burning the books and another petition of 1000 against the banning and burning.
The city is still going to have to review the lawsuit filed by the CCLU, but so far it doesn’t look good for them. They’ve described the book as being, “explicitly vulgar, racial, and anti-Christian,” which isn’t a very good claim. For one, the vulgarity is because of the homosexual content; I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if Dirk talked about thinking women were beautiful. Two, racial simply means that different races are discussed and, yes, there is some racial tension but does would anyone reject that as not taking place in young adults lives right now? And third, everything that isn’t Christian is anti-Christian, especially if it promotes free-thinking and, gasp, civil liberties.
Hell yeah!
Damn. I just blogged about what a good time I had at my city’s gay pride parade, and for the first time ever, nary a protester was seen. Then I read your post. What a downer.
I had a great time at my city’s pride parade also. I think when you consider how far it’s all come, how could you be depressed? And the momentum is only building.
“The American Civil Liberties Union sued two Tennessee school districts in federal court yesterday, claiming that the districts’ Internet filters unconstitutionally block students from accessing Web sites focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.”
Well, looks like the culture warriors are focusing their forces on the young and vulnerable. This is typical of the GAY community. They seek to influence young people before their brain develops fully.
I think any community has a right to “label” radical, fictional media to at least warn people that they are about to leave the real world and enter into the fantasies of the sick and perverted.
And, since that community is supporting the library with their tax dollars then they have the right to make reasonable demands on the library. The library is a service to the public and some would say that making literature about the perversion of young people a dis-service.
This is America where people are given the freedom to expose or not expose their children to the adult world of the perverse and twisted. The library is a public place and not within the domain of those that wish to foster and promote their illnesses as norms.
Perhaps if the book were a true historical documentation of a real person and not the fictional musings of a twisted mind it could remain in the library in the “ADULT” section labeled to warn the potential reader of its content… Pornographic – for Adults Only!
Well, gosh then maybe we should give parents the right to put their children inside a little tiny bubble so they don’t have to see anything at all unless their parents approve of it first. Great, I’d like to see every single book that talks about Christianity out of the public library because I don’t want my children being influenced by it. It needs to be specifically marked, “Propaganda.”
In case you didn’t read the entire post, the CCLU wants to “burn” the books literally, and is seeking monetary reparations for “seeing” the book on the shelves, not reading it. Does that sound like they’re concerned with he tax payers money, or that they are just money grubbers?
If we’re going to ban books parents don’t agree with, instead of having parents exercise their parental duties and look at the books before the kids check them out of the library, then I second the call for getting EACH AND EVERY BOOK with any reference to Christianity – or any religion really – out of the library. No exceptions. Or put them all in a special room marked “Fantasy Books.” Because nothing in any Bible, Koran, or Talmud is the word of God. There is no God. If you say there is, I say prove it. You can’t. My belief that there is no God is as valid as your belief that there is. (I would argue it’s more valid, and more proveable, but I’ll let that go for now.) You can splutter all you want that this is a Judeo-Christian nation, shove a dollar bill in my face and point to the word “God” on it, blah blah blah, but it’s no good. If you want to start banning books, the Bibles and all the attendant propaganda Will Have To Go First.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued two Tennessee school districts in federal court yesterday, claiming that the districts’ Internet filters unconstitutionally block students from accessing Web sites focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.