by 
I’m obsessed with books and read at least one per week. That’s why I’m so ANGRY about the latest book banning craze. Before writing this, I knew that To Kill a Mockingbird and 1984 are on many lists but was astounded to find out that so many classics, including Where the Wild Things Are, The Diary of Anne Frank, and several Dr. Seuss books have been pulled from library shelves and some from Amazon. These books are several of my all-time favorites. Even the Harry Potter series is considered bad for us by shortsighted idiots. Goodreads.com lists hundreds of them and shows you where you can read them. Good for you Goodreads.com!
Why is this happening, because these books deal with themes that make some people uncomfortable and may portray stereotypes that are no longer accepted by society; probably by people who never read them! Rather than talking about these issues within a historical context, we are told to remove them from our collective consciousness. I say we need to move out of our comfort zones and actually discuss controversial issues. Then we can tackle important concerns rather than ignore them.
How did we get here? Instead of being a united country devoted to free speech and a desire to learn about others from a different culture, we have become a series of egocentric groups, inattentive to what others have to say. Each of us choose which news to watch, movies and TV series to view, and internet sites based on those specific interests. In our iPhone age, our attention spans have decreased to “sound bites” and grammatically incorrect texts. We’ve replaced “we” and “our”, to “me” and “mine”. Perhaps it’s time to “get over ourselves” and learn from each other.
I write this in memory of my mother, Claire, who instilled a love of reading and learning.
