© 2003, Don Vaughan Beware: The censors are out to get you! If you believe that censorship is something that happens to the other guy, think again. Censorship in America's schools, public libraries and book stores is at an all time high, report watch dogs like People For the American Way, and it's only getting worse. Today it may be the works of Roald Dahl or Judy Blume. Tomorrow it could be you. Anyone who makes their living as a writer--whether it's fiction or nonfiction--is at risk. Controversial ideas will always make you a prominent target, but even little things (a common obscenity, a passing reference to the occult) can get you blacklisted by those who feel only they should determine what the public can and cannot read. And it takes only one angry censor to make your life miserable. Censorship is an important issue to me. It's my personal soapbox, and I climb on it every chance I get. I recently wrote a feature on book-banning in the '90s for Hustler, and the deeper I delved into the subject, the angrier I became. You should be angry, too. It's your rights as a writer and as a reader that are being trampled. The most frightening fact I uncovered during my research is that no author is safe. Some of America's greatest writers--including John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger and Maya Angelou--have been repeatedly targeted for censorship by cretins so angered by a naughty word or fringe concept that they simply couldn't see the greatness of the works they were challenging. If there is a poster child for the fight against censorship, it's Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. According to People For the American Way, this book is one of the most frequently challenged works in the United States--with five or six new challenges issued each year, primarily by those who object to its use in high school literature classes. Have you ever read Of Mice and Men? It was required reading when I was in high school, but I was too young to really appreciate it. So I read it again last week, and marveled at this incredibly crafted morality play. It's not a long book--at 118 pages you can read it in an evening. But the tragic tale of Lennie and George is one that will stay with you forever. So what is it about Of Mice and Men that angers so many people? Well, there are some cuss words. Nothing major, but even the occasional "son of a bitch" will raise blisters if your skin is as thin as that of the typical censor. And the story deals with murder without remorse (George kills Lennie so a lynch mob won't have the chance). But according to Barbara Spindel, senior researcher with People For the American Way, the biggest problem people have with this book is that some of the characters take the lord's name in vain. Is the occasional "God damn" reason enough to remove a book from a public school? I don't think so. And I still wouldn't think so even if George uttered the "F" word every other page. But then, I'm an absolutist when it comes to the First Amendment. I believe that everything should be made available to the public, and that, ultimately, the good stuff will rise to the surface and the dreck will sink into the muck where it belongs. This philosophy gets me into a lot of trouble. It forces me to support the publication of white supremacist hate literature, KKK manifestos, Hitler's Mein Kampf and other unpopular works. I vehemently disagree with all of these--and I think the people who write them will eventually find themselves in a special little place in hell--but for a free society to work, we have to take the bad with the good. That's why our forefathers worded the First Amendment the way they did. Literature that everyone likes needs no protection. It's the fringe material--the stuff that may piss off one person or a million--that requires a little help. In my opinion, censorship in any form is bad. It stifles ideas and blocks access to information that helps us all form intelligent opinions. It's the cowardly act of a small minority that refuses to consider the needs of the many. They don't like it, so you can't read it. End of story. Unfortunately, censorship has become frighteningly commonplace lately. A few bizarre examples:
* A parent in Sarasota, Florida demanded that Stephen King's best-selling novel Carrie be removed from her child's middle school library because of sexual content. The school's jittery principal immediately took the book off the shelf in direct violation of the school district's reconsideration policy. He was told that Carrie met the school board's criteria for selection of library material and instructed to put it back. He refused. All because of a single complaint.What can you do to fight the growing censorship menace? Quite a bit, actually. Foremost--speak out. If you read about a censorship attempt in your community, attend meetings and write letters. Let those in charge know that censorship advocates are in the minority, and that you support everyone's right to freedom of speech and expression. A few other tips:
* Support writers who are constantly targeted by censors. It's a pretty big list that ranges from Stephen King and Kurt Vonnegut to Shel Silverstein and Robert Cormier. Make sure your library carries their most controversial works and send letters of praise to schools that have them in their reading programs. I also recommend the following books, which discuss at length the issue of censorship in this country:
* Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee (HarperCollins) by Nat Hentoff. Finally, you may want to consider joining the following anti-censorship organizations:
* People For the American Way, 2000 M St. NW, Suite 400, Washington DC 20036. Censorship isn't going to go away by itself. Maintaining our Constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and expression is going to be a hard-fought war that requires a lot of foot soldiers like you and me. But it's important that we get out and fight. Ultimately, the works we save may be our own.
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