#301 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Thursday March 17)
Good morning,
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Good morning,
Earlier this month, an assistant principal at a Mississippi school was fired because he “showed a lack of professionalism and impaired judgment” when he read a book entitled “I Need a New Butt!” to second grade students. The termination letter said, “the topics described in this book were inappropriate.” The basic premise of the book is that the protagonist needed a new butt because his had a crack.
Needless to say, the students found this book quite hysterical, and who wouldn’t at that age? Bodies and bodily functions play well in elementary school. I still remember playing a tear-out record (there was a world “pre-streaming” and even “pre-CD”) from Mad Magazine that was a tune punctuated by nothing but belching. If my mother didn’t toss most of my collection of Mad Magazines, I’d go find it now and play it for a laugh—if, of course, I still possessed a turntable!
In any case, the assistant principal pointed out the obvious, incredulous at his firing: “It’s a silly book. I’m a firm believer that…if kids see that books can be funny and silly, they’ll hang around long enough to see all the other cool things that books can be.”
Indeed. Silly brings ‘em back… And later, kids will eat up iconoclastic stories, anti-establishment novels, dystopian futures, and subversive literature (e.g., Slaughterhouse Five, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Catcher In the Rye). Just as they will as they shiver when they first visit “The Admiral Benbow Inn” in Treasure Island or follow Huck Finn and his discovery of the world—and of Jim’s humanity. And they will be forced to think and confront the traumas of racism and sexual violence (e.g., Invisible Man, the Color Purple) and the senseless violence of war (e.g., The Things They Carried, All Quiet on the Western Front). These books—far from poisoning their tender little minds—will engage them and their fears in ways that will help them conquer fears, “live” the lives of fictional characters, empathize with the plight of others, and prepare them for the world.
Yet book banning is proceeding with full force these days—by educators and parents—who feel anything that could disrupt some false secure, trouble-free homogenous world in which children are held insulated from the real world. These people seem to fear anything subversive or uncomfortable or just different—and they hail from all sorts of backgrounds and political perspectives. Witness the attempt to rid books that use words uncomfortable to modern mores. And witness the bill dubbed the “don’t say Gay” law, about to be signed by Governor deSantis in Florida. Heaven forbid that a book be assigned in which homosexuality or members of the same sex find love. My goodness, it might give them ideas, as if gay-ness is contagious or a learned behavior. Hell, they might even find out that Gay people can find happiness and raise families…oh my! Katy, bar the door!
The banning of books fails to acknowledge that these precious kids are not so innocent; they will gobble up anything that looks subversive or titillating, without the encouragement of their schools or the approval of their parents. They’ll sneak a read of Portnoy’s Complaint or stare longingly at a lingerie ad (or, if they have access to a computer, worse), whether their parents or teachers try to hide them or not.
The banning of books is, at its core, most assuredly about the banning of ideas—ideas that some people fear. We live in a world that fears ideas and labels those with different ideas, in hateful and damaging ways. Why else do so many of us only consume news from a source that confirms our biases and tells us that all is right in our world view? And they fear others—some fearful that minorities may “replace them,” or that they may be forced to interact with people who are different from themselves. And they fear that reading a book with the “N-word” or that might illuminate the world described by Margaret Mitchell or William Faulkner might create more racists. And in their exclusion of others, they are comfortable calling all Liberals socialists, all whites racists, all Conservatives fascists, etc. If one can place a name on those with other ideas—or different experiences—the nastier the better—there is a sense of superiority and comfort in one’s curated limited world view.
Fear. Fear. Fear.
But here’s the thing. The thing is that the banning of books isn’t just fear of the books, the ideas they present, and the uncomfortable situations they present. The banning of the books necessarily includes the fear of one’s own children. These people live in fear that the children can’t process the information or the circumstances presented in the books or that they might be “brainwashed” during the formative years. Apparently parents believe children cannot distinguish right from wrong. Or do they fear their children may be more welcoming to the stranger, or that they might feel empathy for different people in different times and circumstances? But in the banning of the books, the parents also take away learning one of the most important skills their children must learn to be better consumers of information and better citizens—the ability to critically think.
So someday, these kids, unequipped with experiencing the diversity of ideas and people, lacking critical judgment, will find the fundamental truths they have been restricted to hear, heretofore unchallenged or tested, proven false and that may drive them away from their parents in the end. As likely, these children may seek validation only in those most similar to themselves, resisting complexity and nuance, lacking in “living” the lives of characters in books. Some day the real world will intrude on the bubble these children are being forced into. And in so doing, these children may react with fear of that which is different. If they are exposed later in life to new ideas and great books, they may find themselves resenting their parents and perhaps rebel more than their parents thought possible. Or worse…they may grow up to be just like their parents.
My father used to say that if you wanted children to start behaving like adults, you start treating them like adults. If you want adults to behave like children, treat them like children. I always thought his admonition was a warning and a prescription—not a prediction of the future.
Here’s the story from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/11/toby-price-principal-fired-childrens-book/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1Xq-2tXeZ7LK9S0HrMIUsl2PdFbYIhpFsc5eHj2SOUYkIEjywkAfW4Ab4
REAL FEAR
And then there is real fear, the type of fear being experienced by Ukrainians huddled in bomb shelters, hiding from a relentless and brutal attack not on their military, but on their homes, schools and hospitals. There’s the fear that 64% of Americans feel who are living paycheck to paycheck. There is the fear felt by people who are immunocompromised or who decided wearing a mask or getting a vaccine was their “line in the sand,” struggling to survive in hospital wards today, while we (hopefully) emerge from this pandemic. There is the fear that those in the unbridled pursuit of power will rip apart our democracy. There is the fear that the climate will become increasingly harsh, that water may be a luxury good, and that entire species may be obliterated.
All while people fear whether it really matters that children will laugh too loud or that their fragile psyches will be forever damaged by contemplating that their butt, indeed, has a crack.
It all sometimes makes me pretty fearful for the future.
HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY
St. Patrick’s Day is a big day for the Irish. It’s also a big day for college students and young adults. I remember the many St. Patrick’s parties in college (one of which involved me leaving a party to bail a friend out of jail for unpaid traffic tickets). I remember the many St. Patrick’s Days spent at Tom Bergin’s on Fairfax and Molly Malone’s. Molly’s had a donation box for the Catholics in Northern Ireland (they claimed it didn’t go to the IRA). As for Bergin’s, it was famous for the Irish Coffees. It still makes my head hurt, thinking about the deadly mix of caffeine and Irish Whiskey. Those were the days…
Have a great day,
Glenn
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