WTF (West Bend, Wisconsin, Edition)

[snurri]

Four members of a library board in West Bend, Wis., were dismissed last week for refusing to remove controversial books from the library's young adult section.

Three guesses what "controversial" means in this context.

For some reason I know a bunch of people from West Bend. None of them live there anymore. I WONDER WHY.

Comments

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

Wow. One is a middle-of-the-road guide to teen girls' health that must have a passage about lesbianism or masturbation, one is often required summer reading for students in Massachusetts, and I remember hearing about Geography Club but I forget why. I just wrote a little rant in my f-list about this, but what freaks me out is how freedom of speech, by it's very nature, only applies to books a person hates. You want to ban it? You can't. It's freedom of speech. I want to ban it? I can't. It's freedom of speech. Even the most repressive regimes in history have been in favor of speech they liked. How come I live in a world where Ferlinghetti won this one once and for all and other people don't? How come whenever I hear something that offends me to the core, I think, "Awesome. Celine Dion isn't my bag, but I think people have the right to listen to her..."

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I have no answer for that, 'cause I agree. I'm sure they'd say they just don't want the kids to get it, at least not from the public library, but you know that if they beat down the libraries they'd go after the bookstores, and the publishers, and the writers . . .