Banning needs to end
COMMENTARY
By Laura McFarland

“Harry Potter” books contain mysticism. Ban them.

“A Separate Peace” has references to suicide. Ban it.

“The Face on the Milk Carton” contains challenges to authority. Ban it.

The list of supposedly inappropriate books that people challenged, restricted, or banned in libraries and classrooms in Texas last year only gets worse from here.

Parents, students, local citizens and school officials in 71 Texas school districts attempted to remove 134 books, including “How to Eat Fried Worms,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the Bible and Webster’s Dictionary, according to an annual report released on the American Civil Liberties Union Web site.

Every couple of minutes, as I scrolled through the list of these books and read the asinine reasons that they were being challenged, I would vent my frustration to friends in the next room.

About halfway down the page, I screamed. Literally. My favorite book, “The Power of One,” by Bryce Courtenay, had been challenged for profanity, sexual content and violence. This book, which I first read as a freshman in high school, had the biggest impact on me of any book I have ever read, and people from one Texas high school say it should be banned.

People who brought challenges like these say they were motivated by the desire to protect children from “inappropriate” language and sexual content. Their motives are thus commendable.

But they were wrong to do so.

They were wrong, not because I love this book and many of the other books on this list, but because they have no right to censor a person’s freedom of expression, which includes the freedom to read, by labeling books “controversial” or “objectionable” and limiting access to reading material.

They were wrong because school boards, librarians and a few parents do not have the right to impose their morals on students in an entire district by deciding what they should or should not read.

Parents — and only parents — have the right to restrict the access of their children to certain texts. Parents getting more involved in what their children are reading should be just as encouraged as knowing what they watch on television and who their friends are. But allowing one group of people to decide that they know what is best for everyone else’s children should be stopped.

Tomorrow is the last day of Banned Book Week, an event that has dedicated the last week in September to celebrating the freedom to read every year since 1982. Libraries and bookstores across the state are setting up displays and readings to highlight some of these so-called objectionable books.

I challenge you, the reader, to take a look at this list of challenged books, to ask your local librarian about banned books, and to check one out. See if you think someone else should have the right to decide what you should be allowed to read.

Managing Editor Laura McFarland is a senior news-editorial journalism and English major from Houston.