Restricting access to literature that the power structure did not approve has been part of American history from its early days, and goes back even further, to 1492.
True, that was the year Christopher Columbus used a Viking map to reach the Caribbean islands, but he sailed from a nation that was embroiled in banning Muslim and Jewish books. That was the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
(Didn't expect that, did you? But nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.)
Later, the group known as the Pilgrims left England because their version of the written religious work known as the Bible was unacceptable to the government. In its way, that was no different from the Spanish government's attitude toward Middle Eastern spiritual work.
Eventually, when the United States became independent and wrote a new Constitution, the First Amendment to be ratified specified that the government cannot establish an official religion, nor can it limit press freedom.
That, however, has not stopped people from attempting to ban such works as "Huckleberry Finn" because of its poor grammar, or "To Kill A Mockingbird" because it dealt with racism, or the Harry Potter series because it featured inhabitants of a spirit world.
Currently, America is facing multiple challenges to schools that use books to teach the negative issues of racism.
Never mind that such books are being used mainly in advanced placement classes at the high school level for students planning further studies in college.
The protestors warn of the danger to younger students at the 4th grade level. As if young people don't encounter racism.
The current proposed ban involves the teaching of Black history in America. As if Blacks in America did not encounter problems during centuries of slavery, nor of discrimination after slavery was banned, nor of the current efforts to encourage knowledge of those troubled times and the work done to resolve and eliminate those problems.
As if one should ignore the problem, and that means it does not exist.
True, that was the year Christopher Columbus used a Viking map to reach the Caribbean islands, but he sailed from a nation that was embroiled in banning Muslim and Jewish books. That was the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
(Didn't expect that, did you? But nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.)
Later, the group known as the Pilgrims left England because their version of the written religious work known as the Bible was unacceptable to the government. In its way, that was no different from the Spanish government's attitude toward Middle Eastern spiritual work.
Eventually, when the United States became independent and wrote a new Constitution, the First Amendment to be ratified specified that the government cannot establish an official religion, nor can it limit press freedom.
That, however, has not stopped people from attempting to ban such works as "Huckleberry Finn" because of its poor grammar, or "To Kill A Mockingbird" because it dealt with racism, or the Harry Potter series because it featured inhabitants of a spirit world.
Currently, America is facing multiple challenges to schools that use books to teach the negative issues of racism.
Never mind that such books are being used mainly in advanced placement classes at the high school level for students planning further studies in college.
The protestors warn of the danger to younger students at the 4th grade level. As if young people don't encounter racism.
The current proposed ban involves the teaching of Black history in America. As if Blacks in America did not encounter problems during centuries of slavery, nor of discrimination after slavery was banned, nor of the current efforts to encourage knowledge of those troubled times and the work done to resolve and eliminate those problems.
As if one should ignore the problem, and that means it does not exist.
But it's important to remember that the teaching of Black history also emphasizes the important contributions to society made by Americans of African descent. Has anyone made a comparative list of such contributions made by Americans of Polish descent, or French, or Spanish, or Italian, or Irish, or Chinese or any other nation?
And let us not forget the composer of "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
John Philip Sousa was the child of immigrants from Portugal.
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