Feeding little Johnny his pap and pablum

One way citizens who care can fight censorship

In one sense, it is refreshing to hear that some parents are finally paying attention to the books their children are being told to read in school or being given access to peruse.

Finally, one might think, parents will demand quality literature up and down the grade levels. Children will read books that will enhance their critical thinking skills so as not to be given the same old pap and pablum that gloss over the truth or pretend that life is all beautiful butterflies and dancing unicorns.

Well, no. Not in East Texas and not in any number of areas and states where the Big Red Machine hopes to control hearts and minds. OK, they aren’t so much concerned about hearts, it is minds that they really want to regiment.

As it is apparently turning out, under a new conservative push to “get involved” in schools, pap and pablum are the steady diet in today’s MREs.

Plain vanilla is the flavor and not that vanilla with the little black specks of vanilla bean scattered throughout. Nothing to upset the purity of the white creamy, uh, stuff. We’re not teaching critical race theory and we aren’t allowing books — fiction or otherwise — that might upset the fables we teach our children.

So, unofficial reports abound — what we used to call rumors — that Tyler ISD schools have quietly pulled hundreds of books from the shelves that might upset some of the area’s thought control leaders.

As a journalist, I never wanted to waste a minute running down a rumor because they were almost always just fabricated nonsense, but these are different days, friends. Now, if you catch the odor of something that just might be the truth, you best check it out.

But where to check? Go to the source you might say, and you would have been correct even as soon as a decade ago. Not so sure it is today.

A few weeks ago, I read in the Tyler Loop that the staff there was having trouble getting anyone from the school district to talk to them about what might be going on with pulling books from library shelves.

(Full disclosure: In the past I’ve written a few stories for the Tyler Loop at no charge, and I pay for my subscription to that online journal just as you should.)

The Tyler Loop is the only news organization I know of that is actively trying to dig out this information. Good for them. I urge you to support this mission to get to the facts.

It isn’t just Tyler, either. Wherever you live, inside or outside the Pine Curtain, this is going on.

Obviously, not every book is appropriate for every grade level. That’s the reason Tyler ISD, along with other districts, hire professional librarians to tend to their collections and know what to put out for what grade levels.

I trust professional librarians to know what is appropriate — as long as they are not being unduly pressured to remove books that should be shelved.

Could some of the passages in a few books make you uncomfortable? Sure. That’s what good literature does at its best. It makes you squirm in your seat. It makes you think.

Once upon a time, thinking was good. It isn’t necessarily what the Big Red Machine wants you to do.

 But wait, there’s more! Perhaps the machine doesn’t just want to have a say in what your children think, maybe they would tinker with the dial in our adult minds, too.

The Tyler Loop also isn’t getting a response from the Tyler Public Library, either. Appears to be hunkering down in hopes that no one is watching.

Sorry, but we are watching and worrying that someone’s big, fat thumb is pressing down on those at the library, forcing them to censor, or self-censor what they have that migfht give someone a case of the fantods.

Of course, it is impossible to please everyone with every book selection. So, the best recourse is for librarians to use their professional knowledge to pick the best literature and forget the background noise, however loud it might become.

May the fantods be damned!

Perhaps that is what they are doing. I couldn’t swear either way. When they won’t talk, all we can do is hope.

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If the people in charge are acting as censors what do the rest of us do to see that real literature doesn’t wither away in East Texas?

I have an idea.

It isn’t a total solution by any means. Censorship is a difficult problem to face, particularly when it is done by the very powerful against, well, the very “unpowerful.”

This is only a little thing.

In this case it is a Little Free Library.

If you don’t know, Little Free Libraries exist in communities around East Texas (and elsewhere) and are available for anyone who wishes to access. No card, no membership, no late fees, or any fees at all. The paradigm is take a book and leave a book. Simple.

The Little Free Banned Library would be much the same, only these books would be on the list of books banned over, say, the last five years. In this group are books for children, youth and adults.

Since it isn’t always easy to get a banned book, those who set up a Little Free Banned Library would have to settle for the getting a book that might not be banned. Those who borrow could be asked to return the loaner if possible.

If you think operating a Little Free Banned Library requires more of a commitment than the regular Little Free Library, you are exactly right.

Those who oppose censorship have always had to go the extra mile to protect quality literature that pushes boundaries. Setting up such a library isn’t difficult but tending to it won’t be easy. Still, we know there are those out there who care.

Just one final question for these school patrons who are so worried about the horrible influence great literature might have on young minds, do you ever go through your child’s computer history to see what they’ve been looking at?

What about that cellphone you pay for?

Bet you won’t find any Pulitzer Prize-winners on those phones? Try starting with cleaning up the mess in your own home before you attack the libraries.

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It’s another free week for “Identifying Slaves,” the ongoing effort to honor the most anonymous people who supplied the muscle to build this nation. Those who subscribe to this newsletter will get it in their email.

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