Here at The Other Salisbury News, we believe everyone should have a voice and oppose almost any form of censorship. However, not everyone in the country shares our view. Earlier this week, the American Library Association (ALA) published a list of the “Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2010.” This list is composed of the books for which the ALA received a written request from a school or library asking that a particular title be banned due to its content or level of appropriateness.
The list includes titles students may recognize such as Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Personally, the frequent request for censorship I find most alarming (and a bit ironic) is Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World set in a dystopian future in which all books are banned...clearly, some people missed it's point.
Fortunately, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom believe that exposing individuals to diverse points of views contributes to society as a whole; they are committed to protecting the fundamental right to read.
What we want to know is- who are the schools and libraries that wrote to the ALA demanding those changes? Educational establishments and public libraries should be the upholders of freedom of expression and information...not the suppressors of it. Furthermore, who was the square that decided that he would draw the line with the Twilight series? I mean really, you couldn't find a better place to put your foot down? We can see the headlines now, "Constitution In Jeopardy Over Vampire Erotica" .... that'll say loads about us in the history books.
For the complete list of the books most frequently requested to be taken off the shelves, visit the ALA's official press release.
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