Monday, June 19, 2006
"Fla. School Board Bans Cuba Book"
Guardian
Not that I'm for "banning books," of course, as I've noticed this has been termed in many of the articles. The AP article (via First Amendment Center) is so confusing it doesn't specify if the books are down- or up-playing the quality of life in communist countries; it concentrates more on the injustice of banning a book. As if this is a censorship issue. The book itself censors the issue. This isn't a ban, it's a removal based on non-truths and omissions (and hopefully will be replaced by an age-appropriate, broad-scope book that addresses positive and negative sides of collectivism and emphasizes the fact that Castro has been in power since 1-Jan-1959. It's not an opinion issue - many people were killed and imprisoned for his gain.
But darn, every time I say that, I know that it's the case in the US too, obviously. Our executives, legislature, and law enforcement are also kept in by legacy and more subtle and potentially more dangerous. But I can't stop thinking about the fact that there are places where it is acceptable and commonplace for folks to be whisked away for lesser offenses than here. We still get ours.
``The Cuban people have been paying a dear price for 47 years for the reality to be known,'' Amador Rodriguez, a former political prisoner in Cuba, told The Miami Herald. ``A 32-page book cannot silence that.''So the father who opposed these books was in prison in Cuba - no wonder he doesn't want elementary school children being taught only about the bravado and team spirit involved with communist propaganda. When I was in elementary school, I was certainly never taught about the level of oppression and force in communist Cuba, China, N Korea, etc. (not to mention in our own country under the auspices of free choice, of course...).
Not that I'm for "banning books," of course, as I've noticed this has been termed in many of the articles. The AP article (via First Amendment Center) is so confusing it doesn't specify if the books are down- or up-playing the quality of life in communist countries; it concentrates more on the injustice of banning a book. As if this is a censorship issue. The book itself censors the issue. This isn't a ban, it's a removal based on non-truths and omissions (and hopefully will be replaced by an age-appropriate, broad-scope book that addresses positive and negative sides of collectivism and emphasizes the fact that Castro has been in power since 1-Jan-1959. It's not an opinion issue - many people were killed and imprisoned for his gain.
But darn, every time I say that, I know that it's the case in the US too, obviously. Our executives, legislature, and law enforcement are also kept in by legacy and more subtle and potentially more dangerous. But I can't stop thinking about the fact that there are places where it is acceptable and commonplace for folks to be whisked away for lesser offenses than here. We still get ours.
