Censorship in this, the age of information overload – Wilson County News

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By the time you read this, Tuesdays election will be history. We will know whether or not Texans came out to vote for Proposition 3, which would ban the state from prohibiting or limiting church services and other religious worship, as happened during the pandemic.

We will know whether Virginias new governor is Democrat Terry McAuliffe or Republican Glenn Youngkin. This race has garnered national attention and may be a harbinger of things to come as we approach the 2022 elections.

The intensity of this race escalated following a dust-up in Loudoun County over whether parents can have a say in what their children are taught in public schools.

McAuliffe exacerbated the controversy when he was widely quoted saying that he doesnt think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. In another debate, he said parents should have no role in directing the education of their children.

Parents as voters, taxpayers, and as guardians of their children should have every right to be heard and to attend school board meetings without fear of being labeled domestic terrorists.

The Loudoun County controversy is what led to the current kerfuffle in Texas over books in public-school libraries. We conservatives are familiar with intimidation and censorship as we experience the effects of cancel culture. We are boycotted, deplatformed, and intimidated with toxic attempts to silence conservative speech. The woke crowd goes after conservative thought and speech wherever and however they can.

In recent years, books such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Charlottes Web have been censored. Even some of the popular Dr. Seuss books were pulled. In fact, the criticism was so severe, that Dr. Seuss Enterprises joined the woke crowd and committed to discontinue publishing certain titles because of possible racist or insensitive imagery.

And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street was pulled because it contained Asian and Arab stereotypes. A Google search pulls up some of the questionable illustrations along with a cautionary note: Due to the nature of this story, this article contains images that some might find offensive.

Now that conservatives are finding titles of books that some students, parents, and taxpayers find offensive, we are told books unite us; censorship divides us.

Banned Books Week was established in 1982 to unite librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, students, and readers of all types in an effort to support the freedom to seek and to express ideas.

When the tables are turned and it is the conservatives, specifically in Texas, who are offended, its a different story: Suddenly, censoring reading materials makes the world smaller. What happened to being insensitive and offensive?

Perhaps its time to put the independent back in the local school districts, for example La Vernia Independent School District. Nowhere does it say La Vernia Federal School District.

Now the National School Boards Association cautions that some of Americas public schools are under an immediate threat from parents. Its time to argue that differing views must be allowed.

Divergent views are good, but perhaps a public school library where we send our children to learn might not be an appropriate place for certain controversial topics.

Its not un-American to use a certain amount of discretion in stocking school libraries. Public libraries and information online can provide any and all topics. When pressure is applied to the extent that a publisher ceases to publish a book because it might offend someone, that is un-American.

Elections for local school boards, and, yes, even for constitutional amendments, should play a part in determining how this country goes forward as we approach the 2022 elections. The information is there; use it wisely.

This is my opinion. Whats yours?

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Censorship in this, the age of information overload - Wilson County News