Episode #109: I. Are. Not. Smart.

Maus

So, I saw a story about this book a few weeks ago, and ever since the day I read the story, I wanted to writer about it. I tried to write about it on FB, but apparently I'm their mini-doghouse, as whenever I try to post something that triggers a fact-check bot of some kind, it does the old, "we're experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by" and promptly eliminates the post. Apparently "book banning" is a naughty phrase.

Anyways, on to the story.

A mentally challenged school board in McMinn County, Tennessee has decided to have the book Maus pulled from all school libraries and curricula, due to the book containing things like: swearing {the horror!}, nudity {the HORROR!} and violence {THE HORROR!} and they don't want the "tender" minds of little childrens to be exposed to such "filth" (paraphrasing here).

A couple of things I would like to point out:

1} The book is bio/memoir of Art Spiegelman's father surviving the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and trying to come to terms with it.

2} Yes, the book has swearing. This is to be expected, as it takes during the rise of Nazi Germany and the background of WWII; Yes, it contains nudity. The horrors of war and concentration camps have a tendency sometimes to have nudity, that is a given. Yes, it contains violence. The horrors of war and concentration camps, which begat genocide, does indeed involve a level of violence that can be upsetting to people to read/listen/watch about. It's something that, quite frankly, is unavoidable.

Political views aside, I am not a fan of book censorship. If you don't like a book, fine. No one is forcing you to read it. Have an opinion? Dandy. Just don't force it on anyone else. This showcases the ugliness of war, true racism and the intentional eradication of a particular group of people who did nothing wrong beyond apparently being born into the "wrong religion".

As a sidenote: I have read the book. Once I figured out the gist of the book, I found very troubling and as very outstanding take on a survivor's take of surviving against all odds. 10/10 would highly recommend.

That being said, I really do hope that some outraged citizens contact their state department of education about this as well as contacting a lawyer and filing a lawsuit to overturn this narrow-minded and obviously obtuse decision of a school bard that apparently is working for themselves and not for the people who elected them.

On a similar topic, this one is about bigotry and narrowness of mind.

A few weeks ago, roughly the same time as the book Maus was getting banned, a small person who is a mayor in small town Mississippi decided that he wasn't going to give the public library their legally required/voter approved budget money (approx $110k), until the library got rid of ALL THE BOOKS that covered/were about the gay community/lifestyle. To paraphrase, he said he was "a god fearing Christian" and he didn't want any kind of "sinful books" like those in the library, and he wasn't going to give the money until they do.

Now, personally, it doesn't matter to me where you are on the political spectrum in regards to this issue (no, really, I pursue a "I don't ask" when it comes to issues like this unless the persona chooses to tell me, then I'm more than happy to listen), but you have to agree that something like this is just plain wrong. In theory, an elected official serves the people of the community who had elected them, so their personal feelings simply do not come into play.

Your personal beliefs should not factor into making a professionally public decision like this. It's your job, in this case, an election got you employed, to do what you personally loathe. We all have to make decisions about things we find personally detestable for the greater good. Are there things I personally do not like that I have to do? Absolutely. But this action by this mayor just simply reeks of cancel culture/wokeness,  and that's not right. Bullying sucks in all forms, and that is what their mayor is doing.

I certainly hope you enjoyed my little rant for the day. Tune in next week when I hope to be back into the swing of things w/o someone doing something to annoy me to the point of having to blog extensively about it.

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserve