It feels like we are living in a twilight zone, where everything is backward or upside down. Things that were good are now bad and things that were bad are now good. For example, the Daviess County Library has books in the Teen Section that have been determined to meet the standards established by U.S. Supreme Court for obscenity. For some strange reason the library refuses to move the books to another area of the library, out of the 13-18-year-old section.
Now there are two quick points that should be made here. First, if they are obscene or even if the books are just close to being obscene, it seems like most adults would agree on what would be the best for the kids. It seems obvious the books should be removed from the teen’s section and put in the general section. But not in the twilight zone. And second, for the life of me I cannot figure out why someone would be so adamant about wanting this material in a teen section, where it is displayed right in front of our 13-year-old kids.
The Daviess County Citizens for Decency (DCC4D) organization simply asked for the books to be moved out of the teen section and into another section of the library. The library responded by saying they were asking to ban books. The DCC4D said no not to ban, just reposition to another section. People supporting the library also said they want to ban books. DCC4D again said please just reposition the books! Then some people said they do not want any group deciding what their kids and grandkids can read. No one said you cannot read them, just simply move the books to another location! Then you and your child can still go into the adult section and read whatever you want, any time you want. Period.
Children are protected from R-rated movies, tobacco, alcohol, firearms, and other things like driving a car, because they have not reached an age of maturity. Most adults believe they are not yet able to handle these potentially harmful things. I think it is a given, as a community we want to protect our kids. But when these books were identified as potentially harmful because of their content, people started quoting the First Amendment. Bear in mind if a movie was written from some of these books, our children could not watch or check them out of the library, because they are considered too young.
Then came an ironic decision made by the library. They determined that there may be a problem with the books and perhaps something should be done. They decided to rename the Teen section of the library. So, now we have the same books and the same kids going into the same section of the library. So, restated, we have same books, same kids, same section with a new name! Instead of calling it the Teen section they now call it the Young Adult section. It is still for 13–18-year-old children. The library was proud to say that they fixed the problem. No matter what you call it, our 13-year-old kids are still having obscene material placed right in front of their eyes, in their own section. Only in the twilight zone would adults want to expose our innocent children to this mess?
Here is an idea. Move the books and the issue goes away!
Written by
George Wathen, member of DCC4D
