Tossing the past isn’t the answer

Posted

Our society seems to be turning into one where removing the things that we find offensive instead of learning from the past. 

In recent weeks, we are seeing multiple national media outlets reporting that school districts from across the nation are beginning to “ban” children’s books. These books include famed and beloved authors and titles, such as "Little House on the Prairie", Dr. Seuss books and even some history books that discuss past American periods and presidents. 

Even plays written by Shakespeare are under scrutiny. 

This “ban” is coming from groups of people who find the literature to have racial undertones or to not be inclusive. 

Of course they aren’t inclusive. "Little House on the Prairie" was written about one persons’ family, in a time in our nations’ history where mostly white Americans were pioneering across America and settling small towns. Just because a book is written from a person’s point of view does not make that racist. 

We cannot simply ban things that offend us. Then, we are becoming the very thing that we hate: prejudiced bullies. 

We must learn from our past so that history does not repeat itself. We need to stop becoming so offended by the words of others and from literature and art and philosophy, and start learning from these areas of our culture. 

This is America. We are a breeding ground for all types of cultural genres and opinions. We were built on the principle that people from all walks of life with all forms of religion and all forms of traditions can be accepted and respected. Now, we cannot simply choose which of these cultures we want to keep and which ones we want to throw away. That is dangerous. All words matter. All forms of art matter. It is subjective. If you don’t like it, choose to not read it or view it. Do not impose your own opinion on others as a way of normalizing this type of rejection. 

History matters. 

In a time in our society where throwing literature out the window is an easy thing to do, we encourage our parents and our youth to hold fast to common sense and to acceptance. We also ask our local school board leaders to not join suit, and to instead protect the books and the literature and the art that is inside our district’s walls.