Libraries Are For Everyone

 I know this is the month for valentines, and Black History Month. I should probably be blogging about love this month, or an African American hero. But current events have jumped in and grabbed me, turning this to a different subject.

I have long been an advocate for reluctant readers. I’ve spoken at the Illinois Reading Council and the American Library Association on the subject. I believe that anything that makes a student want to read is a good book, no matter the subject matter.  A fourteen year old who started A Banned Book Club at her school, said, “I love to read, so it’s kind of frustrating to see the bans, especially because a lot of adults are banning it, but they’re not asking teenagers our opinion on these books … It’s scary to know that all these people who might need these books for a reason, because maybe they’re just learning about themselves, and they need something to read, they don’t have access to that.”  

Maybe some reluctant readers don't read because the worlds in the books they are allowed are bland and unimaginable when compared to video games and TikTok. That’s the problem with censorship and removing a book like MAUS from a school library. 

Parents and lawmakers claim they are only removing books from libraries to protect innocent children from feeling discomfort, guilt or any other form of psychological distress questionable content. Its an impossibly broad category, since anyone might be "distressed" about anything.  Its also the same excuse used for over two hundred years. An article in the Atlantic noted that even back in the 1800s, books that were suppressed for being inappropriate for kids were often stories about cultures and life experiences different from those of the majority population. Most banned books explore issues of race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental illness, and disability. 

(Although in 2012, the Captain Underpants books topped the list of most banned books because of language.  I attended an American Library Association meeting and presentation where membefrs of the Office of Intellectual Freedom explained why the books were banned. Adults unnerved by reading the vocabulary in the books to their small children wanted to have them removed from libraries.)

Neither parents, authors, librarians nor teachers want to increase any child's anxiety. I’m one of those people who elieve that knowledge is power. As an author, my goal is to empower young readers, to help them understand the world and to grow. To promote empathy for others. I promise I want readers to feel more knowledgeable after they read one of my stories, and never, ever ashamed.  Books can provide the kind of power and life experience that some kids cannot get any other way. An opportunity to meet people of different backgrounds and cultures young readers often cannot get in real life.

Preventing children from reading a book like Maus won’t protect them from anything. On the contrary, it may rob them of ways to understand the world they live in. We don't want kids to have to experience life in a concentration camp so they will grow up feeling what it's like, we want them to grow up determined tht kind of thing willnot happen again because they have empathy and felt what it was like in a book.  Like riding a rollar coaster, kids know their book is a safe space. They may have questions about the content, but they rest easy knowing it willnever place them in any real harm or dangr.

Studies of middle school classes found that students who got to debate controversial subjects were more likely to see themselves as “an active participant in civic affairs.” If a child comes home with a question about something theyread in a book, that does not mean they feel guilty. It means their curiosity has been awakened and they trust their parents to tell them more.  That's not a time to fail them and other students who may need to hear the message in that book.  Censorship is an attempt to stifle someone's individual thought. There's a reason why America applauded the TV show All In The Family when Edith Bunker ignored her husband's repeated command to "stifle." It is wrong at any age.

Book banning says a lot more about the banner than about the book.  Take Animal Farm for example.  The book was banned in the UK during the second world war because of fears that its publication could anger Soviet allies. Animal Farm was banned in the USSR until the Soviet Union fell. Then the book was banned in Florida in 1981. Why? Because they felt the same book the communists hate, a book written by a man who spent his life fighting totalitarianism, was pro-communist. Someone was not thinking critically.

Classroom, school, and public libraries are meant to serve an entire community of students, not just the ones with the most prudish parents. Although students are not adults, they still have rights - and agency. A dialogue between parents, teachers and librarians is important, but if young people seek out information on a topics that interest them, they should access. Better still, they should be given guidance through classroom discussion, book club leaders, and parents. Instead of banning books, more people should get involved in helping kids process what they read. Making a book forbidden means kids will  hide their reading material. It will never make them stop.

One Generation Away

By Courtney Pierce

Who knew I'd become an activist for the Constitution at the ripe age of 62? I surprise even myself, but that document means more to me now that at any time in my life. As a pre-teen, back in the 1960s, my participation in protest events and social causes fell beyond the boundaries of parental permission. Besides, back then I didn't fully understand the importance of our Bill of Rights, especially our right to free speech. Freedom, like vast wealth, can be squandered. 

For nearly forty years, between the 1970s and 2010, I took our freedom for granted. Of course I could speak freely about anything. Of course I could go anywhere I wanted in this great country—by foot, by car, or by airplane. While we were working, raising families, saving for retirement, paying bills, and building careers, our country succumbed to deep corruption through greed. We trusted too much, looking away because we were overwhelmed by daily life or in denial. Once our votes were cast, we didn't hold our elected officials accountable for their promises.   

Fast forward to 2021. Now we're paying the steep price of apathy. A bit too late we're waking up to the reality of a foreign infiltration to strip us of our divine sovereignty. The result is unconstitutional tyranny, division, and censorship.

Big Tech has given us a social score by reporting users who enter select key words or subjects into search engines. We're being tracked, monitored, and entered into a massive database. The distressing part of this is that those search parameters haven't been disclosed to the public. We don't know what can "eliminate" us with the push of a button just for researching the truth. And what about labeling parents as "domestic terrorists" if they dare question their kids' curriculum and mandates imposed from their local school boards? I never thought I'd hear of citizens being denied healthcare if they didn't get an experimental injection. No VAX, no new kidney. These are only a few examples of the injustices in play today.

Does this sound like America? Have our now-fearful leaders read The Nuremburg Code? The culprits most complicit will be held accountable, but we citizens (aka sheep) are not off the hook. But we are sheep no more.

The mistakes of history are doomed to be repeated unless we, the people, stop crimes against humanity in their tracks. We must take back our freedom before it's too late. The good news is that we can take our country back if we band together. Elected officials report to the collective "us." Fear-mongering won't work with Americans—Republicans nor Democrats. Political parties mean nothing anymore. 

Let's come together to reject division based on race, politics, medical status, religion, age, or gender. The more the corrupt side of government tries to slice and dice us, the faster we'll heal to keep fighting for what our country stands for. It's coming. Our moral compass will remain strong in our belief that light eclipses dark, and good wipes out evil. That's not political. It's human.

The world is watching the United States with eyes wide open. Countries throughout the world are aghast at the hijacking of America. It really is a World War without a shot being fired. It's a war of propaganda and oppression, just like Nazi Germany. Instead of a yellow star, we have vaccine passports. "Papers please."

They say that as goes the U.S., so goes the rest of the world. America is the defender of freedom for the whole planet. That's a heavy responsibility, but it's time for us to step up. 

Ronald Reagan gave us an important message in 1964, but we didn't heed his warning closely enough. His words wrap us with more meaning today:

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free."

It's up to us, this boomer generation, to claw back our freedom for the next generation. and the next generation after that.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and stepdaughter. She writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Authors of the Flathead. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Coming in 2022!

When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and it must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting her too . . . for a different reason.