Group seeks to ban "smut" and "pornography" in children's library

[Mizmoon]

Why don't we hear more about this nationally, I wonder?
------------------------------
Library books for children face new challenge
Montgomery Co. veterans group aims to remove select titles

The children's collection at Montgomery County public libraries once again is under attack, and this time it's a veterans' group that is leading the charge.

The American Veterans in Domestic Defense, which sponsored the national tour of the Ten Commandments display that was removed from the courthouse in Alabama, is targeting 70 books for removal from public library shelves.

The group said the titles contain "egregious smut and pornography" and promote a homosexual lifestyle.

"We hope to raise awareness of the abundance and excessiveness of filth and pornography in the children's section of the library," said Jim Cabaniss of The Woodlands, president of the AVIDD and a Korean War veteran.

The group led a series of protests recently at six of the county's libraries. They were met by supporters of the children's collection at the South Branch Library.

"By numbers, we probably lost the battle, but we haven't lost the war," Cabaniss said.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/thisweek/zone02/news/3400723

[napi21]

1. I guess I'm pretty dumb in my old age, but what kind of porno and smut

in in a childrens library? I haven't been to one in quite a while, but I sure don't rememberever seeing any!

Is this something NEW in the awful new society we live in?

[William769]

2. Barney.

[Mizmoon]

6. Books that talk about sex in any way is smut to the protesters

and they also object to positive descriptions of homosexuality or homosexual people.

[brooklynite]

8. I'm guessing that one title is...

"In the NIght Kitchen" by Maurice Sendak



In the Night Kitchen (1970) proved controversial on its release, as several well-meaning librarians and teachers reacted to Mickey's nudity by removing the book from the shelves and/or covering the child's offending genitalia with marker, tape, or other method of obscuring it. The book continues to appear on lists of banned or challenged books, somewhat to the consternation of those who can find nothing disturbing or "sexual" in the nudity of such a young child as Mickey appears to be.

http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/kitchen.htm

[napi21]

18. Don't they realize that "forbidden" things are the MOST tempting?

I don't advocate over exposure of sex to very young children, but to attempt to completely HIDE it from all children is also very wrong.

Children are curious creatures, and they won't stop searching for information just because you try to hide it from them.

Worse than that is, the easiest way to generate interest, curiosity, and sneaking, is to tell somebody "You can't see that, or you can't go there, or THAT'S BAD" but never explaine WHY!

Spend some time in Europe sometime. They are NOT paranoid about sex. They are NOT paranoid about alcohol consumption. And they have FAR LESS problems with either than the US does. I guess all the Puritans must have come here, and STAYED!

[nickinSTL]

3. what are they complaining about?

I'll bet it's nothing 90+% of people would consider 'smut' or 'pornography'.

Certainly in the library I work at, nothing in the kid's section comes close...although there might be some anatomy books in the non-fiction section for the 3rd-9th graders...

[MountainLaurel]

15. It's not the 90-plus who complain

It's that one freak screaming because her 15-year-old girl saw a picture of a pee-pee in an encyclopedia.

[villager]

4. YA authors form group to battle censorship

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/opinion/columnists/scn-littman1020,0,1283534.column?coll=green-opinion-columnists

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. These people are equating homosexuality

with pornography. I looked at the titles, some of which were condemned just because they presented homosexuality in a light other than stark condemnation. I also thought it interesting that one book about AIDS was condemned because religion was not brought into the plot. Glad to see that the majority of the books are still on the shelves-some are still under reviews.

[rodeodance]

10. The library has a community review committee already.

Reviews continue
In 2002, resident members were added to the library reconsideration panel to get more of a public perception when children's books were challenged by groups or individuals. Since the fall of 2002, there have been 58 complaints filed against children's books in the library, with two titles requested twice.

To date, 38 books have been retained in the juvenile collection, and five were relocated to the young adult or adult section of the library. Two titles were taken off the shelves, including Castro by Don Beyer and Tomorrow Wendy by Shelly Stoehr, Williams said.

Castro, a biography of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, was removed for factual inaccuracies. Tomorrow Wendy was removed because it was outdated and did not meet library criteria, Williams said.

The committee still continues to review about three to five new titles a month, and 13 books are left to be reconsidered, Williams said.

[FreedomAngel82]

26. Oh of course

:eyes: They're trying to paint homosexuality like pedophilia etc. :eyes: It's all ridiculous.

[tjwash]

7. Can't they just go back to playing records backwards...

... and hearing shit that was never even there in the first place? At least that was slightly entertaining, and no one ever really took them seriously.

[porphyrian]

9. Do these people have kids who go to that library...?

...or are they trying to do everyone else a favor? I suppose aging veterans are particularly qualified to decide for us what books should be available to everyone's children in libraries. And, of course, it's so much easier to ban books than to take responsibility for raising your own fucking children and minding your own fucking business.

[toopers]

11. What age group are these books targeting?

Maybe it is my memory or my poor reading comprehension skills, but I do not remember any references to sexuality in any of the children's books that I read.

[Bob3]

12. okay jerks let me explain this to you in small little words

none of the titles you cite can by any stretch of the imagination be called smut or pornography - you may want children's lit to be nothing but fluffy bunnies and squirrels but children, unlike you,live in the real world and as they get older will get to deal with real world problems like drugs, aids, dysfunctional families and the like - it might help them a bit if they know somebody else their age has the same burdens, like a family in a book they read. - whacking them over the head with the bible and screaming Jesus at them isn't going to cut it. In fact it's a good way to turn them into self loathing wrecks who will use drugs, promiscuity and any other means to dull the deeply rooted emotional pain and shame they feel. If you want that, do that to your own kids leave the others LONG.

That said the best definition of smut or pornography I've ever read is they are books meant to be read with one hand. I don't think any of the books on your screwed up list pass that test. Really smut has titles like Gay Boys in Bondage or Debbie Does Dallas or Wanda Whips Wall Street or Baby's got Back Part XX.

Really guys get a life. Leave the damned kids alone will you - gowning up is hard enough without lunatics like you wanted to smash young minds into plup.

[jmowreader]

13. Every library needs five hardcore porno books in it

They're not for circulation. They're so that when the fundies come in and start screaming that Daddy's Roommate and History Laid Bare are porn, the librarian can pull out the porn, lay it on the table and say "this is what pornography actually looks like."

This is because most of these fundamentalists don't know what porn looks like--everything that has any mention of sex in it is automatically porn, and that's not the case.

[msongs]

21. "most of these fundamentalists don't know what porn looks like" - HA! they

are the biggest buyers and user of online porn. the most repressed people are frequently the ones most likely to secretly do what they claim to oppose.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[annabanana]

28. hah! I would love to be a fly on that wall when the librarian

does THAT!
It would be entertaining

[melody]

14. It's all those books they have a problem with

All them people readin' them books.

[adwon]

16. Isn't this familiar

This same horseshit was pulled a few years ago in Fayetteville, NC. Some local hothead threw a fit over The Joy of Sex and Heather has two mommies. The library system did compromise a bit and institute a junior library card (reinstitute actually, they'd only gotten rid of them a few years before as I recall). Otherwise, they told the jackass to hit the road and quit crying.

The ALA took note of the situation and awarded the head of the libraries Librarian of the Year. :P

Seriously, with morons like this, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[ComerPerro]

17. But, please, take your kids to watch a man get brutally beaten for 10 min

And, hell, thats good parenting.

[msongs]

19. bibles should be rated R - get them out of kids libraries as well nt

[MarsThe Cat]

20. Exactamundo.

make sure that The Bible is the FIRST book on the smut list, and they'll back down in a heartbeat.

[mongo]

22. And just over the past two weeks many DU'ers were agreeing

That stories (words only) that depict underage sex and Japanese comics that depict (minor) teenagers having sex should be banned as child pornography.

Can you imagine if the laws were changed to reflect these views? Instead of some wing-nut group protesting here, you would have a zealous prosecutor dragging the librarians off in handcuffs.

[Mizmoon]

23. It can get very crazy for us librarians

I heard of one librarian whose home was protested by angry zealots. It got so bad that she and her husband sent their kids to live with the grandparents until things cooled down.

Frankly I don't know how these collection decisions are made for public libraries because I work in a private, special collection. I imagine that those very distinctions you're talking about are discussed ad naseum in ALA committee and still we can't make everyone happy.

[mongo]

29. If anyone doesn't need that kind of shit thrown at her

it is your local librarian. Ours has to work a 2nd job at the local convenience store because our public library is only open 3 days/week now.

At least we can get most anything we want through inter-library loan, and reserve stuff on the interent.

[FreedomAngel82]

24. So does that include the Bible??

:shrug: Being a Christian I've read the Bible plenty of times. In the old testament there is sex and wars all over the place. Especially with Lot and his daughters! Read that story if you haven't yet. There is also beheadings too in the Bible and Judas hangs himself.

[ContraBass Black]

25. Which state is this?

I'm in Montgomery Co. VA. To the north is Montgovery Co. MD. There are likely others.

[Bridget Burke]

27. Texas. AVIDD is based in Houston.

Montgomery County, scene of the protest, is a bedroom community. By the way, AVIDD welcomes non-Veterans: www.avidd.org/

As long as members agree on the List of Domestic Enemies:

• Biased Liberal, Socialist News Media
  
• The Failed Judicial System
  
• The Tyrannical IRS System
  
• Federal Reserve System
  
• The Drug Culture
  
• Violence (blood and gore)
  
• Pornography in the Media
  
• The National Education Association
  
• The Unsafe, Undisciplined Education System
  
• The ACLU
  
• Socialist Members of Congress
  
• Violent Youth Gangs
  
• The Conspiracy of an Immoral Film Industry
  
• Government promoted gambling

[ContraBass Black]

30. Ah.

And here I was about to march down the street yelling about the assault on the library.