Take That, You Hypocrites

Perhaps the only time Republic, MO will be international news:

To hell with the censors!" said Kurt Vonnegut. "Give me knowledge or give me death!" Now the late author's memorial library is acting on his words, giving 150 copies of his seminal novel Slaughterhouse-Five away for free to students at the Missouri school that banned it late last month.

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is asking interested pupils at Republic High School in Missouri to drop it an email requesting a free copy of Slaughterhouse-Five after an anonymous donor provided it with 150 copies of the book. "We think it's important for everyone to have their First Amendment rights. We're not telling you to like the book ... we just want you to read it and decide for yourself," said Julia Whitehead, the library's executive director, in a note on its website entitled "stop the madness".

Last month the school's board voted to ban Slaughterhouse-Five and Sarah Ockler's young adult novel Twenty Boy Summer from its curriculum and library following a Missouri professor's complaints about their content. In a column for the local paper, Wesley Scroggins wrote that Slaughterhouse-Five "contains so much profane language, it would make a sailor blush with shame. The 'f word' is plastered on almost every other page. The content ranges from naked men and women in cages together so that others can watch them having sex to God telling people that they better not mess with his loser, bum of a son, named Jesus Christ."

I am still at a loss as to why some people feel the need to "protect" others from what they find offensive. Kids see far worse on prime time television.  This gives a chance for parents or teachers to have a discussion about what the kids have read and their take on it.  It's a chance to encourage reading, thought and considering new opinions.  I am not a fan,  but I believe everyone has the right to choose for themselves.  Meanwhile, I did learn a lot about his particular writing style and his prose is creative and worth looking at for its own sake.  I suppose that is threatening to some folks.  After all, when I read Of Mice And Men it broke my heart, but I came away with a new understanding of how far we've come as a society that we can better house and protect the mentally challenged.  I guess people like Prof Scroggins just see a retard and a bum.