This is a fairly accurate assessment of our national consciousness and our culture’s attitude toward the events that occur beyond our own borders.
Dec072013
World News
Oct152013
Columbus: Explorer, murderer, thief, and slavetrader
I’ve been asked before why I, being of Italian descent, don’t celebrate Columbus Day. The answer to why the very idea of this day disgusts me is very simple and explained perfectly in the masterful words of Kurt Vonnegut: “As children we were taught to memorize this year ...
Oct102013
Movember 2013
“If all it takes is growing a little facial fuzz in a fun and interactive way for a month to help raise awareness for such an important issue, then why isn’t everyone doing it? What’s your excuse? Cancer knows no boundaries- not sex, not race, not age, not social...
Sep262013
Banned books week: How the blacklist can goose a book’s sales
News Flash: It’s Banned Books Week here in the United States, you know: the land of the free- at least on paper. As usual, there is plenty of media attention on the American Library Association’s annual event to highlight censorship efforts and I take bittersweet pride in reporting on...
Jun302013
Banned Books Awareness: “Banned Nursery Rhymes”
Just about anything, in any format, can get censored or banned these days- books, television, movies, art, and music, to name a few. Now we can add classic nursery rhymes to the list of “offensive” material. The world, it seems, has completely lost its sense of reason and logic....
Jun222013
Banned Books Awareness: “The House of Gold”
The Irish Censorship of Publications Board was established in 1929 by the newly-formed Irish Free State (boy, isn’t that a contradiction in terms) to examine and restrict ‘obscene’ publications. Liam O’Flaherty’s The House of Gold had coincidentally been released that same year and enjoyed a brief time in print...
Jun092013
Banned Books Awareness: That Multi-headed Snake Called Censorship
Most people have either had the experience or been witness to the self-censorship that comes from the fear of causing offense to someone; some others may feel that over-protectiveness denies people the opportunity to decide for themselves where the moral line is when it comes to artful expression. Most...
Apr142013
Banned Books Awareness: Works Banned by the British in Danger of Being Lost
We know that the mentality behind censorship and the banning of books is shortsighted and narrow-minded; but when that ignorance causes those words to completely disappear from the world, it’s just nauseating. That’s what is happening to rare nationalist works that were banned by the British during India’s quest...
Apr072013
Banned Books Awareness: “Gone with the Wind”
Some label it as historical romance; while others argue that it doesn’t have all of the required elements, thus making it simply an historical novel- but all would agree that the 1936 work by Margaret Mitchell is one of the quintessential works of American literature. However, as one has...
Mar232013
Banned Books Awareness: “Persepolis”
The United States’ third-largest school district, Chicago Public Schools, denies that it banned the book, saying that it “only removed copies from classrooms.” They can euphemize it any way they like, but it’s still censorship. Labeling the graphic novel as “inappropriate,” CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett also ordered mandatory training for...