Here’s a fact for you: One in every eight births in Talladega County, Alabama is to a teen mother, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. You might be thinking what that has to do with censorship and banned books. Well, not much- unless you happen to live...
I know what some of you are thinking: “He’s finally lost his mind. Could Mr. Free Speech be condoning censorship?” You’d be jumping to an incorrect conclusion on both counts. Let me explain. We know that censorship comes in any form and across any medium. Neither is it isolated...
Ambrose Bierce pondered one day, “Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.” “Ah,” said Lewis Carroll, “Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it...
Texas-born Tomás Rivera’s coming-of-age story of a Mexican boy’s life in a migrant family in the 1940s and 1950s, with its themes of family life and tensions, is apparently too much for the parents of a Clarke County seventh-grader and they want the book banned. They demanded that the...
A 17-hour adventure has come to a close and a precious boy named Jericho James has entered the world- and all of our hearts. My wonderful girlfriend’s daughter and fiancé were having a child; and when the call came Monday night that he may be on his way we...
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...
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...
On February 14 in many countries around the world candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones in the name of St. Valentine. Couples will dine and many a flower shop will be visited today while some people- as a good friend once put it- will sit back...
Literature marks the times. Whether an epic historical fiction or a dime store yarn, a novel reflects the time in which it is published as much as it does the period it is set in. The intricacy and subject matter of the literature we enjoy also evolves with us...
A phobia is a deeply-rooted psychological condition in which you are so afraid of something on a subconscious level- due to some traumatic event or trigger- that it impacts your ability to function in daily life. Our society tries to excuse the conscious choice for being intolerant of others...