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ACLU Celebrates Banned Books Week

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Sep 26, 2011 at 2:58 PM MST

Story Updated: Sep 26, 2011 at 4:22 PM MST

Mary MacClane’s story about Butte, The Giver, I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing, Our Bodies, Ourselves, Sedition -- and believe it or not -- the Bible --- were all challenged in Montana public libraries.

Book banning though, is not a thing of the past, and with 460 books challenged in 2009 and 348 challenged just last year, opponents of literary censorship are rallying students and readers throughout Great Falls to protect their intellectual freedom during the annual banned books week -- which began this week.

“It’s just important for us to celebrate intellectual freedom and to celebrate our ability to read what we choose rather than be subjected to other people's rules about what we should and should not be able to read,” said Amy Cannata, communications director for the American Civil Liberties Union Montana.

Since the dawn of libraries, parents and concerned citizens have tried to have books removed from shelves on the basis of their sexual content, offensive language, and violence.

But according to Kathy Mora, director of the Great Falls Public Library, just because a parent wants to protect their child, doesn't mean they can limit the freedom of another's.

“For the individual parent it’s up to them, as I said – to guide their child's reading,” Mora said. “It’s not up to them to tell someone else or someone else’s child though what they should be reading.”

While banned books week publicizes the many challenges made against books – it also starts a conversation about censoring the internet and why citizens should protect their free and open access to information.

“People say that they're too dangerous for the Big Sky, they're too dangerous for the community --- because reading isn't dangerous,” Cannata said. “Reading is what keeps our society free.”

“We don’t tell kids what they can or cannot check out,” Mora said. “It really is up to the parent to be involved in that process.”


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