The Mat-Su Borough School District recently moved to pluck certain books from libraries after parents and community members complained about “LGBTQ themes” and sexually explicit content. After some deliberation, a Library Citizens Advisory Committee then recommended that several titles be permanently removed. That triggered a legal battle that brought the American Civil Liberties Union and Northern Justice Project into the fold, which led to a judge ordering all but seven books back onto the shelves.
For many in Mat-Su, this issue is as much about exercising the muscles of citizen governance as it is about shielding kids from obscene material. Obviously, not everyone agrees. On the northern point of Cook Inlet, Wasilla’s only bookstore held an event for “Banned Books Week” in September, where unallowed volumes were made into inanimate martyrs.
The modern notion of “banned books” has always been very silly. These books are not actually suppressed in any meaningful way. If it’s available at your local bookstore or on Amazon, it’s not banned. But that’s also why removing books from school libraries, while in egregious cases warranted and proper, is a little like plugging your fingers in a cracking dam. I believe that if you really want to inoculate your kids from smut, you must sit down and read the good stuff with them.