OpEd Writer Says Schools Shouldn't Ban Any Book, No Matter How Pornographic

 

In her letter to the editor of The Los Angeles Times, titled “Hey, Huntington Beach book banners, kids find a way to look at what they want,” Lisa Shook managed to perfectly illustrate the simultaneous dramatic declines in cognitive ability and morality plaguing the nation-- and the West in general.

Shook (!) positively referenced a column titled “Huntington Beach wants to keep ‘obscene’ books away from children. Good Luck,” noting that it took her back to her “early 1960s high school days.”

Why? Shook: “In our Shakespeare textbook, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was sprinkled with asterisks indicating where some of the Bard's words and phrases had been deleted to protect our adolescent sensibilities.” She added, “An enterprising student handed each of us a sheet of paper as we entered the classroom one day. He had gone to the town library, researched all the naughty bits, typed them up and then made mimeograph copies to distribute. Everybody was delighted, none more so than our teacher, who proceeded to conduct a very entertaining tutorial and discussion on Elizabethan language and literature.”

Shook also stated: “I want to thank the Huntington Beach City Council, particularly the four conservative members, for providing an excellent teaching moment for my children, both of whom are of voting age. They have learned that all politics are local, and that engagement is a must. What they saw at the meeting where the council decided to limit access to certain library books was vast governmental overreach, prejudice and ignorance. These unnecessary and ridiculous culture wars along with the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision on abortion will hopefully make the GOP irrelevant in 2024.”   

Wow. It’s hard to know where to start here, as there is much to unpack, as they say.

First, as for “kids find a way to look at what they want,” that is not necessarily true—and certainly doesn’t mean that adult instructors should pre-emptively provide them with any and all prurient and perverted materials and images that they might somehow someday come in contact with.

 What a stupid argument! And how do progressives like Shook know the kiddies want to see illustrations of vaginal blood on a tampon and/or a boy sucking a man’s c*ck?

Note to Shook: “Wherefore art thou Romeo” is not equivalent to, say, “suck my d*ck, bitch!”

Finally, claiming that restricting obviously age-inappropriate books from elementary or middle school libraries is “banning” them is a flat-out lie. And labeling those actions as “vast governmental overreach” is sadly hilarious coming from folks who want to dispense with the First and Second Amendments, tax high income earners into oblivion, fine or imprison those who “misgender” someone, and who were staunch supporters of lockdowns, mask mandates, and the forced injection of experimental mRNA vaccines into otherwise ostensibly autonomous bodies.