On celebrating open access to ideas

From The Press-Republican of Plattsburgh:

On May 10, 1933, Nazis burned more than 25,000 books as part of what the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum describes as “a massive propaganda campaign to win the loyalty and cooperation of Germans.”

The museum describes what happened this way: “The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, directed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, took control of all forms of communication in Germany: newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, rallies, art, music, movies and radio.

“Viewpoints in any way threatening to Nazi beliefs or to the regime were censored or eliminated from all media.

“During the spring of 1933, Nazi student organizations, professors and librarians made up long lists of books they thought should not be read by Germans.

“Then, on the night of May 10, 1933, Nazis raided libraries and bookstores across Germany. They marched by torchlight in nighttime parades, sang chants and threw books into huge bonfires.”

Among the books burned that night were works of Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway and Sinclair Lewis.

When Helen Keller, who succeeded in life despite being deaf and blind, was told that books she and others had written were burned, she said: “Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas.”

It was an eloquent way to describe what books and other writings can represent. And to point out the evil that was brewing in Germany at the time.

But some groups and individuals continue to try to keep people from reading certain books, even today, even in the United States.

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom keeps a list of “most commonly challenged books” in the United States, which includes, many will be surprised to learn, the Bible.

The top three reasons for challenging them, that office says, were that they contained “sexually explicit” content, “offensive” language or are “unsuited to any age group.”

The latest Top 10 books that people have tried to have removed from libraries or schools are: “Looking for Alaska,” ‘’Fifty Shades of Grey,” ‘’I Am Jazz,” ‘’Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out,” ‘’The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” ‘’The Holy Bible,” ‘’Fun Home,” ‘’Habibi,” ‘’Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan” and “Two Boys Kissing.”

Parents, of course, should offer guidance to their children about what books are appropriate at what age. That is a family decision.

But no individual or organization should try to tell everyone that a certain book should not be read.