Banned Books: Have you read one?

By Christine Anne Piesyk | September 30, 2007 |

The books on shelves in school and public libraries are continually under fire by parents, patrons and organizational administrators seeking to remove said “offensive” books and make them unavailable. Render them “censored.”

What gets targeted? Well, the usual and obvious suspects: J.D. Salinger, J.K. Rowling. John Steinbeck. Mark Twain. Robert Cormier. And writers such as Maya Angelou - someone out there wants her “Caged Bird” silenced forever. Even revered children’s authors including Maurice Sendak, Madeleine L’Engle and Judy Blume (whose penned scripted three of the top one hundred books).

“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind…

“If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”

— On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

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Sections: Arts and Leisure, Issues, Politics | 7 Comments

Timely DVD Review: Enemy of the State

By Turner McCullough Jr. | September 30, 2007 |

The next time someone tells you that giving up some your freedoms is the price we must pay for security, tell them to watch this 1998 movie and then get back to you! Often the refrain is innocent people have no reason to fear unbridled questioning or surveillance by the government. Enemy of the State, a well executed action thriller, goes a long way to turn that notion on its proverbial head.

An innocent man, unaware he has been drawn into a covert operation, doesn’t surrender his freedom. It’s taken from him and not in a nice way! «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure | No Comments

Ending our boycott against the Customs House Museum

By Bill Larson | September 30, 2007 |

When government actively fosters a marketplace of ideas by providing funding to the arts, it may not exercise certain artistic visions simply because public officials dislike them,” - The American Civil Liberties Union

Just in time for banned books week I have an update on the boycott I called for last November of the Customs House Museum. I became offended when Executive Director Ned Couch used his personal judgment that an artist’s exhibit might offend some museum patrons as justification for requiring the artist to remove portions of it, all done in the name of protecting community sensibilities.

These same justifications have been used throughout history to justify the suppression of peoples freedom of speech, press, religion, and association. Our founding fathers found this so reprehensible that they specifically prohibited the government of this country from engaging in those very actives in the very first amendment to our Constitution. The only requirement for censorship is that someone in a position of power disagrees with something someone else was doing, then uses their position and authority to stop them, and that the public acquiesce.

The executive director at the time, Ned Couch, has announced he is stepping down. So today I am ending the boycott called 10 months ago. Don’t get me wrong; I seriously doubt that my boycott is behind his imminent departure, but in the aftermath of his censorship I asked that he leave, and leave he has. You take your victories where you can find them.

The primary result of all this is that you can expect to see greater and more detailed coverage of future Museum events, exhibitions, news, and activities very soon on Clarksville Online! «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues | No Comments

Selected Chaff: Wartime words from columnist Al McIntosh

By Rev. Charles Moreland | September 30, 2007 |

To further appreciate Ken Burns’ The War as the second half of this PBS series unfolds, I recommend the reading of Selected Chaff: the Wartime Columns of Al McIntosh 1941-1945.

McIntosh’s work was a primary and powerful source for Ken Burns’ research into how The War affected the residents and soldiers of Laverne, Minnesota. Quickly reading Selected Chaff will provide profound insight as you view The War, or in the aftermath of the series.

Selected Chaff resurrects the words of a true journalistic legend, a tireless patriot whose chosen weapons were his typewriter, his uncanny ability to transport people with his words, and his unflinching love of community and country. McIntosh’s columns speak to the ebb and flow of one rural county during the most terrible war the world had ever seen.

“In some ways Al McIntosh might be the single greatest archival discovery that we have ever made.

“This man, who had the opportunity to work at other big city newspapers and turned them down — Al McIntosh, a native of North Dakota who found himself in southwestern Minnesota in this tiny town of three thousand folks, writing for the Rock County Star and the Rock County Star Herald on a front page column — just got it.”

– Ken Burns, filmmaker

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Sections: Arts and Leisure, Opinion | No Comments