Stop trying to expose my child to reality!

About two or three entries ago, I talked about Banned Books Week and the American Library Association. Since that time, I've been made aware of another story that is related:

STORY

I feel for this Texas school district. They've tried to make the course for everyone. If someone doesn't want their child to read "Fahrenheit 451," they get to leave the classroom while it's being discussed. Those students are also reading an alternate book which addresses similar issues.

For those of you playing the home game, those addressed issues are book-burning, censorship, and trying to curtail what society reads. The horrible but simultaneously delicious irony of trying to ban this book apparently goes unnoticed by the aggreived parties.

I can't be the only one who feels that the parents' argument is basically that it goes against their religious beliefs, so they don't want it to be taught to anyone. His daughter is 15. Perhaps she should try to obtain a copy of the unauthorized version released by the publisher in 1967, which censored words such as "damn" and "hell". If she reads this version, perhaps her parents would be satisfied. Referring to their children, the parents say, "we went [sic] them to go after God. ... We encourage them that what you put in your mind and heart is what comes out." I'm sure they would totally approve of this book that's all about questioning oppressive authority, as long as no one smokes a cigarette in it.

I conclude this entry with another quote from the father. I cannot comment on this quote; I have tried four times and failed.

"If they can't find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn't have a book at all."

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