Censorship

The upcoming week is Banned Book Week. I first learned about it recently while listening to the Stuff You Should Know podcast. Certainly I could write my thoughts about the sad state of people trying to keep knowledge, history and literature from everyone. It often is one or a few that ruin it for the rest of the community.

However, I wanted to share some autobiographical stories related to censorship. The first is about a family favorite movie. I grew up loving Field of Dreams. I certainly enjoy the sentimental family and baseball story lines and will be filled with emotion when Ray asks his father for 'a catch' at the end of the film. That said, the part that makes me smile is where Annie defends Terence Mann's books against Beulah's rantings. "Step aside, you Nazi cow!"

One of the topics discussed on the podcast mentioned above was the many instances of books and authors being banned at one time or several. An author in this list was adored by one of the podcast hosts and myself. On one day of fourth grade, there was a substitute teacher in Ms. Frandsen class. After lunch, when math session should have started, he read a frightening story from one of Alvin Schwartz's book. My interest was piqued. I checked out all of his books containing a collection of scary stories. They kept me up at night as a read and as I was afraid of what lurked in the shadows and creaks in the house.

Since my sisters and I were not the type of children to be liked enough to have friends, we spent time with each other. We watched movies and television together. We took roles in make-believe in neighborhood and house settings with each other. We did sports together outside including having the younger of my two sisters run around the house as we time her laps. And from a young age, we would put on plays that we would create. I had shared with them the story Clinkity-Clink from one of Mr. Schwartz's books. We put on a rousing display of acting with a grave digger stealing coins off a dead woman's eyes.

The three of us are currently looking for a venue to put on the 15th anniversary reunion show. Contact me if your Halloween party is interested.

Go read a damn book.

New Year's Politution

This year is set to be an exciting year in American politics. The republicans continue indifferently toward Mitt Romney though he seems to be the fitting GOP candidate unlike Newt Gingrich, who the party seems to consider for his not being a Washington insider and his morals...wait...am I confused? Just remember that the independents, the increasingly larger group of voters, is who you need to persuade, not the 'rank and file' as the term goes.

The leader of the country, President Obama, and the democrats continue to struggle to turn the country from recession and a great political divide. Maybe this is because the president continues to ignore his party and try and work with the party that ignores him.

Locally, the Utah Congress continues to pass legislation behind closed doors amid lobbyist and contract-winning scandal and intrigue. It also wants to continue as Utah's parents in spite of the words from each new U.S. congress candidate's words to quash the expansive and invasive characteristics of government (they must mean 'big' gov't, not the statutory kind). My vote is for Richard Burwash!

But there are two topics that we should and will dwell on from now until the presidential election: is Mitt Romney's Mormonism a cult? and is President Obama a U.S. citizen?

Happy New Year!