Banned and Challenged Books in Texas Public Schools
Word Ghetto Poems by Loretta Diane Walker
The City of Stone
The Land of Milk, Honey, and Stone Mo H Saidi
They have forgotten that their ancestors came here from Africa; that they were one tribe, siblings, and walked barefoot in the desert, raising sheep and collecting olives; and that they crossed the desolate Sinai and settled around cool oases; and they were wanderers who found refuge in the caves of Jerusalem. Some hunted goats and erected tents; some built abodes and dwelled in towns. They became nomads, shepherds, hunters, and city dwellers. They worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars, and many idols. They invented monotheism and the alphabet, coined words, wrote verses, and read them aloud. They conceived myths, produced prophets, built temples, and worshipped the gods. What characterizes the Israelis and Palestinians most is their attachment to the land. This deep-rooted affinity has also become a contentious source of division and hostility over what both sides consider to be holy land. Ownership of the land has become the main source of their conflict, and the cause of wars, in the land that has become sacred for both parties. On the surface one detects a remarkable confidence and a glowing hope for peace, prosperity, and survival among Israelis, as was evident listening to Eli, our guide, who fought the in 1973 war in Jerusalem. He dismissed Israel’s critics and said, "Look, we have survived the Holocaust." Touring the land and riding in the tourist bus on Highway 6, he draws our attention to the wall that divides the Palestinian territories from Israel. "Since we have built this wall, we have had no suicide bombers in this area," he says with touch of complacency. At the David Ben-Gurion Memorial, he reminds us, "When Ben-Gurion accepted the United Nations resolution authorizing both a Jewish and an Arab State, the Arabs should have taken advantage of the opportunity and done the same." According to United Nations statistics and the British archives, the total population of Palestine prior to 1942 was around 1.6 million, of which 30% were Jewish and 60% Arabs; the remaining 10% were Christian and Druze. Because of the significant exodus of Jews to Palestine from Europe and Russia during and shortly after the First and Second World Wars, coupled with the dramatic immigration of local Arabs to other Arab countries, the population distribution among various factions shifted radically. The population of Israel and Palestine in 1950, shortly after Israel’s declaration of independence, was 2.3 million, of which 1,203,000 were Jews (51%) and 1,172,100 (49%) were Arabs. In 2005, the numbers were much higher but with the same proportions: 5,275,700 (51%) Jews and 5,139,100 (49%) non-Jews, with a total population of 10,414,800. Talking to a Palestinian-Israeli resident of East Jerusalem in his popular restaurant near the New Gate of the Old City, I encountered no resentment toward the Israeli people or even the Israeli government. "I’m doing very well financially," he said. "I hope all Palestinian people will prosper and eventually live in their own country in peace with Israel." He was critical of Hamas and jihadists, but supportive of the Palestinian Authority’s position during the negotiations. "Look, I have a son in the University of Cairo, and one in Tel Aviv," he said. "My daughter is a senior at the best high school in town, and I have a house, a car, and this restaurant." A Palestinian taxi driver was even more pragmatic about the future. "I believe President Obama is fair," he said. "You need to put some pressure against politicians to enter into a fair agreement; otherwise no peace treaty will be signed." Then he added, "I’m sure we will sign the final peace treaty soon." In Jordan, Morad, our Palestinian-Jordanian guide, echoed the same sentiment: "Look, I was born here in Jordan and am a citizen of this country. I’m not interested to leave my home, job, family, and friends and go and live in Israel." His parents came from a village near Nazareth. "They left in 1948, among a few hundred thousand Palestinians who fled their homes because of war between ten Arab countries and Israel, but they are now settled and happy here," he explained. "But it’s only fair that they get compensated for the home and land they left behind." Although the archeological and written ancient documents support continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem and in the Middle East for the last millennia, they also indicate the movement and migration of other groups of people that eventually formed the local Arab population and Christian settlements. Unfortunately, the presence of the major religious monuments in Jerusalem only highlights the past and present deep-rooted divisions in the Middle East, a portent for continuous upheaval in the land of milk, honey, and stone.
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Word Ghetto: Poems by Loretta Diane Walker
Word Ghetto Poems by Loretta Diane Walker Reviewed by Mary Kay Rummel
In this accomplished book, Loretta Diane Walker, poet, musician, and teacher, draws us into her word music and convinces us to inhabit her deepest concerns—children, race in America, pain and forgiveness, the changing body, the open soul—to revel in language and life with her, to wonder and to grieve. Walker finds beauty so thoroughly entrenched in the quotidian, we are glad to enter her world, even though it is not untarnished. Her fierce poems temper hope with honesty, conviction with clarity of vision. Startlingly fresh without posturing or distraction, they pull us from whatever routine threatens to dull our senses. From the tenderness of the teacher to her young students, through memories of her childhood, and her involvement in the lived experiences of others, she holds a mirror to the revelations of a grounded life.
"Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to ‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.’" Board of Education , Island Trees Union free School Dist. No. 26 v. Pico
Since the first words were chiseled into stone, some people have sought to control the flow of ideas that others might hear or see. While the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas recognizes the legitimate interest in the selection of books and other materials by schools for their educational value, we are concerned that the passion for purity has led many school districts in Texas to remove from the classroom and even, in some cases, the library, books that are deemed to be classics. My Friend Flicka, A Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Time to Kill, The Fountainhead, The Crucible, Of Mice and Men, Frankenstein, 1984, Bridge to Terabithia, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry were all challenged during the last 18 months in Texas schools. Many of them were banned. The reader may recognize many of the authors on the challenged list: Judy Blume, Mildred D. Taylor, Ray Bradbury, J.D. Salinger, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Some of these books (A Catcher in the Rye, for example) have always been at the locus of the censorship controversy, but many of these names and titles are shocking, especially the Newbery Award winners in the group. Among the most controversial books are Bridge to Terabithia, The Chocolate War, and We All Fall Down. Moreover, there are four authors who stand out as those most commonly challenged: Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, Christopher Pike, and R.L. Stine. What characterizes all of these novels and writers is that they cater to a younger audience while at the same time tackling mature subject matter. Many of these titles have been deemed inappropriate for younger students but remain in curricula and libraries in high schools. The following eight books are selected from the lists the books that have been compiled by Texas school districts:
1. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by Mark Twain: The word "nigger," which appears many times in the novel, was the cause for the removal of this classic from an eighth-grade reading list. In the 1950s, the NAACP objected to the book’s perceived racist tone. In 1984, the book was removed from a public high school reading list in Waukegan, Illinois, because a black alderman found the book’s language offensive.
2. American Heritage Dictionary (1969): In 1978, an Eldon, Missouri, library banned the dictionary because it contained 39 "objectionable" words. And, in 1987, the Anchorage School Board banned the dictionary for similar reasons, i.e., having slang definitions for words such as "bed," "knocker," and "balls."
3. Andersonville (1955) by MacKinlay Kantor: Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1956, this story of a Confederate prison camp during the Civil War, was viciously attacked throughout the U.S. It was banned in Amarillo, TX.
4. As I Lay Dying (1932) by William Faulkner: In 1986, the Graves County, Kentucky, school board banned this book about a poor white family in the midst of crisis from its high school English reading list because of 7 passages which made reference to God or abortion and used curse words such as "bastard," "goddam," and "son of a bitch." None of the board members had actually read the book.
5. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller: This book was banned and/or challenged more than once. It was banned in Srongsville, Ohio, in 1972 and that decision was overturned in 1976. It was also challenged in Dallas, Texas (1974), and again in Snoqualmie, Washington (1979).
6. Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck: Several months after the book’s publication, a St. Louis, MO, library ordered three copies to be burned for the vulgar words used by its characters. It was also banned in Kansas City and in Oklahoma.
7. Literature in Society: In an improbable complaint about this textbook, two eminent African-American authors were the main targets of censorship. An excerpt from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man was deemed offensive for its use of the word "nigger," and the sexual slang in Nikki Giovanni’s poetry was found unacceptable. School officials also found intolerable a reference to homosexuality elsewhere in the book and seized the ever-so-dangerous texts (that include Wordsworth and other immoralists) while 12th-grade students were reading them.
8. Lolita (1955) by Vladimir Nabokov: Although it was published in Paris, it was soon (1956) to be banned there for being obscene. An Argentinian court banned the book in 1959 and again in 1962, ruling that the book "reflected moral disintegration and reviled humanity." In 1960 the New Zealand Supreme Court also banned the book. It was later freely published in France, England, and the U.S.
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