It’s that time of year again; the week when we celebrate fascism and religious-extremism by gathering our literature and setting it ablaze in glorious bonfires held in library parking lots all across our great nation. The week of September 26 through October 2 is recognized throughout the United States as “Banned Books Week,” the week when the fevered masses will watch in a state of patriotic-euphoria as the works of such societal-cancers as Vonnegut, Walker, Salinger, Twain and Orwell are found guilty of the devil’s sorcery by the court of public opinion, and reduced to ash as punishment for their witchcraft.
Now, obviously this is not how the days between September 26 and October 2 are being spent (at least I sincerely hope not). While this really is “Banned Books Week,” the intention is to celebrate the freedom that we, as Americans, have to read whatever we choose, and free of censorship by the self-appointed deciders of what is or isn’t appropriate for us. And we all know they’re there – these “self-appointed deciders.” The ones who say that because they don’t want to read something, we shouldn’t be allowed to either. Or worse, the ones who say that because they feel something isn’t appropriate for their child, we should be stripped of the right to make that decision for our children. Apparently these deciders feel that the First Amendment is also inappropriate reading material.
I recently received a “Letter to the Editor” from 2020 Prohibition Party Vice Presidential Nominee Billy Joe Parker, of Waleska, Georgia. While I will not print Parker’s entire manifesto, I will share some highlights.
“Men and women worshipping evils such as alcohol, immoral sex, marijuana, sex change, homosexuality, and having no love for neighbors and children in their towns, counties, states and the nation come into our political parties and on into the governments,” Parker wrote, in the opening of his letter. “There they scheme with others of their satanic ilk in the news media, Hollywood, music profession, and the universities to gather people from every state to legalize their evils causing many people to die including children. They control presidents and make them desert the children and destroy them with alcohol, marijuana, homosexual AIDS, and suicides. The towns and cities willingly kill the children with the legalized evils. They addict the women and the women loving the vices more than their children and addict their children.”
I can only assume that Parker wrote me this letter shortly after reading “The Catcher in the Rye,” or even “The Color Purple,” because I can’t recall any point in American history when a president was controlled by “the homosexual AIDS.” But then again, I am part of the news media, and you know how we’re always scheming over our satanic ilk to addict the women.
But speaking of the women, Parker doesn’t seem to care for them very much, either.
“They (the women) lead millions of Adults and children into hell by ignoring the Bible’s warning against the human sacrifice of children for money and to serve the political parties that just want to rule but not to defend and save the people.”
After receiving his letter, I did take a minute to read Parker’s bio on the Prohibition Party’s website. Apparently he never married. Go figure.
Here’s another one for you. This one comes from an article which appeared on LGBTQ Nation last Friday…
There is an activist group known as “Moms for Liberty” demanding that public schools in Tennessee ban certain books which they (self-appointed deciders) have deemed offensive. So what are these books that the Moms for Liberty have declared will corrupt our nation’s young people with the bright colors and the rock and roll?
According to the article, they are “Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish In The Sea (because it) dares to show two seahorses holding tails or touching bellies as it describes the animal’s unusual mating ritual.”
Man, those seahorses with their belly touching…that’s a gateway to Godlessness if ever there was one. Then there’s the pied piper of sin himself, Johnny Appleseed…
The Moms for Liberty don’t like his book either because “the story is sad and dark.”
All together, there were 31 books that the group believes will send our kids on a downward spiral to the house of the rising sun. But my personal favorite is a work of historical fiction set during the Civil War. The Moms for Liberty say your children can’t read this book because it depicts “out of marriage families between white men and black women.”
I like that Billy Joe Parker wrote such a misogynistic, homophobic, hate-filled letter, and I like it even more that he sent it to the newspaper. Knowing that he has the right to do that is the only way I can guarantee that I can go sit in a library and read about Walden Pond. Maybe the Moms for Liberty, and all the other Nazis should catch the hint that nobody is making them read anything. If they aren’t happy with the curriculum in their child’s classroom, one totally radical thing they could try would be sitting down and talking it through with the teacher.
But, what do I know? I guess it’s true what they say: all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. Especially seahorses.
Anyway, happy Banned Books Week everybody. Go read something.
