Banned Books Week - Speak Loudly!

This week is Banned Books Week - an annual event celebrating banned books and our First amendment right to free speech.  As described by The American Library Association:

"Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week.  BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them."

It's hard to imagine in this day and age of over-the-top TV and internet content that someone could consider banning a book - yet it still happens.  Case in point - SPEAK is a young adult novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson in 1999.  The story is a New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller.  It is a gripping story set in high school that deals with rape. I read the book in one setting - I couldn't put it down. It brought tears to my eyes and remains one of the most powerful stories I've ever read.

Last week, Wesley Scroggins, an associate professor of management at Missouri State University, wrote an opinion piece in the News-Leader of Springfield MO in which he characterized SPEAK as filthy and immoral and called it "soft pornography".  Laurie blogged about his post here.

The reaction was immediate.

An out-crying of support not only for SPEAK but for our right to express ourselves, for the strength to speak up. Paul Hankins, an English teach in Indiana, started a dedicated Twitter feed #speakloudly that became one of the most talked about twitter feeds of that weekend.

Laurie announced this morning that her publisher, Penguin, has taken out a full page ad in the New York Times today with testimonials from readers who found the courage to speak up after reading Halse Anderson's book.

Ultimately it comes down to each one of us standing up for our rights.  To speak loudly about things that matter.  To insist on the right to free speech and to be free of censorship.  If you haven't read SPEAK, I highly recommend that you do. And then speak up. Speak Loudly.