Show union The Herald Journal Logan Utah Sunday July 20 30 Distributed by King Futures Syndicate Americans ought to oppose censors9 anti-boo- k efforts Waldenbooks' recent announcement of its "banned books" sale exposes a disturbing conflict: The rights of people who believe certain literature is unfit for public consumption versus the First Amendment rights of free speech and a free press including the right of all Americans to choose their own reading material We are not talking here about pornography but about a list of 52 books which have been challenged banned or hidden away in the storerooms of public libraries in various school and library districts throughout the country The list includes both children's classics and novels aimed at adult audiences Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” and “Of Mice and Men” Anne Frank's “The Diary of Anne Frank” Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and several Stephen King horror novels are representative of the iteips which censors have driven from certain bookshelves In recent months The Book Table has advertised its offerings of “banned books” — a list including the Bible American Heritage Dictionary Tarzan and Alice's Adventurers in Wonderland — and the management’s opposition to censorship Many of the banned titles may also be found at other bookstores retail outlets and Cache Valley libraries What the booksellers are saying — and we agree — is that the issue of a select group of telling other adults and other people's children what they can't read must not be taken lightly At its worst it brings to mind public book burnings by a frenzied mob At its least it reveals a chilling numan capacity to deny others access to entertainment or ideas of which we don’t approve The most common arguments against many of the children’s classics are that they contain passages which are racist sexist or Some parents and educators feel they can protect their children from these attitudes which we as a society are trying to put behind us both in our hearts and in our laws Banning books however is not the answer The authors of children's classics reflected the attitudes and social mores of their respective eras The knowledge and emotional impact of these excellent books will be with our children long after the “offending” passages have been forgotten We can’t rewrite history (although some are attempting to do just that by showing their children films which “prove” the Holocaust never occurred) Nor can we expect our children to appreciate the laws of the past two decades which give equal rights to people of all races colors and creeds if we deny them an understanding of the bigotry and discrimination which prompted those laws In other instances certain books popular with young people have been banned in some areas of the country because of graphic language immoral tone or the feeling 1986 ed anti-semit- ic neo-Naz- is that they undermine authority Again we cannot protect our children from these ideas when almost every home in America has a television set We can however credit our young people with the ability to distinguish fact from fiction and the ability to make intelligent choices after exposure to things some people consider “improper” As for banning novels written for and specifically marketed to an adult audience baloney! People who don't want these books in their homes can monitor what they and their children read Special arrangements could be made with teachers for students whose parents object to certain school reading assign- ments In our view it isn’t necessary to punish a whole school district or an entire library patronage to fulfill the wishes of a narrow-minde- d few Letters to the Editor And each will read the good book and come away with their own point of view Until of Thanks To the editor: I want to thank everyone who helped with the Hyrum July 3 pit barbecue from the serving to the cleanup This was an immense un- dertaking and I have never worked with a more dedicated people who gave 120 percent of their time and energy A community could not survive without people such as you Again thank you Nelma Gates Hyrum Religion To the editor: — It makes me smile in wonder seems you are worried that there is more truth to Mormonism than you all care to admit Otherwise you all wouldn’t be so eager to distribute your God’s Word book — to put them down I don’t remember seeing anywhere in the Bible where it says contradict any church that doesn’t agree with you and put them down Since Joseph Smith they have survived persecution and they thrive and are doing well so I say let’s concentrate more on the real concept of “worshipping God” as we see fit and not get caught up in who's right and who’s wrong Or else we forget why we’re here in the first place People will always talk down LDS people so is that Christian? I ask you why are you so concerned? You can tell your believers anything you want High court erred in Georgia decision James i Kilpatrick WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court batted two for three in the sex cases that came down toward the end of term The court was right in the matter of student vulgarity ana right in the matter of a public nuisance masquerading as a bookstore but the court struck out in its law ruling on Georgia's The student case arose in Spanaway Wash when young Matthew Fraser undertook to make a mock nominating speech to a student assembly His speech was refreshingly short but undeniably bawdy Fellow students laughed but to borrow a phrase from Bertie Wooster ice began to form on the slopes of the principal’s forehead Fraser was suspended for two days for using “vulgar and offensive” language He sued for damages So trivial a case never should have gone to trial at all but both a US District Court and the 9th Circuit solemnly decreed that Fraser's constitutional rights of free speech had been violated The Supreme Court reversed on the sensible gounds that children in a public school have no constitutional right to be smart alecks with impunity School administrators cannot have their disciplinary authority held hostage to frivolous First Amendment claims In Kenmore NY a suburb of Buffalo police concluded that an adult bookstore was serving as a front for prostitution and other illicit sexual activities They closed it as a public nuisance The New York Court of Appeals found it unconstitutional for local authorities to close a bookstore but Chief Justice Warren Burger speaking for a 3 majori-anti-sodo- 6-- A Conservative View ty held flatly that “First Amendment values may not be invoked by merely linking the words ’sex’ and ’books’’’ The high court made clean hits in my view in those two cases It erred in affirming the Georgia statute “The issue presented" said Justice Byron White for a majority “is whether the federal Constitution confers a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy” Obviously no such right is spelled out in the Constitution but the forgotten Ninth Amendment speaks eloquently to the point: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people" The 14th Amendment says that no state may deprive any person of “liberty" without due process of law The Georgia statute is not addressed to homosexuals only The law similar to laws in more than 20 states applies to consenting heterosexuals also It makes oral contact between husband and wife a crime White avoided these provisions of the Georgia law in his concentration on the alleged “fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy” He found no precedent for the claim that “any kind of private sexual conduct between consenting adults” is constitutionally protected by some right of privacy 5-- 4 With that opinion the high court beat a retreat from a line of cases that had expanded precisely that right — a right to be let alone More than 20 years ago in Griswold v Connecticut the court struck down a Connecticut statute that provided up to a year in prison for any person “who uses any drug medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception” Justice William 0 Douglas speaking for the court asked a rhetorical question: “Would we allow the police to search the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms for telltale signs of the use of contraceptives? The very Idea is repulsive to the notions of privacy surrounding the marriage relationship” A right of privacy Douglas added is “older than the Bill of Rights older than our political parties older than our school system" In a concurring opinion Justice Arthur Goldberg placed particular emphasis on tiie “forgotten Ninth” He spoke of a right to privacy in marriage which is “fundamental” To say that so basic a right may be infringed because it is not constitutionally guaranteed in so many words “is to ignore the Ninth Amendment and to give it no effect whatsoever” To be sure there is a significant difference between a homosexual relationship and the marital relationship The state traditionally has banned the one and encouraged the other Even so as distasteful as the matter may be homosexuals ought to have the same right to privacy in Georgia that the court long ago guaranteed to heterosexuals in New Haven C 1986 Universal Press Syndicate Tax bill won’t help middle class much course some one says “yes or no” on what they thought they The old political bromide has it that the young and the read You see it your way they see squeamish shouldn’t be allowed it their way That's why there to see how either laws or Syndicated columnist are so many different faiths but sausages are made Even those with strong stomachs may be you never mentioned another retching in the corner before faith only Mormons the tax bill becomes law Strange isn’t it I bet you It would automatically get its middle classes are going to Though heralded as an historto don't dare read this letter money by the easier expedient have to pay a significant chunk ic tax the reform nation’s by And why your congregation of grabbing wage earners off of their incomes for this reform and editorials the politicians I not? got my own idea on this truth is that few have read the streets turning them upside the weight of this knowledge one either the House or Senate down and shaking them until hasn’t yet sunk in People are still distracted by versions They’re praising what the coins fell out of their Nola Gittens the brassy repetitions that the pockets been told is in the they’ve bill Smithfield We are not a happy rich who formerly paid no tax not what they know is there will henceforth have to pay a we people increasingly Things keep turning up resent all taxes no matter how “minimal” one especially in the Senate version How many people if given a that they didn’t tell us about the levied or how the money is would pay 5500 to ensure used choice someand we therefore the with day they thing passed To the editor: van Monneybags Richonold times that about the tales invpnt but three dissenting votes and Vander who collect Sandra them people On jewel will be Sen Bob that day As a whole you put out a nice of the commonly held made to pay taxes for the first FiMany Packwood Senate’s the newspaper but quite often in nance Committee chairman beliefs about the IRS aren’t time in their lives? Most people your Focus section only one side could be seen on television true but there are enough would probably forego the of the question is sometimes verified horror stories about pleasure aired I would like to present dislocating his shoulder to pat IRS Also oozing out has been news on the back while his himself arbitrary actions to put this the other side and even the the normal re- of 200 billion dollars in tax agency beyond chief did collaborators the opposite side of the spectrum on same view and oversight process of forgiveness gimmicks to big abortion On Congress the floor corporations to ease their of the Senate I was so grateful that I didn’t into the new age of One transition unfair of vengeful debating the bill they even know the meaning of that instead or simply mistaken reform stood around in of arbitrary front nauseating dastardly word unThis is said to be necessary audit can do as much damage to til my late teens Now our telling each other what a because as its many companies based family statesmen and wage visionaries principal they children are bombarded with long-terearner with down their were coming capital something to do with this issue Not a word about a nasty little cancer and exhausting his med- purchasing decisions in part on almost daily ical insurance the unreformed previously Ancient history (and the cities provision that would make the After the echoes from the rotten tax laws The changeover Internal Revenue a Service unearthed etc) should tell us which trumpets announcing “the can cost them untold amounts something Rome of course is in would raise its agency greatest tax reform in 50 years” getby budget Italy but Carthage was in other to disturbing pieces of inting keep the fines and North Africa formation began to ooze out interest from penalities people Because of this terrible who We learned that despite the cheated or just made practice and the visual aids mistakes on their income cut in the tax rates people The Detroit News tax thereof (many thousands of The Meese Commission ReUnder this arrangement the earning between 520000 and little urns containing tiny fetus and 540000 millions on Pornography that's atIRS would no port upon have to longer bones were found) Rome was millions of us will to be draw a link come causal before tempts paying Congress every literally able to cover the city year to explain and justify itself between 5300 and 5500 more a between some types of pornoin order to win next year's year graphy and violent sexual See LETTERS on page 31 appropriation While the fact is that the crime It has been condemned Nicholas Von Hoffman tax-payi- Abortion an m self-financi- Other Views of money Many families too have based their decision to buy a car or other big ticket consumer items on their being able to deduct interest payments from their income tax Shouldn’t there have at least been a Senate debate over whether or not they ought to get a little transition help too? However the bill an enormous 1400-pag-e document is couched in language that most senators would find as unreadable as the rest of us Instead of insisting it be cast in language making it accessible to those who are going to vote on it or be affected by it the oc untry has been asked to support it as a reform and don’t be negative and fuss about the details This grand attitude reflects the Senate which is as it has been through the a history of the institution big-pictu- re place dominated by very wealthy men The income group from which most senators come will do rather well by this tax reform and if 25 million office workers won’t well it’s hard for people who don’t balance their own checkbooks to keep themselves focused on that C 1986 King Features Syndicate i as simpleminded and misleading scholarship whose conclusions were determined in advance A fair reading of the report by many See VIEWS on page 31 |