Recent Controversy Reminds Writer Of Another

By: Susan Miller

The misguided censorship ploy of four extremists on the Hamilton East Public Library board that has been so prevalent in local and national news lately isn’t the first time that censorship has reared its ugly head in Noblesville.

In 2002, an equally misguided Noblesville School Board voted to ban the book, “Follow the River” by another Indiana author, James Alexander Thom.

Thom’s book had been on the required 10th grade reading list at Noblesville High School until a parent complained about one scene in Chapter 27. Wiser parents, who understood the literary value of that historical fiction book, lobbied the board to reinstate it on the reading list. Their pleas were ignored.

How is it that a tiny minority of small-minded, fearful parents are allowed to take away the freedom of other parents to decide what their children can read? If any parent does not want their child to read a specific book, that’s their rightful decision. That parent could have worked with the school to get the child exempted from reading and class discussion of that particular book. Problem solved. No one else’s freedoms are infringed upon.

But is that what happened? Oh hell no. The school board in 2002 couldn’t do anything as simple and as reasonable as that. All Noblesville 10th grade kids were forbidden to read that book and discuss it in class, all so that one kid wouldn’t be subjected to it. Government overreach and overreaction? Yes.

That board’s misguided decision got some press coverage, too. When the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union read about it, the organization hosted a marathon reading of the book at Noble Coffee and Tea in protest of the school board’s action.

Proud card-carrying member of the ACLU that I am, I took part in that well-attended read-a-thon and later wrote a poem about it titled, “The Banned Book.”

The poem was published in the 2018 edition of The Polk Street Review, which was founded, coincidentally, by the newest member of the HEPL board, Bill Kenley. I am sharing the poem here.

The Banned Book

In the coffee house on the town square, we took turns reading aloud from the book banned by the school board, censored for the erotic fantasy that swept through one character’s mind, as if such ideas would never occur to those high school readers, they with their riotous hormones.

One of those students joined us on that day. He settled into the leather chair, opened the book and read words forbidden to him, while his parents looked on.

One by one, others read:

A mother

a lawyer

a plumber

a neighbor

a business owner

a cook,

and people passing by,

lending their many voices so that intellectual freedom could live in America for one more day.

Censorship is never a good choice for any community. It speaks of small minded authoritarians and their attempts to limit the intellectual freedom of its residents. That includes the intellectual freedom of its children. Parents are the best arbiters of what their children should or should not read and when they should read it.

My mother gave me books with content now being censored at HEPL when I was a young teen. She told me to read the books and then we would talk about them. I did and we did. I learned things I needed to know and she answered all my questions. Nobody tried to tell her or me that I couldn’t read those books, and that’s as it should be. She knew when I needed to have that information and she made sure I got it. In America, land of the free, that’s every parent’s right.

I know of no instance in history where the censors were the good guys. I subscribe to President John F. Kennedy’s view on the subject, published in the Oct. 29, 1960 issue of the Saturday Review:

“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.” JFK

-Susan Hoskins Miller is a long-time Hamilton County journalist and author. She has worked for two decades in a university library and is co-founder of Brick Street Poetry Inc. She volunteers for the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library and other literary organizations.