Letter to the Editor: Back to school we go

Once again our little urchins are enclosed in the halls of learning. It is now time, again, to make doubly sure that they do not learn of anything that is actually happening in the world or with whom it is happening. You know, for example, the Russians are killing thousands of Ukrainians, the Israelis are killing thousands of Palestinians, the Myanmar army is killing thousands of Rohingyans.

As you can see, all is well on the planet. And oh! don’t forget the coastal cities of the world will soon be under water and it’s going to be really hot. We don’t want to worry their little brains with all these issues; no dejected kids here — not necessary. As long as we have them educated enough to read a how-to-manual and operate a computer we’re good. And let’s not forget the continuing effort of book banning. Possibly we could have a book burning for homecoming Now that would be interesting. The students can pick out the ones they want to burn. I say give every kid three choices from the school library. Hopefully there are that many left to burn by the time the legislature is finished with its efforts.

Now you might say I’m overreacting. Well, there are plenty of precedents for this sort of thing. The libraries of Babylon and Alexandria were burnt to the ground. The Nazis burnt all the books written by Jews. One religion or another has been banning and burning books since books have existed. Our federal government banned books from being sent through the U.S. Postal Service. Nothing new here: a long and enduring celebration of destroying the word. Many of us probably didn’t realize just how dangerous words are; very dangerous indeed especially in the minds of those in charge.

As we know all too well, especially by proponents of banning and burning, words create ideas and ideas create trouble; you can’t control ideas unless you control books. Very simple really and there are always those who want to limit the ideas floating around in the heads of our little urchins especially. And since ideas cause trouble; no new ideas please. Only those ideas that meet with the approval of those who seem to be in charge will be tolerated; and if we can’t keep them out of books stores and off the internet, we can at least keep them out of the school and local library. No good can come from our children actually understanding the history of our country or giving some thought to why the Russians are killing Ukrainians, Israelis killing Palestinans, or the Myanmar army killing Rohingyans. These things simply do not help them get jobs.

So once again, we must renew our efforts of limiting what our little urchins are exposed to. We are making progress but it is not now the time to relax our efforts.

Richard E. H. Phelps II

Mingo