Attempts to ban books are attack on constitutional rights

OK, enough is enough! I’m tired of ideologues trying to tell me what I can read, say or think. They’re trying to make their morals and standards everybody’s morals and standards. That isn’t the way America works. Our Constitution gives us freedom of speech and that means we can say, read or write whatever we please. Whether anybody else wants to hear or read what’s been said or written is a personal choice and that is OK, too.

These modern day book burners are nothing but sanctimonious hypocrites that are afraid of anything that is different from their narrow views and opinions. They wrap themselves in a cloak made up of cherrypicked holy book stories and political opinions that ignore facts and any new information. That’s what the Taliban does and they are no different in that respect.

Believe it or not you are not the decider of what can or cannot be read or said. The individual is and the sooner you accept that truth, the better for all concerned. The idea of libraries being limited to one set of truths is contrary to all this nation stands for. Libraries are meant to expand intellectual horizons - not limit them.

Read Banned Books Week is September 18-24 this year. I think it should be all year – every year. Any attempt to ban books, or any other form of speech, should be fought as an attempt to take away our constitutional rights.

GIL BEYER

Sandpoint