Arletta

Controversy is not striven for, but yet it persists in pouring out of my fingertips!

So, for the record: I do not like arguing, I do not like judging, I do not think anyone has the right to tell others how to live except as is needed to keep the majority safe.

And by safe I mean, like, telling people to keep their hands off others who are liable to be physically and mentally damaged by sex due to age, not as in “ooh you hurt my spiritual progress with your radio show.”

I can’t stand Howard Stern. He is unpleasant. I don’t have the right to sue him, though, unless he does something/says something damaging to me, no matter what he says on the air. I have the right to choose not to listen, and I exercise that right as thoroughly as possible! I did one time seriously want to sue someone else, or bop them in the head, though, because I was trapped in the back seat of their car with no way out and they insisted on listening to him very loudly. That was painful and rude!
I gave them gas money for the ride and they chose to come early. So, since I was paying for the ride, and since it’s their fault they had already picked me up when he was still on the air for the morning show, they should have turned it off. Not him, since he was paid to do it, but them since they were paid to take a non-listener someplace; not to torture them!

And that is what it comes down to. You don’t like the book Catcher In The Rye? If you are the teacher, then by all means remove it from the list of books you require students to read. If you are a parent, assert your right to demand a different book be read by your child if it’s against your religious beliefs or political beliefs or whatever. If you are a student, do the same as I just said for the parents. And by all means, speak to the students, teachers, parents, and explain your position and if the majority of them feel the same way then by all means remove it from that classroom or leave it as an option for the minority who don’t feel that way but get an alternative for the majority. That’s cool.

But, don’t assume the majority have the right to say what the minority can read! The library should stock classic books and reference books and current favorites. If the classic book or a current Best Seller is not a majority favorite it will disappear on it’s own, off the library shelves. It falls into disuse, it is sold to the sort of person who likes it.

So many libraries now grind up their old books. Horrible! Book grindings, book burnings, book bannings … it’s really hard to find anything to read now that truly requires brain power.

I’d tell you that we are turning into Prols, but I don’t want that book to be burned as well! And Big Brother is watching… oh yes he is!

Hmmm … now, that wasn’t controversial, was it?