In response to the American Library Association’s commemoration of Banned Books Week, Focus on the Family is encouraging antigay and antiabortion activists to overwhelm public libraries with stacks of donated conservative books.
Focus complains that the ALA’s campaign in defense of free speech and access to ideas “showcases books to which parents have objected ‚Äî and which libraries have generally not pulled from shelves.”
“Every year, the ALA and other liberal groups use this trumped-up event to intimidate and basically silence concerned parents,” said Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action.
Cushman defends “silenced” parents’ efforts to ban such “liberal” books as:
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
But those efforts have stalled, so Focus tries to buy time:
Cushman said it’s time for families to turn the tables and challenge the ALA to honor its own principles.
“You can do this most effectively by simply going to your local public library, or a school library,” she said, “and donating books that communicate your family’s perspective on those issues.”
While Focus continues its low-key campaign to ban American literature, meantime our nation’s libraries can look forward to receiving hordes of freshly bound, barely read copies of classic works by the greats: Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, Randall Terry, and John Paulk.
