I saw a very disturbing piece of news last night in my Google newsfeed. Apparently, The West Ada School District banned graphic novels from its high school libraries. At graduation, a senior named Annabelle Jenkins brought a copy of "The Handmaid's Tale" to the ceremony. She presented it to the school district superintendent, but he crossed his arms and refused to take the book. So, Annabelle laid it at his feet.
According to another online article I recently read, "The Handmaid's Tale" is on a short list of best depictions of dystopian society. It seemed very ironic to me that Idaho is falling under a similar spell in which its citizens feel that graphic novels are anathema and must be removed from circulation. All across our nation, local school boards are censoring and banning novels by the likes of Margaret Atwood, Sarah Maas, Jaycee Dugard, and Sarah Gruen.
Did we forget why America even came into existence? Did we not take the history classes that discussed the religious persecution across Europe during the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries? Does anybody know who the Huguenots were? They weren't invented by minds like Paul Monk. I have French Huguenot ancestors who were given no freedom to practice their faith in France. They were hunted down and murdered if they weren't able to flee the country first. Across the English Channel, Queen Mary of England tortured and killed Protestants. Her younger sister went after Catholics. Ships heading for the New Land were filled with people who dreamed of religious freedom.
It seems as though our nation is going the way of long-ago Europe. We are pushing our religious views on one another and threatening Constitutional rights created by Huguenot descendants like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. This country was meant to be a melting pot of freedom for anyone who reached our shores from places where they had been punished for being themselves and wanting to live their lives in peace.
Good for Annabelle! Good for everyone who speaks out against the bans. I hate to say it but there's always a peculiar outcome to limiting our rights. It makes us want those rights more than if they had never been touched. Over the centuries, we began to take our freedoms for granted. They were there but no one pointed the finger at them. Not until now. So, it's no surprise young people are feeling the threat and beginning to stand up to the self-righteous authoritarians.
If you don't like graphic novels, don't read them. Don't allow your own minor children to read them. But don't trammel the rights of anyone else to do so. There are countries you yourselves could move to if you don't like democracy.
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