Sarah Palin, Book Burner?

In the years 221 to 213 B.C., the emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, built two walls; the Great Wall of China and a wall against enlightenment. After erecting his barrier against the Mongolian tribes, the emperor ordered that all the books of the philosophers be burned. We can never know what wisdom and knowledge, what ancient histories and commentaries went up in the smoke of that Oriental holocaust.

It has always been a practice by tyrants and dictators to burn books. The Nazis burned the books of Bertolt Brecht, Sigmund Freud, Heinrich Heine, Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, H.G. Wells, and every kind of thinker and philosopher, in a ceremony in Berlin. Book-burning was carried out in China long after the time of Emperor Qin. Under Mao, there were numerous book-burnings.

According to a 2004 UN report, the current Chinese government seized and publicly destroyed hundreds of thousands of Falun Dafa books and materials as part of its anti-Falun Gong campaign. Arab countries have witnessed the widespread burning of “Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie

Down through the ages, books have posed a threat to the smug insularity of people whose well-being is sustained by the status quo. Books have never been a match for incendiary people with a burning hatred of new ideas and unfamiliar philosophies.

Now, 22 centuries after Qin Shi Huang, the book burners are still hard at work trying to ban books from school and public libraries. This is particularly ominous to someone like me whose life has been deeply immersed in the world of books. It comes as an ill-omen for me to learn that the Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, while mayor of that Alaskan metropolis, Wasilla, looked into the possibility of banning books from the local library.

According to The New York Times and Time Magazine, shortly after she became mayor, Sarah Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books on the ground that the books contained improper material. The librarian was aghast and pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship.” Mayor Palin fired the librarian shortly thereafter but changed course after residents made a strong show of support.

It is characteristic of those opposing books that they have not read them. Indeed, such persons usually have not read much of anything. The average book-burner is perplexed by the profundity of People magazine and mystified by the erudition of Reader’s Digest. He is a stranger in the world of ideas, and new ideas generate fear and anger in his heart. But he wins many battles.

There have been conflicts all over the country with people who want to ban or burn some of our most cherished classic literature such as Bernard Malamud’s “The Fixer,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five,” Richard Wright’s “Black Boy,” Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie,” John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies,” Shirley Jackson’s award-winning short-story classic, “The Lottery,” and “The Diary of Ann Frank.”

In recent years there have been many efforts to ban books from school and public libraries. The Miami-Dade School District banned a book entitled: “A Visit to Cuba,” by Alta Schrier. There have been several incidents of Harry Potter books being burned. In 2005, the Muhlenburg Pa. school board voted to ban "The Buffalo Tree," a novel set in a juvenile detention center and narrated by a tough, 12-year-old boy incarcerated there.

One high school principal who confiscated copies of “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, claimed that local ministers had complained of its “vulgar language.” The principal admitted he had never read the play. Yes, there is some vulgar language in this, the greatest American play. But when I read about incidents like this I feel like uttering a lot of vulgar language.

So it is with some concern that I learn that the Republican candidate for Vice President is one of those who would consider banning books. The greatest threat to our freedom comes not from outside, but from right-wing zealots and religious fanatics who wish to ban our most treasured literature, and from left-wing ideologues who would outlaw books that are not politically correct.