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If the editorial below is any example, Banned Book Week is successful at gaining the attention of the media. Hopefully readers will become a bit more thoughtful in their actions next time they come across a book they find disagreeable.

"Ban this column?

Charles Winkler
Eureka Times Standard

Think you live in an open society where free thought, speech and writing is absolutely protected by the First Amendment?

Well, you do, technically. But some people just haven’t gotten the message.

That message -- the vital importance of intellectual freedom -- is a main force behind the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, coming up Sept. 24 through Oct. 1.

In its annual event, the ALA spotlights books that have been banned or challenged. A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the actual removal of those materials.

As you’ll see from the list below, there’s no particular type of book that’s challenged. And, according to the ALA, challenges are often made “with the best intentions -- to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information.�

Still, a banned book is a banned book: It violates a core foundation of our free society. Many books are indeed too heavy or explicit for some children, or children under a certain age, to handle.

But the best way to handle that is certainly up to the parents or guardians of those children, whether that be through guided reading, suggested alternatives or honest, age-appropriate discussion of the issues involved."

Times-Standard (Eureka, California)