Check out books, don't ban them

Good news. The new La Conner Swinomish Library is on the move, literally, as volunteer book brigades shuttle its precious cargo from the old library site to the new building at 520 Morris Street. A new library, what a wonderful idea realized. Take part in making it happen this week. Call to volunteer.

With the library closed and the Weekly News concerned about its – and the public's – access to Town of La Conner documents, this editorial against censorship and for celebrating access to all reading material comes after September's national week against banned books. But it is never too late to praise the freedom to think for one's self – for that is what universal access to words is – the opportunity to reach toward tomorrow.

More pedestrianly, libraries allow time alone to relax, to wonder, to wander among words and concepts, whether old or new, and to have unbridled freedom to pull the book of your choice from the shelf. In this modern age it also means full access to websites.

This year's theme was "Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us" for Banned Books Week. The top 10 books banned at school and public libraries overwhelmingly explore the alphabet soup theme of being gay, queer and gender transcending. Books with these themes open a new world to kids, whether they find themselves not fitting into the majority society or whether they are wondering about classmates and friends who are not like them.

Too much divides our larger society and our individual communities.

Minds, like books, only work when they are open. But fear – and that is at the core of saying no, of shaming and shunning what people do not comprehend, much less understand – turns into commands and rules of shall not. Specific communities choose to hold onto an imagined yesterday against the necessity – obligation and responsibility, both – of reaching into the unknown and uncertain tomorrow. The future is where everyone, but especially our children, will live.

Books will unite us. Any and everything will divide us if a few are allowed to impose their private “no” on the community. In the privacy of their home parents can raise their children as they choose, restricting books and delaying exploration in a world that is larger than any one of us can know. That is what freedom to choose any book on any shelf is, an invitation to a tomorrow more complex and interesting than we can explain to children or adults.

Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us. Every day, every week of the year, be aware of the need to stand for the freedom to read what we choose. That freedom is the bedrock of this country, this republic whose founders insisted on adding ten amendments to the Constitution. They started with your freedom to speak and to read. That is what the First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law." And if Congress cannot, no parent, teacher, preacher or school or library board can restrict the right to read.

And in this day and age we keep our rights by standing up for them.