North Woods’ black eye over book ban seems deserved

Last week’s curiously detailed letter concerning the implementation of the North Woods book ban submitted by Pastor Bangs of the Cook Baptist Church caught my eye.  Perhaps that’s because I actually read the Oct.16 Star Tribune article that he takes issue with.
That story was not misleading in any way.  The article mentions the book “Gender Queer” and its graphic portions before moving on to the 80 other books swept up in the book ban.  The list of books involved did include “Charlotte’s Web,” “Kite Runner,” and the “John Deere Cookbook.” The article did not misuse the term “book ban.”  The Encyclopedia Britannica and other texts define a book ban as “the practice of prohibiting or restricting the reading of certain books by the general public or by members of a local community.”  Yup, restricting access to over 80 books is a book ban. 
Many of the books have still not been reviewed for access to students and, according to my communication with the reporter, the school district would not tell her if any had been restored.  Nobody takes issue with questioning the propriety of age limitations for graphic material, but you deal with that issue with a scalpel, not a chainsaw.  The problem with book bans is that one offended person does not just take that reading opportunity from his child alone, but all school age kids, regardless of age, based on his individual beliefs. 
I once read a book banned from my school library due to the objections of a religious group.  It was called The Grapes of Wrath, one of the greatest works of literature written by Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck.   The objection was based on the messages in the book, and a passage where a nursing mother fed a starving man from her breast which was deemed immoral.  I am fortunate to have ignored the ban. I think of that book often and recently reread it after many years.  What people don’t seem to appreciate is that the vast majority of taxpayers have no children in the schools but gladly fund a well-rounded public education. They draw the line, however, when that effectively becomes anti-education.   If the Star Tribune article gave the community a black eye, and those involved in this effort discomfort, perhaps folks should engage in introspection rather than defensive justification.
Kelly Dahl
Cook