Banned Books Week

It was a privilege to read these selections from John Steinbeck's novel, the Grapes of Wrath. Here is the video:

Some additional thoughts:

Washburn University is a school of around 3,000 located in Topeka, Kansas. It has a respected law school, and I went there with the intention of becoming a lawyer. That, as any memoir I write will demonstrate, did not occur as I graduated considerably later at the University of New Mexico with the much less lucrative, but perhaps more fun, degree in theater.

On Tuesday, November 2, 1971, I was packed into a 1200-seat arena at Washburn University with around 1500 others to listen to William Kunstler, who had been the defense attorney for the Chicago Seven, members of the Black Panthers, and other radical groups. At the time he was perhaps the most well-known attorney in the United States and was extremely controversial. Over a lifetime, he served on the board of the ACLU, was one of the founders for the Center for Constitutional rights, and defended a range of people including Lenny Bruce, Jack Ruby, Martin Luther King, and Angela Davis.

The excitement was crackling. I was just 19, very naïve, and all I really remember from walking out of that session was how much I resonated with the idea of freedom of speech and the importance of being able to protest in our society. Growing up in Kansas, I had received my draft number – 301 I think – just over a year before. At 301 I would not be drafted but others in our class, with lower numbers, were called to serve their country during the Vietnam War.

Later, I majored in theater and developed an appreciation for one role the arts have always played in society, which is to challenge existing perspectives, to protest or illuminate, if you will, the status quo. Still later, as President of the Albuquerque Arts Alliance and then as a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission I continued to hone a deep belief that freedom of expression is essential for a free society.

I believe that our civil liberties are at the core of what it means to be a citizen of the United States and that protecting them is one of our highest callings.

I believe that threatening the right to take a knee at a football game is more un-American and un-patriotic than taking the knee itself. Disagree. Skip the game. Burn your sneakers. Protest the protester. Protest the protesters of protesters. But respect that right to protest. Embrace it. Never try to intimidate freedom of speech. Our country started with protest.

That’s what I believe.

I believe that college campuses should be cauldrons of competing ideas where all sorts of views are presented, kicked around, discarded, accepted, modified, melted together, discounted, but always allowed and encouraged. Left, right, up, down, any “ist” or “ism”. Staid, crusade, prayed, decayed, or charade. Disruptive, instructive, inductive, productive. Bring it. In as civilized and as a useful way as possible, and non-threatening or intimidating. But bring it.

Discourse…of course…no view enforced.

Whether it takes a Grapes of Wrath to show the plight of the dirt poor refugees, migrants, who were actually citizens in our own country; The Jungle to expose immigrant labor conditions in slaughter houses; or Silent Spring to alert people to the threat to our environment, our nation and world depend on courageous writers to write the books unpopular. The books denounced. The books outrageous and irreverent and nonconforming.

The books that challenge, test, push, lift, and mortify.

Those.

Books.

Along with all the books serving other useful and beautiful purposes.

Banned Books Week is one of the most important events of the year. The American Library Association does every citizen a tremendous service in sponsoring it. I was proud to support their effort this year. The University of Idaho (U of I) , our own fabulous library, and the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences made me proud to be a part of the university community, and it was through the magic of the Doceo Center that I was able to give my reading in Boise to a live audience up on the main U of I campus in Moscow. Kudos and thanks to all!

Notes

Sources for the Washburn section include a Lawrence Daily World-Journal article (11-3-71), p. 6, and Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kunstler , downloaded 1-8-15).

Check out Banned Books Week: https://bannedbooksweek.org/

Those who follow Profound Living have read about my love of books in My Intimate Relationships With Books Series :

• https://www.profoundliving.live/my-intimate-relationships-with-books-i
  
• https://www.profoundliving.live/my-intimate-relationship-with-books-ii
  
• https://www.profoundliving.live/my-intimate-relationshipwithbooks-iii
  
• https://www.profoundliving.live/My-intimate-realtionship-with-books-IV
  
• https://www.profoundliving.live/post-title1
  
• https://www.profoundliving.live/my-intimate-relationship-with-books-vi
  

This love continues unabated after a lifetime of dog-eared pages and unreadable marginalia.

To receive all our Profound Living posts, please subscribe (it won’t cost you anything but time to read): https://www.profoundliving.live/

Please consider following the Profound Living Facebook page

And... please share this essay with others who might find it beneficial.

Finally, for something more wide-ranging, check out The Profound Bartender.