Reading = Life

*This post was originally on my high school blog site from this morning.*

I have no idea what to write about so I'm going to talk about the issue of banning books since it's Banned Books Week. I'm sure everyone remembers when Harry Potter was (and in some places still is) considered evil. People decided that it should be banned from libraries. Books like Why the Caged Bird Sings, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Jungle and Speak are all being banned. Is that right? After all, the FIRST AMENDMENT gives anyone and everyone living in the United States the freedom of speech. Authors' works cannot and should not be banned because a group of literary challenged parents decided to get together and ban books that they haven't read or that they just don't understand.
To get rid of a book because it shows the injustice of slavery, or the cope-ing ability of a rape victim, or what life was like in factories before the health code, is just wrong. These books have opened eyes. They've given people a way to look back and say, "Hey, the world really has changed." If a parent does not want their child to read these life changing books, then they should monitor their own child's reading material, if they don't then they should just keep their mouths closed.
These books let the world move forward in a better light. Why can a group of, as I said before, literary challenged parents keep students from LEARNING???
The world becomes a horrible place when written words are swatted down as easily as flies.