Season 5: Solo episode -- On banning books (facing people's fears)

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This is a short one, about a subject I have been involved in here locally in my state. I noticed when I was at recent Board of Ed meeting that both sides of the book banning argument were hostile, overly emotional, polarizing. 

I want peaceful conflict transformation. Somehow. I forgot to mention in the episode that our school librarian has received death threats from book banners because she supports the free access to these books.

Some info on current book bans:
https://pen.org/issue/book-bans/

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Original music "Saturday Sway" by Brendan Talian (for all interviews before 2025)

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to The Storied Human. I'm Lynne
Thompson and this is a shortsolo episode. I haven't done one
in quite a while. But I've beenthinking so much about how
polarized our country is. Andit's sort of hitting us here.
When I live in New Jersey, it'shitting me at a local level,
there are people who arefighting to ban books in our

(00:22):
district, and there are peoplewho are fighting the book
banners. And I've attended acouple of Board of Education
meetings.
And I was really frustrated withthe people that on both sides,
actually.
Because if all we do is getangry at the other side, then

(00:45):
show them hostility. We don'treach common ground, like ever.
And there is common ground to bereached. The folks that they
want to ban contain informationthat makes us uncomfortable.
It's, you know, usually,unfortunately, they choose LGBTQ
books. But there's really anissue of you know, how much

(01:08):
sexual material do they want toexpose our children to.
But this isn't middle school orelementary school, it's high
school. So I can see the pointthat these books should be
available, but nobody's reallythat comfortable with them.
It's just a matter of freedom ofexpression,

(01:28):
supporting children who needthis information, things like
that. But that doesn't gettalked about in a nice,
reasonable way. I think peopleare afraid. I think that's
really what we're talking aboutpeople who want to be in the
books are afraid.
And what are they afraid of?
I've thought about this a lot. Ithink they're afraid of things

(01:50):
racing ahead and changing in away that they don't like. And
they want to retain some kind ofcontrol. And if you think about
it,we all can relate to that. I am
a super control freak. I don'tlike when things change too
much. I like to have a handle onthings. And so we're threatening
them when we're hostile andinsisting that they're wrong or

(02:15):
behind the times or trying torestrict freedoms of children. I
mean, that's not what they'retrying to do. They're trying to
protect their children. Andthey're afraid that things are
becoming are moving too quicklyin a way that they don't like.
So if we could just talk aboutthat.

(02:38):
It would really help but wedon't seem to talk about that.
So anyway, I'm sure you canguess what side I'm on.
You know, I'm a writer, I'm anEnglish major, I would never
ever, ever be on the side ofbanning books.
But I am on the side ofunderstanding people's fears.
And I am on the side of knowingwhen you worry about your

(03:01):
children, however misguidedsomeone else might think it is.
Worry is worry. I remember onekind of last minute protest I
went to. I was in a local townand a woman crossed the street
literally across the street totalk to us.
And she was a Christiantherapist. And she was engaging

(03:21):
me in conversation and saying, Idon't think people realize how
this messes with kid's head someof this material. And I talked a
lot with her. And I listened toher. And I brought up as some of
my friends have brought up, thatthe material that children are
exposed to on the internet isabout a billion times worse. And

(03:42):
there's nobody guiding themthrough it. It's not presented
in the best light, some of itspornographic, some of its, you
know, practically illiterate. Imean, there's things they're
exposed to on the internet,that's not healthy, not helping.
And so at least these books withfacts and data and information
that they can't find anywhere,could be helpful. You don't have

(04:05):
to like the book. You know, myfriend and I talked about this.
It's not like we liked thisstuff. We don't want to read
these books. We're not thatinterested in singing, you know,
graphic depictions orexplanations of
anything related to sex. I mean,that's just not what we're
wanting to read right now. Butwe will defend to the death,

(04:27):
your right to publish thesebooks. And we will defend to the
death, your right to make thesebooks available to young people,
because it's an issue of livingin a democracy in a free
country.
I don't know when that got loston people.
If you think about the bookbanners in history, I don't want

(04:51):
to be associated with them.
Nazis banned books. Books arebanned in Russia books are
banned in Arab countries. Booksare rewritten in Arabic
countries, there are curriculumin Arab countries that teach
children how evil Jewish peopleare from the time they're
little. And they teach youngchildren, how evil Americans
are. The whole thing is just sodistasteful that you would ever

(05:14):
want to align yourself with bookbanners. So I think the real
issue honestly,is we need better,
more calm conversations. And weneed to address what's really
upsetting people, which is this,I see it as this fear, that
things are just sort ofcatapulting forward in a way

(05:37):
that they don't like. And therehas to be a way to make both
sides happy. I don't thinkbanning books is the answer.
But I think that we could find away to meet in the middle. I'm
not sure what that is.
I do you know that there weresome really braved kids who came

(05:57):
to some of the meetings, andthey stood up and said, You
know, I was soalone, with with discovering
that I was gay, and to find aplace that talked about it, to
have a book that talked about itnormally and clearly gave me
information, pretty much savedmy life when they were young,
because they felt isolated,nobody, the only information

(06:21):
they saw was probably not verygood or positive. And they
probably got a lot of crap fromtheir peers. So to have those
books, it's important, and wecan fight over how sexual quote
unquote, they should be,forever, but you can't ban them.

(06:44):
And I hope we can find a way totalk to each other because this
is so close to my heart. Youknow, I'm a book person, I'm an
English major, I'm a writer.
It's especially important to me.
And I just hope that somehowwe can reach a place where we
understand each other and maybeeven accommodate each other, you

(07:04):
know, anything but but banning.
I mean, I'm all for whatevermakes it work. If you want those
books to be signed out if youwant a permission slip whatever.
We could, we could talk aboutthat but you can't ban books
because you're not a Nazibasically. Thanks for listening