Before I get into this, my fantastic weekend news is…
Enchanted Conversation accepted my ‘Hansel and Gretel’ story for their upcoming issue with the same theme. I loved writing the story – it was one of those that came together exactly like I pictured it in my head. It’s one of the few times I do dark, so when it’s up I’ll post a link and y’all can check it out.

****

Start entry

Did you know that over 50 years after it’s original pressing, Catcher in the Rye still sells ~250,000 copies a year? The Howard Stern Show was the #1 rated morning radio show in New York from 1994-2001, and he’s the highest paid radio figure in the United States.

Before I go any further, I have to go on record and say that I don’t approve of censorship at all, especially banning books. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. If you don’t want your children reading it, pay closer attention to what your children read. Don’t try and make that decision for the rest of us.

Now that that’s out of the way. I don’t read my newsfeed on weekends. It’s mostly because 1 – I’m addicted to online gaming and 2 – it gives me something to do when I wake up early Monday mornings and need to put myself in a working frame of mind for the week. This morning when I checked out my list of blogs over the weekend, this is what I found on more than 50% of them. 50%

Speak listen
I’m so serious there’s no quote today
Speak (a voice)
Speak loudly
I believe this with all my heart

The list goes on. In fact, if you Google ‘speak banned’ you get pages of blogs about this incident. Once again let me say that I agree 110% with each and every one of these bloggers I’ve linked to above. Because of that, I won’t repeat what they’ve said (or I’ll try not to). They’ve all said it in such a way that I would do it no justice to try and reiterate.

Now, outside of the fact that I agree with all of them, and you, about this issue, I have an opinion about the whole situation that goes off in a a kind of different direction. Speaking out (no pun intended) against this book may be the worst thing any of its opponents could have done. Exaggerated by the fact that social media makes it possible for anything to go viral (yes, one of my favorite topics), in this day and age taking such a firm stance is a great way to ensure that more and more people know about this book, read this book, buy this book, support this author, etc.

Speak is over 10 years old. Raise your hand if you had heard of it before last week. Keep your hand up if you had read it before last week.

Keep blogging about these things. Keep drawing public attention to banned books and the incredibly ill-thought through reasons why. This is an issue that – like the books its about – should never be silenced. And keep in mind that for every well-written blog post, FB status, Tweet, or anything else verbal or digital that draws attention to the original work, you use the censors words against them. You make their efforts less than useless; you help their own words to hurt their own cause.