Banned Books

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Recommended: 2nd amendment of the united states of america

Book Banning The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances (Buchanan).” With the banning and the challenging of books all over the U.S. I believe that our first amendment is being jeopardized. We should be allowed to read whatever we want to read it is our right according to the first amendment in the U.S. Constitution with freedom of speech. Every year in the United States we have books being banned and challenged by many people who do not like the contents of books. When researching for this argument essay I found an article written by Rebecca Hagelin. Rebecca Hagelin is the author of Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That’s Gone Stark Raving Mad and the vice president of communications and marketing at the Heritage Foundation (Lankford). In Rebecca’s article there are many things that I do not agree with. The first argument that I have to disagree with is when Rebecca stated that the American Library Association recommends books for young readers, but these recommendations reflect their liberal values and the books recommended by the ALA contain cures words and graphic sexual information (Hagelin). I got in contact with the ALA and I asked them, “Do your librarians or any of your higher branches read any of the books on any of your book lists?” I got a response back from a lady named Angela Maycock who is the assistant director for the Office for Intellectual Freedom. Angela responded saying, “I assume when you ask about ALA’s boo... ... middle of paper ... ...rtant for people to read it helps exercise the mind and allow it grow and learn new material. Book banning in the United States and anywhere else in the world I feel should be abolished. Books are published and written for a reason. The reason is to expand the mind to new things. Sure some books are better than others but there is no reason to challenge or ban books. Works Cited American Library Association. N.p., 4 Mar. 2009. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. Brian, Buchanan J. "About the First Amendment." First Amendment Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. "Book Banning Protects Family Values." Book Banning. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. "Reading." The Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence. Ed. Jerome Kagan and Susan B. Gall. Online Edition. Detroit: Gale, 2007.

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