The Dictionary Has Been Banned!

 

“One school district in Florida is looking to extend the state's book ban to an unexpected genre: dictionaries, reports CBS News. “According to a list obtained and published by the nonprofit PEN America, the Escambia County school district has included five dictionaries, eight encyclopedias and "The Guinness Book of World Records," in its list of more than 1,600 books that could soon be banned.”  

Is there no end to what right-wing book-ban nuts will go to, in their attempts to weed out any idea, sentence, or word that they disagree with?   

I am surprised they didn’t seek to remove the Bible, with its depictions of savage violence, incest, rape, and sexual references. I guess even crazy has its limits.  

I wish I could tell you something that would make sense of things, but I can’t, because I don’t understand it myself. When you have an issue with the dictionary, you have gone off the deep end. The dictionary reflects language, history, and facts. How does one propose to ban or censor such a book? 

Wouldn’t everyone’s time and energy be better spent elsewhere? Can’t we just respect freedom of speech — and trust that our librarians know what is appropriate and needed in our schools? Why is an intellectual purge taking place?   

Before they ban any books, they should spend more time with the dictionary and look up entries for “tolerance” and “free speech”, as well as “fascist” and “dictator.”   

Oh wait, some Florida kids can’t use their library or consult a dictionary. Gee, I wonder if they will turn to the Internet for information and answers? Yeah, nothing can go wrong there, right?

   

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.6 million pageviews. With 4,800+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.