Won't Someone Please Think About the Children?

Harry Potter is evil! He and his fellow students at Hogwarts are seeking to turn innocent children to study witchcraft and to join the Wiccan religion. At least that's what Laura Mallory of Gwinnett County in Georgia is contending. According to her, the books are subversive and pro-Wiccan which is bad and she is therefore asking the county and the school board to remove this books from the library system. Now I have read all of the Harry Potter books and I must say that not a single one of them has promoted the Wiccan religion. In fact religion is not even a part of the books. You see, if you wish to be a wizard or a witch in the Harry Potter world, you will be born with that ability. If we had those abilities, we'd already be attending school there. In this case, we aren't. We're muggles (it's a Harry Potter thing).

The arguement against this banning these books comes from the County Council which was that if the county moves to ban Harry Potter books on the basis that they contain references to witchcraft, then books such as "Cinderella" and classics such as "MacBeth" need to be banned as well. I for one think that this whole thing is rather ridiculous. Growing up, I used to read a little bit when I found something interesting. The problem was, I didn't often make an effort to find something interesting. I didn't read a novel until I happened upon a novelization of "The Empire Strikes Back." Now granted this was the novelization of a movie, but it was a 200 page novel nonetheless. I read through it in a matter of days. It sparked an interest in reading and I began picking up more and more novels. These days, I don't go anywhere without a book in my hand. Reading a series related to "Star Wars" sparked my greater interest in reading and I am thankful for George Lucas' universe for at least doing that much for me.

For years parents have complained that kids don't like to read. Finally, along comes a bunch of books (many of them larger than your typical Tom Clancy or Stephen King novel) and kids are reading again. Kids are lining up to get the book on the day it first hits stores. Kids are clamoring to read more and more and are looking for other books to read on similar storylines. Could this lead to interest in witchcraft? Possibly; though I am doubtful that it would do anything of the sort since it never mentions Wicca or anything like that. Can it happen though? Well, in the latest census over in England, enough numbers of people responded that their religion is Jedi that it is now a recognized stated religion over there.

I am a "Star Wars" fan too, but I still consider myself a Hindu. I have read "Star Wars" books for years; I have been impressionable and still am to an extent, yet I didn't consider ever declaring my religion as anything but Hindu. Similarly I never voted for Donald Duck during student council elections. The reason was that I had a good foundation in understanding what I was reading which was helped along by my parents and teachers. By banning books with non-mainstream topics, you tend to alienate the one thing that could spark an interest in kids. All of the Harry Potter books I have read have good adventures and teach the values of friendship and family. They are getting more and more adult as the character grows up; but that's not to say that they are inappropriate for kids.

If they choose to ban the books down in Georgia they will have a lot more to ban. Ban Shakespeare because "MacBeth" has witches, "Julius Caesar" contains murder, and "Romeo and Juliet" promotes suicide if your parents don't like you dating someone. Ban "Tom Sawyer" because it promotes child labor. Ban "Moby Dick" because it promotes the hunting of whales. Ah heck with it; just close down the entire library, that will take care of everything. Or if you don't want to, just keep it open but instead of keeping books there, allow students and kids to checkout blinders that keep them looking straight ahead so that they will miss out on the whole wide world and keep them sheltered from all the bad things out there. That's the better solution isn't it?