"Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them. They need us to be brave enough to give them great books so they can learn how to grow up into the men and women we want them to be."--Laurie Halse Anderson, in a comment about censorship, included in the Platinum Edition (2006) of her novel Speak.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The Father of Ignorance
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Great quotation. One cannot learn to combat bad thinking, bad ideas, bad behavior if it's hidden from you during the ideal time one's life to learn to do so. One has the right to bury one's own head in the sand, however, one does not and can never by right bury the head of another. What seems an act of protection is, in fact, an act of injury to those one wishes to keep from harm. You become the thing you wish to censor - a destructive force.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly!
ReplyDeleteI have the Platinum edition of Speak, it's lovely. But Speak could be written on tissue paper and still be absolutely wonderful. It's one of the proud few pieces of literature that truly moved me.
Thanks for writting this
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