Cuba is also a regime that bans anything that contradicts its repressive ideology. Which, it turns out, is also the practice in South Florida. I figure they caught the censorship bug through geographic proximity, like catching crabs.
See that book up there? According to the news, it's a travelogue written for little kids about Cuba's climate and culture. But the kids won't get to read about Cuba's culture because the schools of Miami-Dade have to throw away their copies (burning is optional) because it's bad. And it's bad because it's good.
In his opinion, Judge Ed Carnes of the 11th Circuit suggests that it's the lack of disturbing content that makes this such a dangerous book.
"There is a difference between not including graphic detail about adult subjects on the one hand and falsely representing that everything is hunky dory on the other," Judge Ed Carnes wrote.
"There is a difference between not including graphic detail about adult subjects on the one hand and falsely representing that everything is hunky dory on the other," Judge Ed Carnes wrote.
Did you get that? It almost sounds like he wants "graphic detail about adult subjects." Instead, the book presents a sunny picture of happy Cuban children. Too happy for the judge. If you write about Cuba, you have to show sad people in abject misery. It's now the law in South Florida.
In case you were wondering, Judge Ed is one of the fine jurists appointed to the federal bench by the first Bush cartel.
The little book has been snatched from school libraries because one parent complained. His name's Juan Amador and he has an understandable grudge against Castro. He was a political prisoner. That would kick the joie out of anyone's vivre.
In his written complaint, Mr. Amador said that the book did not give a complete picture of Castro's Cuba. He said he "was outraged that the book made no mention of ... political indoctrination of school children..."
Yes, I edited, but did not change, Mr. Amador's complaint for maximum irony.
The Supreme Court may look at this case because of that whole whacky Constitutional thingy. What they decide is, sadly, anyone's guess.
3 comments:
I can only imagine what europe would do with a patriotic book about the states, or Cuba, or ... Yah know what? If I were the school superintendent, I'd tell that judge to kiss my ass!
Thank God that there are still people with the -- yeah, I'll say it -- guts to keep the gates of our kingdom. What will they have our kids reading about next? Premarital pregnancy? Helping slaves escape? A book like this might make our kids think other folks are somehow like us.
One look and I knew this book was no good. Did anybody else notice the Von Trapp goldbricker on the right who has somehow disguised himself among the other children to avoid a stint in the Austrian navy?
The smiles are the big give-away.
When Ayn Rand testified before HUAC she said the movie Song of Russia was propaganda because people in it were smiling. Asked if communists ever smiled, she said, "Not intentionally."
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