Hello Alamo, and happy Banned Books Week!
The annual week-long tradition started in 1982 after a surge of book challenges in libraries, schools, and bookstores, according to the official website.
Typically these challenges are brought forth by parents or “concerned” community members. In 2025, the most common reasons for these challenges were LGBTQ+ representation, obscenity for minors, and themes of social justice, or as I like to call it, reality.
The American Library Association has been working tirelessly to preserve the right to intellectual freedom, and I commend them for it. Restricting access to books deprives of developing the skills needed to discern things like tone, satire, foreshadowing, and issues of informal logic.
I think most of us can see how media literacy is practically non-existent these days. Literacy in general has fallen quite a bit too. All of it is intentional.
If people can’t access factual information and education, or even the resources to start questioning narratives, of course they’re going to believe whatever anyone else tells them. Citizens who just fall in line behind what those in power want are a huge advantage. Refusing to outsource your own thinking is incredibly powerful, especially in the age of AI everything (separate-ish enough of a topic for me to avoid a rant).
Targeting the next generation with rewritten history, propaganda, and education focused on testing and flimsy curricula on one hand and trying to stop them from engaging with the world they live in on the other should be considered, at most generous, child endangerment.
Our public library has an amazing Youth Services section, wonderful librarians, and a board refreshingly committed to keeping this institution open to the marketplace of ideas.
I think it would be fantastic if we all chose a banned book this week, checked it out, and made intentional time to exercise the ever-important muscles we call our brains.
Salud.
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