(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The cost of banning books? A lack of empathy. – Daily Montanan [1] ['More From Author', 'October', 'Russell Rowland'] Date: 2023-10-10 Vincent Van Gogh once said, ‘There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.’ Anne Frank, who was born the same year as Barbara Walters, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Betty White, managed to make a mark on the world by writing as eloquently as anyone ever has about her love of humanity. Her writing would have been considered outstanding for someone three times her age, but the fact that she was able to express the horrors of her time, the humor and the challenges of her family’s confinement, the awakening of her sexuality, and most impressively, deep insights into her own thoughts and behavior — all between the ages of 12 and 15, is astonishing. Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a rucksack and a little cash with them, and even then, they are robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school and find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping and find their homes sealed, their families gone. Everyone is scared. Every night hundreds of planes fly over Holland to sow their bombs on German soil. No one can keep out of the conflict, the entire world is at war, and even though the Allies are doing better, there is no end in sight. The idea that the writings of a young girl who was the victim of the worst atrocity in human history should not be shared with others is not only absurd, it’s an insult to our intelligence. Children do not want to be protected from the truth, and they never have. Any parent who thinks that hiding the basic truths of human existence from their children is a noble cause has never learned to face those difficult truths themselves. I am reminded of a man who just recently turned 99 years old. He was perhaps not a great president, but he was one of the best men to ever become president. Jimmy Carter once said in an interview with Playboy magazine that he had held lust in his heart for women other than is wife Rosalyn. A perfectly human admission of something everyone experiences. But he was ostracized by people who claimed that this statement showed he wasn’t the Christian man he claimed to be. Anne Frank expressed those same human desires, and now people are using that as an excuse to make her writings disappear. So if we deny readers of the world a few paragraphs where a young girl shares honestly about her budding sexuality, we also deny the world passages like this: “‘Deep down, the young are lonelier than the old.’ I read this in a book somewhere and it’s stuck in my mind. As far as I can tell, it’s true. “So if you’re wondering whether it’s harder for the adults here than for the children, the answer is no, it’s certainly not. Older people have an opinion about everything and are sure of themselves and their actions. It’s twice as hard for us young people to hold onto our opinions at a time when ideals are being shattered and destroyed, when the worst side of nature predominates, when everyone has come to doubt truth, justice, and God. “It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I still cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. “It’s utterly impossible to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel the everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold onto my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I’ll be able to realize them.” If we deny our basic humanity, if we deny our lust, our guilt, our anger, our shame, if we try to convince people that we never make mistakes, or never experience jealousy or hurt or disappointment or depression, we become narcissistic children who blame everyone else for our problems. We become victims of the world rather than people who are willing to grow from the pain and disappointments of life. We’ve seen this happen. We’ve seen where this can go if we deny that we all share every human failing. And most importantly, if we deny these basic human failings in ourselves, we become completely intolerant of anyone who dares to show their own humanity. We completely lose our empathy. That is the price of censorship. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/10/10/the-cost-of-banning-books-a-lack-of-empathy/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/