The news this week of the death of Michigan’s “Eternal General” Frank Kelley prompted me to remember his visit to Wayland High School as guest speaker for the annual Junior-Senior Banquet.
I personally was in attendance at that event in 1966, admittedly impressed that little old Wayland somehow was able to lure such a VIP to break bread among us.
But what I remember most from that evening was something Kelley, attorney general from 1961 to 1999, said in attempt to make a joke that these days would create a political firestorm.
Mr. Kelley told a joke about a mentally impaired person, with the punch line being the man pointing to his head and saying “kidneys.” I have to acknowledge that the attorney general prefaced the joke by saying perhaps it isn’t good manners to make sport of such unfortunate individuals.
Back then we didn’t have a screaming part of society demanding Kelley step down or at least be censured for making such insensitive remarks. Back then we didn’t have “cancel culture.”
This segues into what I view as one of the most cynical and dastardly attempted manipulation by the hatred culture that I’ve seen, and that’s saying a lot. The not-so “fair and balanced” gas bags at Fox News have been trumpeting their outrage at apparent canceling of the beloved Dr. Seuss series of children’s books because they are thought to be racist or insensitive.
They conveniently have ignored or left out the truth about just who is doing this canceling. It is not libtard snowflake liberals, nor the Biden Administration.
As historian Prof. Heather Cox Richardson pointed out, “Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which is a division of book publishers Random House Children’s Books and Penguin Random House, announced that it would stop printing six of Geisel’s lesser-known works… because of their racist imagery. It will continue to publish the rest of Dr. Seuss’s books, as usual.”
The way Fox News and unfortunately too many of my “friends” on Facebook are putting it, the liberals have canceled anyone’s access to Dr. Seuss. It ain’t so, and the only reason why we’re hearing this is somebody out there wants to find another way to hate libtards and pointed-headed intellectual elites.
It was a business decision made by a corporate board of directors.
The way it stands now, we common everyday folks will no longer be able to buy and read six of more than 100 books Dr. Seuss produced in his long career. But I agree with expertise of former Henika Library Director Lynn Mandaville, who said in her column she generally opposes censorship.
It’s a lot like trying to keep young people from, using marijuana. Don’t forget President Richard Nixon 50 years declared a war on drugs and almost at the same time, a war on smut. We lost.
So I’ll quote broadcaster Paul Harvey here: “Get us out of wars we can’t win.”
We conveniently leave out the decision was based on complaints from teachers.
Mr Young
One can “spin” the decision of Dr Seuss enterprises as a voluntary act. Why try to live that “lie”? It’s not like those books were published just last month. They have been around for years, now some images are just to ” sensitive ” for some to handle.
This is just plain censorship, hidden under the acceptable new term “cancel culture “. Sorry, but eradicating history, literature, the atrocities of war, etc. It’s just telling lies, making believe it didn’t happen and preventing any future generations from understanding why it happened.
If you truly believe censorship is unacceptable. Does it really matter what excuse a publisher, author, or enterprise uses to stop future editions?
Mr Young one cannot “set on the fence” in regards to censorship. One either approves, or opposes…censorship has no ” middle ground “.
Selective censorship is not and never should be acceptable in a truly free Country. Sir, this is a “war we must win” otherwise ” grab your ankles and kiss your freedom of speech goodbye “
You and I agree on the issue of censorship. I wrote the column to call out those who blame the canceling on libtards and government, which did not make the decision.
Mr. Young, you are so coy!
It starts out by shaming, then legal action, then government getting Iinvolved where it doesn’t belong.
The only reason the books were pulled by Dr Seuss Enterprises was the possibility of legal action, which should be laughed out of court, but in today’s litigious society and cancel culture we know how that would end. They were pulled for economic reasons.
Eddie Murphy has just yesterday said he was coming back to stand-up comedy. Does he have a clue on how comics are despised on college campuses and not invited to fill arenas and auditoriums anymore. The minority of those offended are controlling the majority wanting to be entertained by the likes of Mr. Murphy.
There is no adult comedy anymore, just the fluff on TV.
Except… these books are not censored.
All of these complaints are based upon a fully flawed premise. None of these complaints here or anywhere have a lick of any merit BECAUSE THE BOOKS ARE NOT CENSORED. Good grief.
Mr Gless
There are so many ways to achieve censorship. Putting pressure on Dr Seuss enterprises to have them stop publishing those books is censorship. Sadly so many like yourself fail to see where this is headed.
I predict someday in the future you will see the error in your thinking, but it will be to late.
Mr. Gless,
It’s my humble opinion that Dr. Seuss Enterprises, in its endeavor to insure that the Seuss catalog of books be family and community friendly, employed a form of censorship when it decided to discontinue printing the six titles recently cited for discontinuation.
Had Enterprises cited failing sales of these titles I would be less likely to suspect censorship. It is not uncommon for publishers to cease printing titles that no longer provide sufficient revenue to warrant their printing.
But Enterprises said that the decision to cease printing these titles was based on their not fitting in with their concept of what is family and community friendly, a vague reason with no specifics cited as to what made the titles unfriendly.
Since at least one of these titles doesn’t enter the public domain until 2033, cessation of publication without specific reasons creates doubt in the minds of some (well, me) that these titles are being censored by way of a smokescreen of political correctness.
So, I might concede that this is not censorship in the sense of book banning or book burning, it is a form of censorship that I find unfortunate, at the very least.
Ms. Mandaville, the Seuss estate was entrusted with the managing of Geisel’s legacy by Geisel himself. There are a bazillion copies of this minuscule fraction of Geisel’s oeuvre that will still remain in circulation indefinitely. Anyone can still access these books. And while Mr. Smit attempted to scold me for my assessment of these books’ value, they are not by any means high art or literature. Seuss books are ubiquitous commercial products. They are a small step above Happy Meals. Discontinuing these prints is like the discontinuation of Chief Wahoo and Aunt Jemima or the twinkie or the Ford Bronco. Nobody called it censorship when those businesses made the business decision that it was not in their best business interests to continue to produce these products. The further right people get, the more they insist that the market will self-correct without government intervention, yet now that that scenario is playing out exactly like it is intended, the right is having a meltdown that the Seuss books with racist imagery that they can still find easily will only have publication dates from the eighty years before 2021. I simply fail to see the problem or grasp the outrage here.
Jakey,
Of course you don’t see the problem or the outrage, you don’t believe in the First Amendment.
You are a liberal Marxist. Good Day!