It’s banned books week. Read Of Mice and Men. Or In the Night Kitchen. Or (for Pete’s sake) Captain Underpants. These are three of the ten most challenged books in the United States.

I am increasingly confused, bemused and appalled by this country of mine and the people in it who seem to hold the majority view. These people like to ban books. They like to tell other people what to believe. They like to go to other countries and tell them what to believe. Over two thirds of the U.S. population believe that creationism ought to be taught alongside evolution in public school science classrooms. Over a third would prefer that evolution not be taught at all. These are not some wacko fringe. This is not even a slim majority. This is a huge proportion of the citizenry. Huge. This is why Bush is president. This is why the right to choose is even in question. This is why homosexual marriage is such an issue. This is why public schools are collapsing. This is why we are in Iraq. It’s appalling to me, and yet. And yet.

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. John Stuart Mill

If they were calling for something I agreed with (say, that we take George Bush and ten of his closest political cronies into the middle of the Sahara and leave them there with only Captain Underpants, some warm water and the collected works of Karl Marx) I’d be doing a happy dance. At last, I would cry, the country has come to its collective senses. But wouldn’t this be just the same thing? Wouldn’t then some uber-conservative blogger be crying out in horror that we are oppressing his right to be a complete oppressive jerk? How is this better?

I hate this. I hate being so fairminded and hooshy gooshy liberal and believing (as I do) that each person is equally entitled to her own opinion, even if I find that opinion abhorrent. I cannot see a safe way to draw a line about opinions. I cannot see a safe way to censor. I would like to. I would really really like to take all those people who voted for Bush, who think that Katrina was divine retribution for allowing abortions to remain legal, who think that eye makeup should invariably be frosted light blue, who think that I am wrong and put them in a large, reasonably well-groomed housing complex somewhere. That would be nice.

Although I fear someone has already done this, and that I got stuck here by mistake. There doesn’t seem to be much joy in swimming against this roaring tide of stupidity and conservatism. Time to move to Sweden, maybe.

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