Commentary: WNMU’s Miller Library has celebrated Constitution Day and Banned Books for many years. Banned Books Week started in 1982 and is observed every year in the U.S. to showcase books that have been challenged for either content, language, sexual situations, or even challenged because of negativity, such as The Diary of Anne Frank which was considered "a real downer" in Alabama 1983.
The importance of Banned Books Week is to remind everyone how fragile freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom to read are and how important it is to actively defend those rights.
At 6pm Thursday September 21st at WNMU’s Miller Library, the Grant County Democratic Party and WNMU’s MEChA, Young Democrats, and our host Miller Library will celebrate Constitution Day with an informative forum on the constitution, freedom of the press, and of course the reading of banned books. Guest speakers include David Baake (JD), candidate for US Representative; Dr. Allison Evans, Professor of Political Science, who will address freedom of the press; and Library Program Manager Cindy Renee Provencio (MA), who will present on the blacklisted film Salt of the Earth.
According to Frances Vasquez, Chairman of the Grant County Democratic Party, the program will feature readings from a dozen books that have been censored in the Tucson Unified School District and other places in the U.S. Vasquez says, “The suppression of ideas and creativity can be a danger to democracy. But is there ever a time when a government has the right to tell its citizens what they can and cannot read? Come join us at the Forum and decide for yourself. And don’t worry, we Democrats don’t let people starve, so we will provide refreshments after the forum.”