Here is a very rough draft of an essay due on Monday. Just looking for a little feedback.

I feel that the greatest accomplishment of Western Civilization is the written word. This feat has brought the Bible to the masses and education to the common man. It is solely responsible for bringing literacy to a world that was run tyrannically by those that could read. Historically, books have been destroyed to restrict the knowledge of the common man. Nazi Germany was notorious for having book burnings. They burned books in order to purge their society of everything that was “Un-German.” On May 10, 1933, German students burned 25,000 books in the name of “Aryan” culture. Some of the books burned were by authors Ernest Hemingway and Helen Keller. German authors Alfred Kerr , Bertolt Brecht, and Lion Feuchtwanger were also blacklisted and therefore their works were destroyed. This of course is the most extreme example, but the United States is guilty of this type of suppression as well. In 1930, U.S. Customs seized Harvard-bound copies of Candide, Voltaire's critically hailed satire, for obscenity. Two Harvard professors defended the work, and it was later readmitted. In the past, Canterbury Tales, Decameron, and Moll Flanders have been banned by the United States Postal Service for mail delivery and now these works are taught in high school literature classes across the country. Perhaps the most obsurd example of this is when an illustrated edition of "Little Red Riding Hood" was banned in two California school districts in 1989. The book shows an illustration of Little Red Riding Hood taking food and wine to her grandmother. The school districts cited concerns of alcohol use in the story. Is banning books good for society or does it suppress free and critical thought? John Milton wrote, “He who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.” Banning books destroys reason in the Age of Reason.
At one time in history, the only book in the world was the Bible. It was believed that everything that one needed to learn was in the Bible. It was used teach people to read and write as well as teach morality. It was also used loosely as the law. As time went on free and critical thinkers began to record their words. These people were the cause of the great things that came to be. Without Shakespeare, there would not be any of the great dramatic movies that Hollywood produces. Most importantly, without the dissenting opinions of John Locke and Thomas Paine, there would be no Declaration of Independence. If the works of Paine had been suppressed, it is not out of the realm of possibilities that the War for Independence would not have happened.
Critical thought is something that is taken for granted today. It is taught at almost all major universities. You cannot pass a history or literature class without mastering it. Why is it so important today? Our recent history has been shaped by people who have mastered this. Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, and Abraham Lincoln were examples of men who read the books that were written in the face of suppression and capitalized on the knowledge they attained. The list of individuals who used an unorthodox thought process to accomplish goals that shaped modern society is endless. These persons learned to use the knowledge taken from books that could be banned at anytime for any reason.
There is only one reason for banning books. That reason is suppression of knowledge. The powers that be have always wanted to control the minds of their constituents. The theory is that the less the public knows the more power they will be able to assert. This not anymore true than in schools. Rural high schools have been known to ban certain books when pressured by the Christian community. This happened at Egyptian High School in 1997. The book Death of a Salesman was banned for offensive language. This kind of incident is not supposed to happen in the United States. These actions are meant to keep children safe. They are meant to stamp out the seeds of dissent. These kind of irresponsible actions are what cause dissent in the first place. There was a movment at Century High School in Illinois to remove the Orwell classic, 1984. Once again, the Christian community wanted the book removed from the curriculum for what they refered to as “inappropriate material.” This movement was stopped merely because the leader of the movement admitted to not actually reading the book. It is this kind of ignorance that can be the cause of ignorance in others.
The Christian communities aren’t the only people that are guilty of this. Right now, A North Carolina law professor is trying to get the National Park Service to pull Michelle Malkin's book, In Defense of Internment, from the bookshop at the site of a relocation center for Japanese-Americans and Japanese during World War II. The reason is that the book sites the internment of more than ten thousand Europeans during WWII. This of course is a politically incorrect position, whether it is true or not. Malkin is, of course, urging her readers to contact the National Park Service to keep her book on the shelves.
At a Des Moine Iowa school last year, a group of leftists tried to have the library purged of anti-John Kerry books. The reason of course was to stop the right wing indoctrination of the students. They did not push for the removal of any anti-George Bush books. This goes to a pattern with those that try to have books banned. They only want those books banned that don’t conform to their own views of society. This is dangerous, because it doesn’t expose students to all views. It simply makes them models of others and doesn’t allow them to be individuals.
There are no laws or Supreme Court precedents on banning books, specifically. The government simply turns a blind eye and considers the practice to be society policing itself. The United States constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The key part here is about abridging the freedom of speech. Many do not believe that this applies to books. But in my personal opinion if burning a flag can be considered a form of speech, then words written in a book should be afforded the same protection.

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"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the United States was too strong."

President Ronald Reagan

“Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism”

Barry Goldwater

Well written. I might change the phrase "written word" to "printed word" in the first sentence, though, since writing preceded the distribution of the written word to the masses.

Your conclusions are valid and I'm not certain who your intended audience is, but you might want to use current examples of "rightys" trying to limit speech as well, if you want to be even-handed. At least equal numbers of those examples exist currently.

Thanks for sharing.

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"Trust none of what you hear And less of what you see" Springsteen

When the Founding Fathers protected our right to free speech, I think that meant we were supposed to use it.

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was the world's most unhinged lunatic. He's now dead. So that moves Ann Coulter up to first place - David Letterman

O, when she is angry she is keen and shrewd; / She was a vixen when she went to school, / And though she be but little, she is fierce. — Shakespeare

51 days left http://www.backwardsbush.com/

The reference to the High School banning was my example of the "rightys." I'll make the reference more clear. This thing basically a warm up for the start of my thesis. It will probably be a chapter in that thesis. Thanks. That was helpful.

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"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the United States was too strong."

President Ronald Reagan

“Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism”

Barry Goldwater

I agree with Jillian on that first sentence, and may go one more step to "freedom of press", you do mention the constitution.
Look at this site..it may be of value for your research.
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedboo...frequently.htm

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Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.

PC=Public Cancer....and it's TERMINAL..IMO.

I would grade a A+...and don't change anything it was your words expressed...neutral in context...don't add anything about right or left...it would then become a political statement vs a thesis!

solid B.........greatest invention....sanitary sewar system

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"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is." ~ Albert Camus

Some might say, napkin.

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Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.

PC=Public Cancer....and it's TERMINAL..IMO.

are you willing to mention that the bible (which you mention in your opening) is banned from public schools?

__________________
"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is." ~ Albert Camus

Greatest Invention ever: the plow.

It will probably wind up a chapter in my thesis. My thesis is going to be the suppression of information throughout written history. There is gonna be alot of Galileo and Milton involved. This essay, cleaned up, should make a good chapter, or at least a footnote. Thanks for feedback guys.

__________________
"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the United States was too strong."

President Ronald Reagan

“Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism”

Barry Goldwater

I was going to use that as a subject for different chapter, but it would be relevant here. Thanks for pointing that out.

__________________
"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the United States was too strong."

President Ronald Reagan

“Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism”

Barry Goldwater

Solid B, Come on man, I haven't gotten a B on anything I've written since grade school. Your curve sucks.

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"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the United States was too strong."

President Ronald Reagan

“Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism”

Barry Goldwater

Glad my comments were helpful. Good luck!

Re the bible being "banned" from schools, I don't know what subject your thesis going to encompass, but the issue of the bible brings you into Constitutional issues of Church and State and isn't simply a function of "freedom of speech". Nor is freedom of the press.

But like I said, I don't know where your thesis is going to go, so have no idea if the Constitutional issues are pertinent or not.

From my own experience, the more focused the subject matter and the more concise the material, the more effective it is.

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"Trust none of what you hear And less of what you see" Springsteen

When the Founding Fathers protected our right to free speech, I think that meant we were supposed to use it.

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was the world's most unhinged lunatic. He's now dead. So that moves Ann Coulter up to first place - David Letterman

O, when she is angry she is keen and shrewd; / She was a vixen when she went to school, / And though she be but little, she is fierce. — Shakespeare

51 days left http://www.backwardsbush.com/

Religious speech is protected to the same extent as any other speech.

Yes... though I haven't seen anyone prohibited from religious speech. It's only the intermingling of religion and government which is an issue.

__________________
"Trust none of what you hear And less of what you see" Springsteen

When the Founding Fathers protected our right to free speech, I think that meant we were supposed to use it.

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was the world's most unhinged lunatic. He's now dead. So that moves Ann Coulter up to first place - David Letterman

O, when she is angry she is keen and shrewd; / She was a vixen when she went to school, / And though she be but little, she is fierce. — Shakespeare

51 days left http://www.backwardsbush.com/