The Year They Burned the Books
Review“People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons.” The quote above is from FDR, President of the United States during some of the darkest years of this country's existence. It's a quote that fits quite well with the contents of this book, for the book is about small-minded people trying to force their will on others, and in doing so trying to destroy the right of other people to read information that such people deem dangerous. The book is about some students at a high school. Two of the students are gay, one is lesbian, and the rest are straight. A right-wing religious fanatic gets elected to the school board and sets up one of the “family values” groups in town, then immediately sets out to destroy a condom-distribution program at the high school, to rewrite the health curriculum so it presents only her religious view of things, and tries to destroy a school newspaper that dares challenge her views. Part of the effort of her group is to hold a book burning, and to try to get certain books either banned totally from the town's library (having already gotten them removed from the school library), or, at the very least, restrict everyone's access to the books. The students who dare to stand against her are vilified, threatened and, eventually, physically attacked by the anti-homosexual group at their school. The book reflects reality, and that's a terrible thing to do. This country is filled with people of “fanatical faith” who wish to destroy the civil rights of others, all in the name of their god. They judge people by who it is the person prefers to have sexual relations with rather than whether or not that person is a kind, loving person who helps others. It's a very upsetting book because it does reflect what is going on in this country so well. SynopsisJamie Crawford, is a senior in high school on Wilson High Telegraph paper. The school has a condom-distribution program, and the newspaper is writing about that. Jamie is a lesbian. Her friend Terry is gay. They both have gotten a lot of flak from the other students. His parents don't know he's gay. There's a “school committee” (Lisa), somewhat like a school board, that has an opening for a new member. A woman wants the position, and she's very, very strongly anti-gay, an ultra-conservative person who doesn't want anything about sex taught in the schools. A girl named Tessa takes photos and will be on the paper. She's a pagan, maybe a witch. Jamie is strongly attracted to her. As the various young people talk they learn of more and more instances of anti-gay pastors, adults and others in their town. The anti-gay, ultra-conservative gets elected to the school board. Jamie debates a young man from the church about condom use, and finds that Lisa has pamphlets that are virulently anti-gay that's she's brought for people to take, and she also has starting a “family values” type of group. Lisa has a meeting where she grills the newspaper adviser and challenges his position on editorials. The new “family values” group has a petition and wants the adviser removed from the paper. (All of this has very close parallels to what happened in Nazi Germany and in Imperial Japan under the control of the militarists. Any form of dissenting opinion from those in power, or who wanted to be in power, was dealt with harshly. The only difference between those events and those in this book was that death is not a punishment for disagreement.) As a result of the meeting, condoms are no longer being given in the school, and the health texts, to which Lisa objected, are collected from the students. The students decide to do their own newspaper in addition to the school paper, but do it off school grounds. The problem is that they distribute it on school grounds, so everyone is in trouble again thanks to Lisa. Things get worse. Matt, the school paper advisor, is removed from his position. Health class becomes a study hall for several weeks until a new curriculum is determined. A student named Karen is giving Jamie a hard time, being nasty to her since Jamie and Tessa seem to be sort of a couple. During a Halloween party, they see a fire, and it's a full Nazi-style book burning. Tessa tells Jamie that she knows Jamie is gay, but she (Tessa) is not. Later Jamie, Tessa and one of their male friends get anti-gay notes in their lockers. The notes keep coming and get more and more vicious. Then the anti-gay group physically attacks Tessa, Ernie and another boy. One of the assaulted boys later tries to commit suicide. The school committee caves in to the fascists, and cancels the health course for the rest of the year and cancels the school newspaper effective right then. The next year, still during the same school term, though, there's another election and Lisa is voted off the school board. |
