Posted on 02/05/2009 10:40:13 PM PST by Steelfish
Judge Allows Ban of Book Depicting Happy Cuban Communist Children
Thursday, February 05, 2009
ATLANTA — Miami school officials can remove from library shelves a book about Cuba that depicts smiling children in communist uniforms but avoids mention of problems in the country, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Miami-Dade County School District wouldn't be infringing freedom of speech rights by removing 49 copies of "Vamos a Cuba" and its English-language version, "A Visit to Cuba," from its libraries. The board has argued that the books, for children ages 5 to 8, present an inaccurate view of life in Cuba.
The board voted to remove the book in 2006 after a parent who was a former political prisoner in Cuba complained. A federal judge in Miami later ruled that the board should add books of different perspectives instead of removing offending titles.
However, the panel of the 11th Circuit sided with the school board in a 2-1 ruling.
"There is a difference between not including graphic detail about adult subjects on the one hand and falsely representing that everything is hunky dory on the other," Judge Ed Carnes wrote.
Circuit Judge Charles R. Wilson wrote in dissent that it appeared the book was banned for political rather than educational reasons.
Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said the two judges managed "to twist the law into a pretzel."
"But what can't be evaded is censorship, is censorship, is censorship. I'm sorry, there is no way to evade that," Simon said. He promised "further legal action to prevent the shelves of Miami-Dade school libraries from being scrubbed of books that some people find to have an objectionable view point."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The ACLU on the side of wrong.. again.
High time to decorate lampposts around the nation with ACLU lawyers.
The board voted to remove the book in 2006 after a parent who was a former political prisoner in Cuba complained...”
That parent needs to write his own book or find one that tells the real story and ask the school board to consider purchasing it. This is a slippery slope, although I do think taxpayers should have a voice. My question would be who was responsible for initiating the purchase of this book.
Sick of these leftwing jackasses! Having these books in a Miami school is like putting neo-Nazi propaganda in a school in Brooklyn Heights!
ACLU backing up Communism again. “It’s only a different point of view”
Those titles do NOT mean the same thing.
/johnny
“A Visit to Cuba” written by... uh... Janet Reno?
I agree. This is a two-edged sword. Just as a book previously purchased can be demanded to be removed, should a demand to purchase a book that hasn't been procured be as valid?
And, of course, the more important thing is what is being taught about Cuba in the classroom?
This isn’t a matter of just finding content “objectionable” as that can be a matter of opinion..how about finding something false or inaccurate? If someone wrote a book about slavery that showed all the slaves as happy and content, the left would have a fit. This is the same thing. Of course don’t get me started about junk science...
You raise the key questions.
One, why was this book purchased since it was so one-sided? Who did it?
Secondly, I hope that someone would buy some other-side of the story books by former Cuban political prisoners and donate them to the library for balance - Vallardares, etc.
Invite the former political prisoner to tell what he saw and experienced.
The question is whether the pro-communist book is a propaganda publication as opposed to an objective look at children in Cuba. If it is not objectice, then I can live with the judge’s position since the goal of public education is to educate, not indoctrinate.
Find out if this is an organized effort to slip pro-communist propaganda into our schools, as if that isn’t happening all the time. (I’m working with fellow historians and Vietnam veterans on correcting the massive amount of pro-Hanoi propaganda in history books).
Tell the story of Elian Gonzalez, his flight to freedom, and how he has become an indoctrinated communist and member of Castro’s Cuban Youth Movement (the model for Obama’s future Citizen corps).
This could get very interesting and might open a red can of worms, or expose stupidity at large.
I think the ACLU is wrong on the religion thing 9 times out of 10 (99 out of 100? 999 out of 1000? you get the point..), but I’m not sure they’re wrong in this case. There’s a world of difference between “spreading propaganda” and merely allowing a book to be available in a school library. Besides, some (myself included) would say that the best way to fight misinformation/propaganda such as this book is not by censoring it, prohibiting it, or taking it off of the shelves, but rather by countering it.
Also, disagree with the ACLU all you want (I sure do, most of the time), but let’s not stoop to vague threats of violence. That stuff is better left to te DUmmies; we’re supposed to be better than that.
Inaccurate books should be banned from schools. We don’t allow a book that claims 2+2=5, and counter it with other books that claim 2+2=3, 2+2=4, or 2+2=racist. I’m sure we will some day, but we’re not ready for that yet.
Hmmm. Are libs sure they want to push the Fairness Doctrine?
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