By Hallie Richwine

The Public Forum on Thursday, September 21 at WNMU’s Miller Library showcased the topic of Constitution Day and Banned Books Week. Michelle Reed served as the emcee and explained that Banned Books Week generates interest in many titles. Whether we didn’t know a particular book was banned or we are curious about the content, Banned Books Week creates a bit of excitement.

Reed read from the Freedom To Read statement, which is a list of seven propositions introduced in 1953 at the Westchester Conference of the American Library Association and the American Book Publishers Council. Organizations such as the Association of American Publishers have adopted and renewed them.. The end of the Freedom to Read statement states boldly: “We believe...that what people read is deeply important; that ideas can be dangerous; but that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours.”

David Baake, Candidate for U.S. Representative, New Mexico District 2, was unable to join the group via teleconference but Library Program Manager Cindy Provencio read information he sent to the group. Baake reminded everyone that the first amendment enshrines multiple rights, from freedom of religion to freedom of the press, and these rights are all important. Baake considers the first amendment a humanitarian force, allowing us to imagine new rights and to advocate for social progress.

Allison Evans, Assistant Professor of Political Science, presented on the importance of the first amendment, as well. Without the first amendment, legislators could create no new laws. It gives us the ability to choose which media outlet we follow, and we may not like everything we read or hear. In a democracy, the press can serve as a watchdog. The greater the amount of opinions that are able to reach citizens, the less likely only one source supplies the news.

Various members of the community read from banned books, including Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau; Catch 22 by Joseph Heller; I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel, Jazz Jennings, and Shelagh McNicholas; Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya; and A Place To Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca.

Reed reminded the group that the origin of most of the banning of books in recent times has been due to parental involvement whether it is due to improper language or subject matter.

Provencio presented on “Salt of the Earth,” the only blacklisted film in the United States, which is based on the strike against the Empire Zinc Mining Company here in Grant County. The strike succeeded in securing basic labor rights for mine workers thanks to women taking over picket lines after an injunction required the men to return to work. From October of 1950 to January of 1952, families advocated for equal pay, benefits and paid holidays. Mexican families did not have indoor plumbing or heated water. The film based on the strike was produced by a blacklisted producer and purportedly was designed to inflame racial hatred. Today you can see a mural memorializing the Salt of the Earth strike on the Union Hall in Bayard, New Mexico.
Closing comments from the crowd mentioned that book burnings still happen in the United States, one of the last instances in 2010 when the Pentagon purchased nearly 10,000 copies of a book and burned them because they might have classified information.

Reed also commented that in the Tucson Unified School District a lawsuit was brought against the schools to reinstate the Mexican-American programs, along with many books that had previously been banned due to the possibility they could cause racial division and hatred. The lawsuit was won in July of this year.

MEChA de Western New Mexico University, WNMU J. Cloyd Miller Library, and the Democratic Party of Grant County, New Mexico, sponsor the monthly forums.