I found Beavs comments very thought-provoking and it is very clear that her comments have been misinterpreted.
Just for clarification, I think we ALL agree that dog / cock fighting is reprehensible, inhumane and shouldn't be glorified.
Having said that, I believe that there are a lot of things that are reprehensible. For example, I am as anti-death-penalty as you can find, I think there should be gun control (as a matter of fact, I think guns shouldn't be put in the hands of private citizens, period!), I am against the exploitation of animals, I am pro-gay-rights, I am against the almost limitless power of the pharmaceutical industry .......
The thing is, you need to put the "fight" or your resources where things CAN be changed. A bookseller or a library is the wrong place to attack. They cannot nor should they censor, they have an obligation to make things available as controversial as they may be.
Say, I want to do a research on pro-gay or anti-gay rights, I would like to have EVERYTHING available that's out there, if the bookseller/library makes literature unavailable based on public pressure or majority public consensus, I think it would do a great disservice for anyone who wants to have a multi-faceted view of a particular subject.
Just to make this clear, I am totally against dog fighting, I think anyone participating should be punished to the full extent of the law and I don't think the law on the books is drastic enough, but that is a different subject. It was pretty clear from Beavs' statements that she finds dog fighting just as reprehensible.
Quite frankly, if I was doing research on dog fighting, I would like to know what exactly we are talking about, would I probably start puking looking at the literature/DVDs and get furious at the people who are involved, would I want to tar and feather them and throw my normal belief about anti-death-penalty out the window, probably, but I would like to be able to get the full picture, the good, the bad, the ugly, from both sides, if I were to do a paper or report on it.
But I would expect my bookseller or library to be able to deliver anything that is legally available - yes!!!!!!
The danger in trying to force a bookseller or library to only carry material that we, the general public approves of, will result in censorship (censorship is not only government controlled) and limited information. Where would it stop??
To me, coming from a country which was divided the into the communist East and the capitalistic West from the time before I was born until a few years before I immigrated to the US, free speech is very important. Whereas I had the priviledge to grow up in the West, I visited the Eastern part of Germany on many occassions and going there was no walk in the park, going there meant, you keep your mouth shut or you may find yourself in prison (and anyone who knows me, also knows keeping my mouth shut is a challenge
). I spent 48 hours in a East German "holding camp" for not wearing a seat belt when I crossed the border and I would NOT want to go there again!
Free speech is a big one for me. The way I see it, only if you can let someone climb on a soapbox proclaiming at the top of their lungs what you have spent a lifetime opposing at the top of your lungs, then you can stand up in your class rooms and sing of the Land of the Free!! And hold that opportunity in high regard, because there are countries that do NOT have that opportunity!
Well, that was a little bit off subject, what I am trying to say though, take your opposition and your fights to the appropriate places, asking a bookseller or library to censor based on popular demand, is the wrong place, in my opinion!
