Kansas 'Banned Books Week' Sparks Controversy 2025

From our view . . .

If Kansas conservatives want to move into the future and don't want to be typecast as the bad guys from Footloose . . . They need to drop support for provincial, anti-intellectual and silly crackdowns on books.

Books can't hurt people. Name a horrible book that has "caused" untold misery and human suffering . . . Something like "Entertaining" by Martha Stewart. Even a defenseless youngster sitting alone in the company of a "deplorable" like that book won't confront any physical harm . . . At the very least they might just get some bad ideas about the popularity of crab cakes. 

The point here: Myopic parents hoping to limit the spread of ideas are misguided and essential attempting to enforce Anti-American ideas based on a mistaken premise that text is inherently dangerous. This impulse is the OPPOSITE of conservatism and substitutes reactionary impulses for moral principles. 

Still, in fairness, we wanted to share this note that offers more deets about the ruckus over literature . . .

Last month, at a meeting of the Hays Public Library Board, local residents were up in arms over a “Banned Books Week” display that contained books one resident and his son described as “pornographic.” . . . Hays Public Library Board President Amy Feauto said the books were displayed in the “young adult” section and were part of “an American Library Association awareness campaign that runs for one week every year.”

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Hays Public Library director admits he wouldn't let his own children read books library made easily accessible to kids - The Sentinel

No one is calling for book bans, just asking the library not to promote objectionable content to young children.