By Katherine Rutkowski

Who knew? While browsing a list of commonly challenged books (a truly librarian-geeky pursuit) it struck me that timing or dumb luck had afforded me the chance to find and read at least half of those titles with no risk or roadblock. As my born-to-immigrants parents would say “American citizens are the luckiest people on the planet.” Since reading has been my go-to hobby for decades, I’d have to agree.

Holla back Uncle Sam. And thank you, gracias and dzieki to Abuelo, Abuela, Dziadzio and Babka.”

But, to back up, the list and others like it, was a cornerstone of the recent American Library Association’s Banned Books Week (Sept. 27-Oct. 4, 2008) celebrating the freedom to read. This annual event reminds Americans not to take this freedom for granted. ALA’s research suggests that for each challenged book reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.

Having largely missed the Banned Books Week, I don’t want to miss out on a related celebration – National Freedom of Speech Week Oct. 20-26^th which was created in 2005 by the Media Institute in partnership with the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation (NABEF).

CEA is a participating organization. Help us celebrate anyway you’d like. The easiest way to speak out is via this blog. Respond to posts, post your own thoughts, time to be creative. There’s also a Twitter option – link to follow soon.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 10:52 am and is filed under Digital Rights. Reply to this post, or trackback from your own site. Follow responses to this entry through the comments RSS feed.