Continued from here where we started with,
"There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance."

And now, for a little history, which can, by the way, also be put in book form.

1873 - The Comstock Law, also called the Federal Anti-Obscenity Act.
This was to stop soldiers from getting 'obscene materials' mailed to them and made it illegal to send anything of the sort through the US postal system.

“Whoever, within the United States…shall have in his possession for any such purpose or purposes, an obscene book, pamphlet, print picture, or drawing…of immoral nature shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof in the court of the United States he shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary.”

Some of the books banned under this new law? Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Boccaccio’s Decameron, Defoe’s Moll Flanders and some versions of Arabian Nights.

And as if this wasn't enough damage, this is the law that was sited up until the 1960s to keep information about birth control out of the hands of women ... even married women. (See my series on "The Girls Who Went Away" if you'd like to read how unhelpful that was to a generation. Or read the book for details on how the Comstock Law screwed women for almost 100 years.)

1881- Walt Whitman's publisher wouldn't publish the 7th edition of poetry, saying it was, "too provocative" and Whitman was fired from his job at the Department of Interior because of his "immoral poetry".

1930 - A shipment of Voltaire's "Candide" on its way to Harvard was confiscated because it was, "sexually explicit and obscene".

1950's - The McCarthy years saw more than 300 books burned or banned.

1980 - Midland, Michigan banned Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" because it, "perpetuated Jewish stereotypes."

1993 - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania schools tried to get the Bible banned, saying it contained, "over 300 examples of obscenity, including incest and murder".

1998 - Mark Twain's "The Adventure's of Huckleberry Finn" ... again, as this book seems too get banned ever-other year .... in Arizona because a black woman thought it was racist. Talk about missing the point!

For a comprehensive overview of book banning, see the First Amendment Center.

I think I'll go online now and order 'Tango' for my kids. I'm sure they'll love it for Christmas.