Castro's Library Pass (Part
I)
By Walter Skold. FrontPageMagazine.com
| October 13, 2005.
Another annual Banned Books Week (BBW)
ended just over a week ago, and some readers
may have read news accounts about how the
valiant efforts of librarians are saving
our social fabric from rabid groups of theocratic,
homophobic monsters just waiting to emerge
from church basements and Conservative foundations
to torch any book from any library that
doesn't meet their rigid doctrinal standards.
The nationwide marketing campaign is promoted
each year by a coalition of publishers,
booksellers, and the American Library Association
(ALA), and it usually gets heavy coverage
in the press. Some of the rhetoric connected
with the celebration is shrill, or hysterical,
while in other cases librarians and writers
are indeed trying to focus attention on
ill-advised, unconstitutional and serious
challenges to intellectual freedom and First
Amendment freedoms in the United States,
from left, right and center.
But amidst all the press releases and speeches
and warnings about censorship and the threats
to our freedoms to read under an authoritarian
King George Bush, II, there is a troubling
little matter that top ALA officials seemingly
have no qualms about censoring. Now I happen
to agree with many of my "liberal"
or far-left library colleagues that there
are very real potential threats to our liberties
that increased secrecy and authority in
government policies and capabilities represent,
yet American should be asking why various
leaders of the ALA are so timid, if not
supportive, of a current squashing of liberties
that is far more draconian than anything
John Ashcroft has ever dreamed of.
Though liberals are usually a bit queasy
about lists, BBW organizers present a list
every year of the "most challenged
books" in the U.S., and displays of
banned books are put up in school and public
libraries across the land. Students and
community groups are encouraged to get together
during the week to either read from the
so-called "banned books," or to
take part in events which will hopefully
spark public debate. There is one very troublesome
list of books, however, that is being ignored
- perhaps even censored - by the "watchdogs"
who compose our lists of censored books.
For some background, most of the books
on the yearly lists have been "banned,"
not usually, if ever, by governing authorities,
but by individuals or local groups who feel
that the offending books are too racist
(Mark Twain), too racy (Madonna's "Sex"
book) too religious (The Bible), too demonic
(Harry Potter), too anti-gay, too PC (Cop
Killer ) or too you fill in the blank. In
the majority of these cases the situation
is worked out locally by compromise, open
debate, educating the complainants about
the Library Bill of Rights, shame due to
media pressure, or threats of a lawsuit.
In some cases it is decided that certain
books do not actually belong on the shelves
of elementary school libraries, for instance,
but with few exceptions, the people involved
do not often demand that such books be removed
from adult collections in public libraries.
But the legitimate semantic and philosophical
discussions over what constitutes "banning,"
challenges, and community values, which
itself shows the strength of our public
discourse and the free and widespread exercise
of our liberties, is clearly distinct from
the incineration of books, which burst into
flame at 451 Fahrenheit.
Don Wood is the Program Officer of the
ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF),
and of all people at the ALA he is considered
one of the leading experts regarding intellectual
freedom issues and controversies. As part
of his job, Mr. Wood edits IFACTION, an
Intellectual Freedom Action e-mail list,
and he is also in charge of the OIF's truly
fascinating and generally excellent web
pages related to book burning. It is precisely
because of his background and well-established
activism that it is so troubling that he
will not promote the list of which I am
speaking.
It is a list - or we could even say "black
list" - that includes authors like
Martin Luther King Jr., Carlos Franqui,
Huber Matos, and Vaclav Havel, and includes
titles like the United Nations Declaration
of Human Rights, the US Constitution, the
Life of John Paul, and The Black Book of
Communism, to name just a few.
And if you wonder what these books may
have in common then my friend Steve Marquardt,
PH.D, the co-founder of a group called FREADOM,
and the Dean of Libraries at South Dakota
State University, has the answer for you.
"They are among the hundreds of books,
pamphlets, and personal papers that have
been judged 'subversive' and ordered burned
by Cuban authorities in recent years in
their crackdown against independent libraries
and independent thought," says Marquardt,
who is a long-time human rights activist.
"In America, local librarians are
often on the front lines of defense for
upholding the principles of intellectual
freedom and the freedom to read," said
Marquardt, in a press release issued last
week by FREADOM, "But in Cuba, book
burning is documented as a state-sanctioned
answer to independent reading."
The 2-year old list of books that he is
referring to is found at the Rule of Law
website of the Center for the Advancement
of Human Rights, which has posted sentencing
documents smuggled from Cuba from the well-known
trials of 75 journalists, independent librarians,
and opposition group activists who were
jailed in 2003. These bizarre and absurd,
yet chilling documents, detail the numerous
materials that were ordered incinerated
and/or destroyed by the magistrates of Castro's
own personal kangaroo courts.
"We librarians have the freedom to
oppose our President, circulate books which
argue that he is a criminal, help change
our laws, or find any book on any topic
that a patron wants," Marquardt reminds
his fellow librarians, "But in Cuba
you can go to jail for lending the wrong
book to your neighbor."
Unfortunately, high school students searching
the OIF's web pages for projects about BBW
recently would have never found out about
this remarkable list because Mr. Wood has
so far refused to acknowledge that the damning
documents are "legitimate." It
is yet another chapter in the sorry tale
of the ALA's abdication of principle when
it comes to Cuba, and I will address Wood's
disingenuous justification for this information
blockade on Castro's latest crimes in Part
II.
Part III will discuss how Castro's Leninist
librarians have joined with Pro-Castro ALA
leaders to justify the repression of the
independent library movement in Cuba and
will contrast that with the outspokenness
and principle of Eastern European librarians
who together have centuries of understanding
about the burning and banning of books.
Despite the mountains of evidence, much
of it presented in the list of books the
ALA wont publicize, the same 20th Century
blinders described in Stephen Karetzky's
brilliant and groundbreaking Not Seeing
Red: American librarianship and the Soviet
Union, 1917-1960, continue to plague official
American and international librarianship
today. What's worse, Part IV will describe
in detail how some of the ALA's most influential
supporters of Castro's failing brand of
communism with a bearded face lobby for
him at the ALA, and do so out of ideological
commitment and agreement with him, not just
because of "Ignorance, naiveté,
[or] fantasy," as Karetzky describes
in his 500-page expose.
By way of disclosure, I am also the co-chair
of FREADOM, but I write on behalf of myself,
not the group. For two years my fellow FREADOM
members and I have witnessed what is arguably
one of the most egregious examples of hypocrisy
and Castro-bootlicking by Marxist elites
that exists in a major US organization (unless
you consider Hollywood an "organization").
Were the whole story to be written it would
take a book (some of it is chronicled here),
but in the spirit of BBW, it is appropriate
for Americans to know about this list of
books which met their death by fire, and
now again by ALA silence.
Before we look at the books, and the reasons
why Fidel might have wanted them burned,
I want to make it clear that the actions
of ALA individuals and committees which
I condemn and/or question here are not indicative
of the mass of American librarians, the
great majority of whom are committed to
intellectual freedom, the necessity for
truly diverse collections, and quality public
service. In fact, in my own experience in
New England, 9.5 out of 10 people that I
have talked with about the ALA's betrayal
of principle in relation to Cuba have responded
with either outrage or disbelief when they
were apprised of the facts.
Unfortunately, the facts keep getting worse
the deeper one digs for them.
So, as an exercise in bringing what has
been hidden to light, let's analyze the
censored list by taking a look at the very
words of book reviews which have been written
in the library profession's own leading
journals. Readers will make their own judgments,
but I think this brief literary experiment
clearly indicts the pro-Castro sycophants
on various ALA committees, and it does not
speak well for the non-ideological majority
of ALA Councilors who either refuse to speak
up or simply choose not to see the obvious
abridgements in Cuba of nearly every principle
and right which American librarians say
they cherish.
First on this blacklist is the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (#1), especially
article 19, which the ALA itself adopted
as official policy in 1991. It states:
"Everyone has the right to freedom
of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information
and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers." - Article 19, Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
That sounds great, and it is, and hey,
what do you know, this is what a 1997 Cuban
report to the UN declared: "The rights
enshrined in the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights are formulated in and protected
by current legislation in Cuba. In particular,
the Constitution of the Republic endorses
each of those rights and specifies the essential
guarantees of their exercise. Furthermore,
all the rights and freedoms enunciated in
the Constitution are duly elaborated in
various legal provisions that make up our
domestic substantive law."
Question: if this is true, why is it that
the court documents from Cuba detail the
orders to literally incinerate over 100
copies of this human rights pamphlet, which
is in accordance with Cuba's great socialist
Constitution? The answer is seen in a pattern
which will develop as we go along: public
statements and promises to gullible international
bodies and leaders on the surface, with
brutal repression in reality.
Speaking of the Cuban Constitution, this
brings us to the 2nd title on the burn list,
the 1999 report by Human Rights Watch, entitled
Cuba's Repressive Machinery. The comprehensive
report, which also details torture, executions,
beatings, show trials, loss of job, loss
of rights and assorted other benefits of
"Progressive" states, also has
much to say about the Cuban Constitution.
The lengthy report points out that while
the Cuban constitution guarantees "the
full freedom and dignity of men
multiple
constitutional provisions undermine these
guarantees." For instance, "the
constitution nullifies freedoms when they
are contrary to 'the goals of the socialist
State,' 'socialist legality,' or the 'people's
decision to build socialism and communism.'"
The publication then explains how several
additional constitutional articles actually
restrict the very rights they claim to ensure,
for example, the freedoms of speech and
press exist "in keeping with the goals
of the socialist society;" that these
freedoms are assured by mandating that "press,
radio, television, films, and other mass
media are state or social property, and
may in no instance be the object of private
ownership;" and that "Cuba's educational
and cultural policy must adhere to the ideology
of Marx and Martí; promote communist
training; and allow for free artistic creation,
provided that its content is not contrary
to the Revolution."
It seems as though this study making the
case for repressive machinery is being devoured
by the same repressive machinery it seeks
to describe. Borrowing a slogan from US
comrades in the 1960's, "Burn, baby,
burn!"
Cleary, since the Communist Party of Cuba
has crafted such a versatile Constitution
for its subjects, one can see why Fidel
might want to commit copies of the US Constitution
(#3 on the list) to the flames. But then
again, maybe he fears it is subversive of
the powers he has labored so long to maintain,
because Article II. Sec.1 says that the
President "together with the Vice-President,
chosen for the same term," should "be
elected,
"
As if article two isn't bad enough for
Fidel the Wise, he would certainly be discouraged
if, after he allowed his people to have
a real election, they then proceeded to
adopt something like our XXII Amendment,
Sec.1: which mandates that "No person
shall be elected to office of the President
more than twice
" (We must not
hamper the will of the People!)
Number Four on the list involves an estranged
family member of the Castro inner circle
by the name of Carlos Franqui, who wrote
the book "Family Portrait with Fidel."
He was one of the most popular early revolutionaries
in the Cuban imagination, until he perhaps
began to shine brighter than the real star
of the show would allow. A short review
in the Library Journal, perhaps the tool
most often relied upon by public librarians
to make book selection decisions, says that
this insider account "..does document
the reasons that led Fidel to betray his
colleagues."
Now why would someone like Castro want
any copies of tell-all accounts of family
secrets circulating among his populace,
especially since his life is covered so
often and well in the Cuban press? Maybe,
like Jack Nicholson said in 1998, "He
is a genius?" (Too many flights over
the cuckoo's next, eh Jack,?)
In 1991, the reviewer in Library Journal
of Georgie Geyer's biography, "Guerrilla
Prince: The Untold Story of Fidel Castro,"
(No.5) gave a rating of highly recommended,
and wrote that the book details "Castro's
brutal treatment of thousands of Cubans
and his fanatic hatred of the United States."
The reviewer went on to claim that "The
reader is left with a persuasive picture
of a paranoid, erratic megalomaniac, whose
personal life is a microcosm of his public
behavior."
Now normally a megalomaniac would be thrilled
that volumes dedicated to his own life's
history were being read by the peasants
and workers in his paradise, but in this
case the Guerrilla Prince must not have
liked some of what was inside the book,
which perhaps hit a little too close to
home?
Speaking of biographies, another dangerous
book sent to paper gehenna was "The
Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr."
(No.6) I guess there is no speaking Truth
to Power in Cuba? (There is no racism here
in Cuba!)
What makes the burning of this book especially
symbolic of the two-faced nature of Castro's
governing and propaganda skills, is that
on his historic 2002 trip to Cuba, Jimmy
Carter went to visit Hector Palacios, then
the director of the Independent Library
Project of Cuba, and gave him an autographed
copy of King's autobiography. That book,
by the way, was stolen from Palacios' house
a year later when police confiscated nearly
the entire collection of books that he was
daring to lend to those neighbors brave
enough to borrow a copy.
As an important aside from our journey,
Human Rights First reported this March in
an international appeal that Palacios's
health was seriously deteriorating within
the Sugar Cane Gulag. So far, there has
been no public response or comment by any
official within the ALA, but we can hope
someone has written a letter.
And while we are on the subject of dying
dissident-librarians, if anyone at the ALA
can take time out from warning us about
copies of Goosebumps being challenged in
school libraries, and read this article,
then I'd like them to consider making an
appeal to Castro on behalf of Víctor
Rolando Arroyo, who was, before being jailed,
the director of the Reyes Magos Independent
Library of Pinar del Río province.
A September 27th International Freedom of
Expression Alert says his family is worried
about his health in the Guantánamo
Provincial Prison hospital after a 2-week
hunger strike to protest the treatment he
is receiving during his 26-year sentence
at this "Guantanoamo Hilton."
Having taken this brief detour, this is
a good spot to provide readers with another
quote that is right there on the top of
the OIF's web page on book burning: "Where
they have burned books, they will end in
burning human beings." (German: "Dort,
wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt
man am Ende auch Menschen.")-Heinrich
Heine, from his play Almansor (1821).
Another human rights activist that Carter
met with on his 2002 trip was the internationally-renowned
Oswaldo Payá, who was spearheading
the Varela Project just then. Therefore,
it may come as no surprise that for book
#7 on our menu of Castro's cooked books,
we find El Proyecto Varela, by Alberto Muller
and Oswaldo Payá. Not only were copies
of this book destroyed, but perhaps hundreds
of personal notebooks and petition forms
related to this democratic initiative were
stolen from independent librarians. And
Fidel's agents did not need to first get
permission from any FISA court either. How
about that for effective law enforcement!
(This is why the crowds love me!)
In his report on the trip, Carter wrote
how Castro, after having talked about peanut
farming with him the day before, was busy
"taking notes" while our former
President spoke directly about the human
and civil rights issues related to Mr. Paya
and the Varela Project. Now we know that
he was apparently scribbling a reminder
to himself: "When this turkey leaves
and the publicity dies down from his speech,
remind Raul to take care of all unsecured
documents and reports related to Varela."
The reasons why Castro may feel the need
to expunge book #7 from the uncensored library
collections threatening his island is precisely
due to the information found in book #8:
"The Power of the Powerless: Citizens
Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe,"
by Vaclav Havel, former playwright-dissident
and President of Czechoslovakia. Clues can
be found in a Kirkus Review of a different
Havel book, in which the reviewer says of
his style and content:
"The many short critiques and longer,
more theoretical essays ("The Power
of the Powerless,'' "Anatomy of a Reticence'')
can easily be viewed as calls to action
on a wide front; and by calmly and objectively
taking stock in each instance, undermining
the Party line with ready humor and logic,
Havel wields the pen mightily to prove how
richly his reputation is deserved. A fitting
tribute to a cultural and political hero,
and a valuable resource for anyone seeking
reassurance that the principles of democracy
are still cherished in our time."
(That will be enough of that thank you.
Mr. Castro will decide just who is and who
is not fitting for tributes as political
heroes and just when calls to action are
necessary
.)
Given the fate of the last two books, it
is not hard to see why #9 was deemed just
as dangerous. It is "The Global Resurgence
of Democracy", by Larry Diamond and
Marc F. Plattner. A review in Political
Studies called this "A useful compilation
popularizing the work of an influential
journal... The Journal of Democracy is an
effective tribune for mainstream U.S. thinking
on these issues."
Whoa now --- we all no how insidious mainstream
US thinking can be!!!
Time and space prevent me from listing
the hundreds of different magazine, books,
and pamphlets that went up in Fidel's bonfires
of immense vanity, but a few more are worth
mention before we come to the Mother-of-all-Burned-Books.
Book number 10 is "Como Llego La Noche"
by Huber Matos, a courageous Cuban patriot
whom David Horowitz referred to in his controversial
1986 speech on Nicaragua (Damn traitors,
both of em). Number 11 is "Evidence
That Demands a Verdict," a popular
apologetics book among Evangelical Christians
(Apologizing for the wrong King?). And number
12, which was cremated even before the Pontiff
had died, is the book "EI Viaje de
Juan Pablo II." (His visit helped with
tourism, but there shall be no other gods
besides
")
Item Number 13 is the one humorous incident
that is buried within the sentencing document
of one hapless Ivan Hernandez Cheek, who
was sent to prison - not by the FBI for
having looked at the wrong books at the
local library, but because his reading habits
were not in goosestep with Cuba's socialist
Constitution. One is almost tempted to say
that an appropriate item was burned, for
in addition to the 80 copies of the UN Declaration
of Human Rights, "several texts of
Literature of a religious type," 113
"subversive" magazines (like Time),
he was apparently guilty of possessing a
copy of the Communist Party's own "Granma!"
newspaper, which was duly sent to the incinerator
with the rest of this ideological garbage.
On second look, it is not so funny, because
this judge also ordered that a copy of the
Penal Code be torched as well!!! Gulp. If
this judge's mistakes ever come to the light
of day we can rest assured that all mentions
of him will no longer be found in past editions
of Granma! He will get the Trotsky treatment,
much easier now that Granma is online.
Saving the most damning book for last,
we come to the monumental "The Black
Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression,"
by Stéephane Courtois [et al.], which
was published in the US by The Harvard University
Press. Perhaps if Mr. Wood or others on
the Intellectual Freedom Committee up there
in windy Chicago could read just some of
the many good things that were said about
this book in so much of the library literature,
they would re-consider whether the burning
of this book is worthy of mention in their
next Banned Books Week?
Starting with the prestigious Library Journal,
the review said "Concluding [the authors]
that communism's death toll stands at 85
to 100 million, they wonder forcefully why
such 'class genocide' is excused more easily
than the Nazis' 'race genocide.' This book
burned a hole in the French Left when it
was published--and also hit the best sellers
lists. Not easy reading, but a seminal document."
Moving on to the equally authoritative
Publisher's Weekly, we read that the 1,120-page
monster is a "damning reckoning of
communism's worldwide legacy
(and)
Essentially a body count of communism's
victims in the 20th century." It is
also called "a fact-based, mostly Russia-centered
wallop that will be hard to refute: town
burnings, mass deportations, property seizures,
family separations, mass murders, planned
famines--all chillingly documented from
conception to implementation."
The esteemed journal Booklist described
the authors as "Tabulators of the Red
Terror from its inception in 1918 down to
its vestigial continuation in such countries
as North Korea and Cuba," and continued
"It was not, apparently, the recitation
of killings that irked the left in France
but Courtois' condemnation of Leninist regimes
as criminal enterprises. That stance challenged
the left's deeply seated tenets that communism,
despite excesses, was progressive; that
Stalinism was an effect of one personality,
not an entire system;
"
In words that will have bearing on the
third part of this series, the reviewer,
Gilbert Taylor, added "...but there
remain precincts in the U.S. where it could
ignite debate, especially among those who
stubbornly cleave to a belief that Lenin,
Mao, and Pol Pot were aberrations rather
than the essence of communism."
Then in the New York Times Book Review,
a company which Mr. Wood cites as one of
his highest authorities, Alan Ryan commented
of this mother-of-all-blacklisted-books
by noting that "To the extent that
the book has a literary style, it is that
of the recording angel.... It is a criminal
indictment, and it rightly reads like one."
In the same vein, here is what one Lack
Lauber wrote in 2000 in a volume of History:
Review of New Books: "This is an important
book for anyone interested in understanding
the role of communism in the twentieth century;
it expands on the work of such authors as
Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The final body count
reaches an incomprehensible 85-100 million!
The Nazi regime, responsible for an estimated
25 million deaths in its relatively short
but brutal career, pales by comparison."
His very last sentence is especially noteworthy:
"That the authors are all associated
with the intellectual Left makes it even
more interesting and valuable."
Chiming in with the chorus of praise for
this massive damnation of Leninism was the
New Republic, which called it "an extraordinary
and almost unspeakably chilling book. It
is a major study that deepens our understanding
of communism and poses a philosophical and
political challenge that cannot be ignored."
Lastly (and there are many more here),
writing in the Spring 2001 Wilson Quarterly,
Andrzej Paczkowski, the Polish author who
co-wrote a chapter in the book, penned a
superb essay on the intense academic debate
the book sparked.
He quotes the insights and criticisms of
numerous scholars, including these thoughts
from Kenneth Minogue: "The essence
of totalitarianism is the project of transforming
human life by making people... conform to
some single overriding idea," and "What
makes Marx central to the totalitarian project
is his clear recognition that it was incompatible
with the . . . idea of the individual as
a unique soul or self capable of bearing
rights."
From these reviews, it would be obvious
to a literate third-grader as to why Fidel
would not want copies of this magnum opus
mixed into the free debate that he assures
visitors takes place under his benign rule.
What is more befuddling and much harder
to understand, however, is why on earth
so many ALA officials seem to doubt, judging
by their actions and especially their inactions,
that the indictments contained in the Black
Book do not pertain to Castro as well?
Is it possible they missed the chapter
on Cuba in the book? It is not pretty reading,
and yes, as one review complained, it is
not based on as much solid evidence as the
information on the Soviet Union is. The
very good reason for that is because Cuba
is still ruled by the Communist Party, and
the secret archives are not yet available
for scholarly review.
Maybe next time one of the journalists
from the ALA's American Libraries magazine
travels to Cuba with another delegation
of "progressive" librarians on
yet another tour monitored and guided by
Cuban intelligence officers, they could
do me a favor and check the library shelves
for this book. (Ah, the cost of paper, you
see; it is because of the blockade!) It
would also be interesting to try and confirm
just how many people have taken the book
out if in fact it is there? Of course, given
the duplicitous history of the State-beholden
and unelected library leaders, and the skill
with which they give Potemkin-village tours,
they may have asked the police to save a
copy or two from the flames so they can
"prove" to gullible and self-blinded
American visitors (Look for yourself, it's
right there in the card catalogue, ya dumb
Yankee) just what wonderful freedoms to
read everybody has in Cuba.
Nearing the end of this literary exercise,
I'd like to cite from another remarkable
quote by President Eisenhower that happens
to be displayed prominently on the main
ALA book-burning page referred to earlier.
It reads:
"How will we defeat communism unless
we know what it is, what it teaches, and
why does it have such an appeal for men,
why are so many people swearing allegiance
to it? It's almost a religion, albeit one
of the nether regions."
So here are two questions for those folks
at the ALA whose job it is to monitor abuses
of intellectual freedom: 1.) Do you still
believe that the defeat of communism is
a positive good? 2.) Do you believe that
the Cuban people ought to have the freedom
to read and debate books like the ones above,
which would enable them to read the nefarious
history of communism in other countries,
and which would teach them how to defeat
it through peaceful, democratic means?
It is an eminently fair question: this
Eisenhower quote, and the Library Bill of
Rights, are displayed on their pages.
In reference to this question, all 7 articles
in this guiding document could be cited,
but #2 of the Library Bill of Rights will
do:
"Libraries should provide materials
and information presenting all points of
view on current and historical issues. Materials
should not be proscribed or removed because
of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
Not wanting to end on a sour note, I'd
like to mention one other very tiny detail
that gives me some hope in the otherwise
Bradburian court documents. Waiting quietly
in one of the long lists of items catalogued
for the furnace, as though it were searching
for discovery, the judgment makes reference
to the "title page of the Black Book
of Communism."
O the Glory! Do you understand what that
means? Here, let us visualize it together.
A poor family is sitting in their home,
not dwelling on the poverty of their physical
environment, but grateful for the incredible
wealth that books bring to all people, especially
those whose minds have been on starvation
rations since birth. Suddenly they hear
wheels screech and car doors slam and the
husband and wife give each other one quick
glance, mixed with great love and great
fear, knowing and not knowing what lies
ahead. And then the terror begins. Somehow
during the commotion of armed guards dragging
her husband away, the tears of her children,
and the laughter of the police, she manages
to remove a book from a shelf and to rip
the cover from the most treasured book that
came to her mind. Unbeknownst to those who
then proceed to confiscate every single
book or magazine from the small library
collection that she and her husband once
lent to interested neighbors, she finds
a place to hide the actual pages of the
dangerous "Black Book."
That little gem of hope which resides in
the draconian orders which otherwise mandated
the burning and destruction of whole, independent,
uncensored library collections, means that
at least one copy of that book, stripped
of its title page, remained hidden in circulation.
And perhaps on another, quieter evening,
if this man's daughter was carefully and
quietly reading the forbidden book, she
would count herself blessed after having
read the stories of how young, class-enemy
children in Cambodia were hung from the
roof by their feet and kicked from side
to side until they died.
Still, that would have given her lonely
heart little comfort after having read of
the descriptions by survivors of the torture
and murder they experienced in Cuban jails.
But perhaps it is true what the Leninist-left
in the ALA says, that folks like me have
been duped by slick, CIA propaganda and
swayed by nasty, greedy capitalist-oriented
criminals in the Miami Mafia, which has
now opened for business in Moscow and other
Eastern-European capitals. Perhaps I am
blind because I do not understand that in
Cuba, by definition, there can be no banned
book week, because members of previous ALA
trips to Cuba have repeated the assertion
that there really are no censored items
in Cuba. These Castro apologists say any
lack of controversial titles is because
of a lack of money to buy certain books,
or a lack of interest on the part of the
population regarding such books, or certain
illegalities surrounding books which were
criminally imported from the U.S., or whatever
was the line crafted for that particular
group of pilgrims.
But here in America, where, if you read
the news accounts and ALA press releases
and lists, so many books are being banned,
and burned, and challenged, and censored,
and pressured into pre-publication death,
or preached against by fanatical Puritans
bent on bringing back the bonfires, we do
have the luxury of a committed and independent
library profession. And since we beleaguered
and persecuted librarians (The FBI wants
to take a look at perhaps one-in-a-million,
or less, of our patron records!) still have
the freedom to encourage citizens to read
- before it is too late!- I can think of
few other books to recommend that have been
so positively reviewed in our journals as
"The Black Book of Communism."
[This is Part I of a
four-part series concerning the American
Library Association's pandering to Fidel
Castro's totalitarian regime. Click here
to read Part II. - The Editors]
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