Hannah Chi, Valerie Choung, Zahra Gill, Kate Lin, Sabrina Liu, Christine Yu
land of the free and home of the brave, where one can express oneself without fear of repercussion. Here, we are lucky to have our right to freedom of expression protected by the First Amendment. Have a problem with the government? Feel free to make a petition. Want to tell your story? The world is your oyster. We’re used to such a degree of freedom here, so today we’re going to tell you a story about another society-- one that you may not be so familiar with. It starts out innocent enough.
It first began in schools, with the banning of various books such as Fifty Shades of Grey and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was only fair to ban such sexually explicit texts; it was all done to protect the children. Then they thought, “We ought to also ban the book The Kite Runner; such a grotesque and explicit rape scene surely is not fit for the children. Furthermore, let’s ban other books with violent and sexually explicit scenes. Let’s ban To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of Anne Frank. We must protect the children. Once we’re done with that, let’s ban Fahrenheit 451 because it talks about banning things, but don’t forget to ban Brave New World because it claims that censored states are dystopian; after all, schools must control what can be seen or read for the safety of the children. But wait. That's not enough. Let’s also ban music, news, magazines, movies, pictures, maps, and games that could fester in people such a poisonous idea as that there is much, much more out there than we have ever been allowed to know."
So where, in such a modern day and age, does such a society exist?