We open with anxiety. Sometimes anxiety comes on quick and is hard to manage. We look at the root cause and try to work through it. Then comes Dr. Seuss, censorship and its place in culture. Beau wrote a poem and then read it aloud.
Poem:
Censorship, Censorship
What have you done?
You took all the books,
How will I have fun?
You don’t need books
By a racist old coot.
We have ones that are fun
And anti-racist to boot!
For if you’re not racist
You’re racist, you see.
Anti-Racism
Is the only way to be.
Please, then, explain
As I’m only seven.
Are you saying anti-racism
Is my only way into heaven?
I am too young
And afraid I don’t see
How either of these things
are good for me.
Can you explain why
these books make you so mad.
And why I cannot learn;
Aren’t there lessons to be had?
It would seem to me
That Dr Suess being bad,
Would be a teaching moment,
And for that I’d be glad.
Don’t we already do this
With the Hitlers and Maos?
We learn the reasons,
the whys and the hows.
So that we may understand
Why these things are done.
And learn not to hate,
But how to love someone.
If these lessons aren’t taught
How can we learn?
Can love fill our hearts
While we watch books burn?
I see your face
And it’s full of surprise
How did someone so young
Learn about Hitler’s rise?
A fair question, to be sure,
But I have one too.
Should we tell all white kids,
Racism dwells within you?
But what do I know,
I am simply a child.
Trying to understand this world,
this jungle, it’s wild.
But if you shield me
From things that are bad.
You save me from experiences
You’ll never let me have.
Is that not the reason
We live through this life.
To do battle, to struggle,
Face hardship and strife?
And through it all,
our reason to live.
The meaning in life
That we pass onto our kids.
The meaning is this
And it conquers all.
No matter the difficulties,
The hardships, the falls.
Those who have a why
Can bear any how.
So do what you must
And censor me now.
But I will not grovel,
I will not quit.
And you will never make me
Apologize for it.
You cannot deceive me
With that veil made to blind.
For I see all
Of your clever little lies.
So, again, please tell me
Why censorship is right.
And while I wait
I’ll read Dr Suess by the dim fire light.
