Follow-up on yesterday’s story about the potential banning of a book relating the real-life home invasion crime that took place in Cheshire, Connecticut.
Today’s blog in the Hartford Courant proposes that the community keep the book ( In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood by Brian McDonald) on the shelf and the librarian, Ramona Harten, in charge of the library.
I rise in support of Ramona Harten, the embattled librarian of Cheshire. I understand the pain and outrage that would lead a large group of Cheshire residents to resist the notion of having on their shelves a book written from the point of view of an accused killer. But it’s a book. It’s quite relevant to the town. It belongs on the shelves. If we ban books because we find them distasteful, we narrow our collective field of vision, and we risk replacing one of our precious freedoms with a popularity contest.
From Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” to Norman Mailer’s “Executioner’s Song” to several attempts to write fiction from the perspective of Lee Harvey Oswald, mind-of-the-murderer literature seems to have a place in the overall canon. I have no idea whether McDonald’s book is any good. Most books like this are not particularly good. But the only way to sort out that question is for interested parties to read it and discuss it.
Rodney King and Dr. Petit
While I am not taking a position on the book, I will say this. The decision to include this particular book is tremendously insensitive to the remaining survivor where that survivor is asking the library not to carry the book. One would think people would be neighborly and respect his wishes. Common decency comes to mind.
Censorship has nothing to do with this issue except to the extent it can be used to frighten people. Real censorship raises nary a peep from those people crying censorship the loudest.
Anyway, that’s my opinion from reading press accounts and various comments.
And the media constantly talking about banning and censorship even though neither is or could be true under the circumstances does not help. Imagine if the press said “Censorship Opponents Confuse Respecting Human Dignity with the Kind of Book Banning That Occurred Half a Century Ago.”
We are all people and we are supposed to all help each other. Dr. Petit is asking for respect of his wishes to not stock his public library with a book about the cruel murder of his family. Think. Imagine. People may read that book, generally not a problem, but to Dr. Petit, they may, no matter how politely, raise the issue with him, and his family will just die in his mind over and over again. Who knows what Dr. Petit is thinking? But it seems to me to be awfully insensitive to stock such a book against his wishes. As soon as he moves elsewhere, *then* stock the book. What’s the rush?
As Rodney King said, “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?…It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice….Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out.”
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http://www.SafeLibraries.org
http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/
Dan is right
You are 100% correct, Dan. Is there any way we can prevent word of the crime from getting into the local and national media? It would be a shame if it were on TV for all to see.
Find another hobbyhorse please, Mr. Kleinman.
Intriguing.
“But it seems to me to be awfully insensitive to stock such a book against his wishes. As soon as he moves elsewhere, *then* stock the book. What’s the rush?”
“If we wait until the controversy over the book dies down before we buy it, then we’ll have no controversy! Hot Dog!!”
For real, your entire post goes against my entire notion of what librarianship is about. You would purposefully avoid buying one book because you don’t want to offend one single member of your community? That goes beyond “being a good neighbor.” In fact you are denying access to potentially life-saving information for 99.99999% of your community…information about a news event that happened in their very own community. That, my friend, is called being a very very bad neighbor.
Unique
Oh I am not saying that solution fits everywhere, just in this unique case.
And, by extrapolation, you just called the surviving victim, Dr. Petit, a “very very bad neighbor.”
When did “librarianship,” as least as promoted by you, become so callous?
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http://www.SafeLibraries.org
http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/
Unique?
You call this situation “unique”. It’s not. It happens all the time. I just did a search of Boulder, Colorado’s public library and found 7 different books about the JonBenet Ramsey murder. There are books about Timothy McVeigh (as well as The Turner Diaries) in Oklahoma City libraries. There are books about the Sept. 11th attacks in New York public libraries. So, other places have books about tragic events that happened within their cities with no problem.
Hypothetically, if Dr. Petit was asking for all information about the home invasion to be taken out of the library, would you support him? Would you be against the library keeping archives of local newspapers that contain information about this home invasion? Or maintaining a subscription to their newspaper’s online archives? Or buying any other book about the tragedy? There is the right of a community to maintain a history of their community. Not just the good events, but the tragic ones as well. Not just one perspective, but all perspectives.
And, I don’t think the previous commenter was criticizing Dr. Petit and for you to insinuate that is absurd, inflammatory, and borders very close to those ‘ad hominem’ attacks you like to point out others making against you. You are trying to throw the discussion off course. But, back to what the previous commenter was probably trying to convey. There is a difference between the victim of the crime whose main concern is himself and his privacy (and that’s not meant to sound callous, just couldn’t figure out how to phrase it more sympathetically) and a librarian whose job is to think about the entire community.
Yes
That was what I was trying to convey. Thank you for being more eloquent than I am.
I have nothing but respect and sympathy for Dr. Petit after what happened. However, the event is something newsworthy, and of interest to the community. Its the library’s obligation to document local news items of significant value. Not just for history’s sake, but also so people can be more aware of the criminal element. Knowledge is key to safety.
Klitschko to fight at 60,000-seat sellout venue
Authorities said a man faces a felony charge after allegedly spitting on a police officer’s McDonald’s breakfast sandwich. Police said a 32-year-old man was working the drive-thru window at the southwest Michigan restaurant when an unidentified officer bit into an Egg McMuffin on June 3 and immediately realized something was wrong.
Freedoms are being threaded upon
The freedom to write and to tell can not be imprisoned no matter how some may feel about the content. The board of ed in Cheshire has allowed worst material as required reading for CHS students. Like the Kite Runner, Mice of Man and true stories out of a CA high school where a group of teens united as Nazi’s and beatup a black boy. The details in these books were more graphic than what was written in “In the Middle of the Night”. This private sorrow and grief has to end publicly. The petit’s neighbors, family & friends have taken this to far already. Stop trying to control others! The other folks in town, the state & nation have been waiting to know something more. This book doesn’t tell much detail about the murders. What this book can do for other teens here in Cheshire is to understand how a town teens went bad with smoking cigs, drinking, staying out late, stealing, lying, have sex and doing drugs lead him to murder. It’s an excellent book and should be required reading for all CHS students. Let us read, please and keep ur sentiments and sensitivity out of the public’s freedom. Don’t ruin the holidays with personal problems. Let the United State’s citizens read! McDonald asked those involved to speak and only Joshua did, now u don’t like it. Well, I don’t either, but I read the book and it doesn’t make him any less innocent or death any more pleasant. True stories should be told and read.