Today’s commentary on the evils of censorship comes from conservative President Dwight Eisenhower. “Ike” was the four-star general who led Allied forces in WWII, and was our President from 1953-1961.
This is what Ike said about people who want to ban books:
“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book … . [W]e have got to fight it with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people. They are part of America. And even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them, their right to record them, and their right to have them at places where they’re accessible to others is unquestioned, or it’s not America.”
I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
(Thanks to Melanie Bengston at the First Amendment Center for the quote. Be sure to read her entire article.)