Protect the innocent from violence, homosexuality and offensive language!

This is the rallying cry of parents who try to ban books from school libraries and the hands of their children. Even prestigious Newberry Award winners aren’t exempt.

Mildred Taylor’s 1977 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry was challenged by Debra Drake of Seminole County, Fla. when her seventh grade son brought the book home from school in January 2004.

She didn’t believe her son should read about the harsh depictions of racism in 1930s Mississippi. Drake is black, and she was afraid the book would fuel racism at her son’s school.

Some parents don’t want their children to learn the truth about how people treat one another. Yeah, that’s the way to fight racism.

Drake’s challenge was just one of 547 that the American Library Association received in 2004.

If parents are so worried about what their children are exposed to, maybe they should turn off their televisions.

Oops! Bad analogy, lest we forget that television doesn’t encourage children to think. It hypnotizes and numbs them.

When parents try to ban books, they aren’t just sheltering their children. They are infringing on their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. They are hindering improvement in society by discouraging children to think critically.

As Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.”

This time the threat to freedom comes not from the government, but from the ever-influential mom and pop.

Laura Clark is a senior news/editorial journalism major from Bowling Green.

The opinions expressed in this commentary do not reflect the opinions of the Herald or the university.