Book-Banning Effort Uninformed, Un-Christian

* Re “Newport-Mesa Trustee Wants 2 Books Banned” (Jan. 26): I am in total disbelief that Wendy Leece finds “Snow Falling on Cedars” (by David Guterson) and “Of Love and Shadows” (by Isabel Allende) objectionable for high school students and is trying to have them banned.

How does someone with such narrow vision become a trustee? These are both wonderful pieces of literature, and I applaud the teachers who are including them in their curriculum. The students that would be affected by this ban are Advanced Placement students, which means they have the opportunity to test out of taking a college English class. Their curriculum must reflect what they would be taking at the college level, which would include these types of literature.

At a time when our schools are being attacked for not educating our students, it is disturbing to see a trustee trying to destroy the educational process. Leece needs to go back to school and read “1984.”

DARBY ZIEGLER

Huntington Beach

* Having read and been deeply moved by the artistry, sensitivity and humanity of David Guterson’s “Snow Falling on Cedars,” I denounce Leece’s bid to ban this, as well as other books, from high schools. Guterson’s novel does not pose a threat of doing harm to any student who reads it; thorough and thoughtful, adult-led examinations of the book will yield newfound appreciation for tolerance, acceptance and forgiveness. While there is sexual content in the novel, it is not titillating or gratuitous but rather evolves from and adds depth to the story line and characterizations, pointing toward the grander themes of the book. The district’s policy of parental permission is a sound one and puts the responsibility for any specific child’s curriculum where it belongs: with parents, not school board members with an abstract, uninformed ax to grind.

LINDA CRAWFORD

Fountain Valley

* If conservative Christian Wendy Leece wants to ban books with strong sexual content, then she may want to start with her own book--the Bible. Christians often object to language in books or magazines. However, when it appears in their own book, it’s called “divine inspiration,” and copies are given to their children during Sunday school. I don’t get it.

ROLLY DE VORE

Irvine

* Trustee Wendy Leece of Newport-Mesa is not a Christian in my view if she wants to ban “Snow Falling on Cedars,” a book all about love, tolerance and forgiveness--everything Jesus stood for. That this beautiful story is also about people from different cultures and races resolving their lives makes her objections even more suspect.

DAVID CLARK

Irvine

* It’s cold out there, with ugly gray clouds hanging over and a chill breeze whipping through so consistently. I am not talking about the weather. I am referring to the chill and ugliness of the Newport-Mesa school board discussions about banning certain “inappropriate” books in their high schools. Well, it’s too bad that Guy Montag [the fireman in “Fahrenheit 451”] does not live in the Newport-Mesa district and that the Ayatollah Khomeini, Stalin and Mao are no longer alive. Otherwise, any one of them could simply replace the members of the school board.

HAMID BAHADORI

Mission Viejo

* The censor(s) often betrays a belief in what I like to label as the “contagion theory” of learning. This “theory” posits that whatever a learner is “exposed to,” he or she is likely to “catch.” If only learning were that easy. Ask any teacher; it’s not. The would-be censor also betrays a lack of trust and confidence in both students and teachers. High school students do not turn away from family, religious and personal values because of a passage or two in a piece of literature.

What is most disturbing about the book-banning attempts in Newport-Mesa is that school board members are leading them. In their capacity as board members, they are not simply private citizens voicing their personal opinions, but rather they are agents of the state using their power to regulate what can be read, taught and discussed in the schools. When that happens, thought control is not far behind.

DENNIS L. EVANS

Newport Beach