Banned Books Week 2010: 15 Iconic Movies Based On Banned Books (PHOTOS)

all i know is that the ALA--and librarians in general--deserve our support.

it was 1962 the first time i went to our Public Library. i have never failed to be impressed by the librarians and their willingness to help me find books. i was never told that a book 'wasn't good' for me or 'inappropriate'. what mind i have was expanded by them and their help. school libraries were stricter.

i was reading newspapers before i ever went to school, and remained starved for things to read. i lived on a farm miles out of town. my father sharecropped, besides taking on other jobs. my mother was constantly working. if not for the public library, i might have died intellectually.

being given virtually free access allowed me to expand my mental horizons exponentially. i was exposed to concepts and ideas far removed from the cotton fields of northeast Texas. it's my belief that it gave me a psychological stabilization which came in handy years later, when i was sent overseas by the Marines. i was able to embrace concepts not associated with American society.

and through the years. . .the sixties to now. . .i've built a library of my own, of several thousand books. many are out of print; some are paperbacks dating from the 1940's. they include works going back to the Sumerian 'Epic of Gilgamesh'.

public libraries have fought censorship and the Patriot Act, and continue to fight. they are hurting. they deserve our help.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost