Banning Books

Banning Books

At the beginning of the movie Footloose the character that Ren is shocked to discover that “Slaughterhouse-Five” is banned from the local library after he makes the commentary that it was a good book.
Banning books has been a controversial subject featuring a broad spectrum of literature that has been questioned.
From “Harry Potter” to “Mein Kampf” people have found reasons to have books taken off the shelves.
One of the big reasons that seems to be the most prevalent concerning banning books was voiced by Brett Bowman who said “yea I would ban some books because I feel there are some things that underage kids shouldn’t be exposed to early in life”.
Others like Kristina Nichols leaned more towards the middle on whether or not books should be banned and said that for her, “it depends on the book, it’s not that big of a deal for me”.
There are some people that don’t agree with banning books at all like Jessi Crossen who said “I don’t get the point of banning a book, if you don’t want to read it then you won’t but if you do you will”.
At times other opinions are voiced that no book should be banned but do agree with the idea of a type of rating system where an individual has to be a certain age or older to check out books so that inappropriate material won’t fall into the hands of children who might not understand what they are reading.
Daniel Crossen, Jessi Crossen’s husband, said “books no matter what it is, is precious, each book has a bit of truth in it and when you ban a book you are basically banning whatever slightest truth it may contain from other readers and your banning that insight that readers might receive”. Daniel Crossen went on to say and give the example “like Mein Kampf it may have some interesting use to it that might help with your insight of the world.”
As far as age restrictions went Daniel Crossen agreed and said, “an age restriction should be put on it so people who won’t understand how to decipher the reality from the falsehood won’t be able to check the book out”.
At the Logan Library, Kara Huggard, an employee who works at the reference desk said “we actually try very hard not to ban books”.
At the Logan Library if an individual has a complaint about a book, something that Huggard says doesn’t happen very often, they can fill out a form that asks them eight specific questions about why they are requesting a reconsideration of it.
The individual with the complaint can return the reconsideration form and return it to the library explaining why the material is not suitable for the audience that it is being geared to or for the library in general.
For the most part, Huggard said, they leave the censoring of what children read up to the parents, but the library itself will allow anyone no matter what their age to check out whatever books they bring up to the counter.
In the Utah State University Library, much like the Logan Library, books are rarely if ever banned there and those that have questionable material are usually found in certain sections of the library where they are less likely to be accidentally found by unsuspecting readers.
Kathy Schockmel, the Art Book supervisor, said that once a student opened up a magazine and was shocked and appalled by the images with in it and complained to the library demanding that the magazine be removed; the magazine wasn’t removed nor the subscription cancelled but it and material like it are now found in the Art Book Room.
The Logan Library and USU’s library both hold to “The Freedom to Read Statement”, a statement that was originally issued in May 1953 by the American Library Association and Association of American Publishers Council can be found on the ALA website www.ala.org.
In the statement the ALA and AAP took a stand and said that people had the right to read whatever they want.
In the first proposition the statement reads, “It is in the public interest for publishers and librarians to make available the widest diversity of views and expressions, including those that are unorthodox, unpopular, or considered dangerous by the majority”.

Partying it Up on Election Night

Cheers could be heard coming from the Taggart Student Center’s ball room on Tuesday night were an election party that was being held.

Hoping it becomes a tradition for years to come, Jackson Olsen Executive Vice President of the student government said that he thought the party was a success.

The election party up to and after the announcement of the president elect engaged in several activities and contests through out the evening.

Some of the activities were a hot dog eating contest, Rock Band competition, Ping-pong, political bingo, guessing which way swing states would go, and predictions on who would win.

With Rock Band, a video game, “the only complaint was more people wanted to enter the Rock Band tournament but due to limited time and space in the brackets we had to turn them away,” Mike Watts a volunteer in charge of running the tournament said.

The tournament had a large turn out with some people signing up days in advance Watts said, and the winner was “A Band in Logan”.

The hot dog eating contest involved 100 hot dogs and ___ people and a large crowd that gathered to watch.

Bill Sproat won the competition by eating seven hot dots in three minutes.

Political bingo and ping pong had a good attendance as well as people gathered at tables with paddles or score cards to participate.

“I did have a good time at the party,” Colin Wiest said despite that, “it didn’t turn out the way I hoped.”

Even with the fun of the games there was some booing and cheering at points, especially when Utah went to McCain.

When Barack Obama was announced as the new President Olsen said that “There were a lot of happy people, there were a lot of sad people, and there were a lot of people who were seemed indifferent”.

Some people danced, but many cheered and many ran out the door to call their relatives and friends.

Olsen went on to say that, “over all I think people knew this was coming so they weren’t shocked by the outcome and I think a lot people are coming to terms with President Obama whether they like it or not. I think even the people who didn’t want him to win are recognizing that after 230 something years this country has elected an African American president”.

Dating vs. Hanging Out and Hooking Up

Ever since the 1970's dating has been suffering a slow and agonizing death as hooking up and hanging out have, for the most part, taken its place on college campuses.

In the article The Shift from Dating to Hooking Up: What Scholars Have Missed by Kathleen A. Bogle wrote "the problem is that traditional dating does not reflect what is happening in college students' lives. Most college students do not go on formal dates, instead they "hook up"".

The article states it is becoming more popular on college campuses that hooking up or hanging out is preferred by students as opposed to formal dating.

Studies have also shown that most students only go on dates for required events or when they are in an exclusive relationship the article states.

Not everyone prefers this route however as Alyse Marchant said, "I think guys should ask girls on dates more because all they want to do is hang out. I think its fun to go out on a date, I think it takes initiative while lots of guys just want to take the simple route and don't want to spend money or time thinking about things to do."

Hanging out is becoming a more popular trend in place of dating, some students at Utah State University noticed.

Tyler Jensen said, "dating in our time has changed a lot as we're starting to hang out more, it's easier to ask out a girl to come with us than just ask her out on date so that she's doesn't feel nervous or up tight".

Jensen also found it helps men as well as he said, "guys can be more relaxed and we can just hang out with a good environment and a good vibe."

Planning a date and coming up with the money for one can be difficult for college students as they are usually broke and sometimes uncreative, Jensen said.

The article states that hooking up may lead to hanging out, talking, and possibly dating though it does not happen very often studies showed.

The article states that hooking up has various meanings and that "peers are very interested in what one another are doing sexually and the term hooking up allows students to convey that something sexual happened without actually "kissing and telling" the details."

However the article stated that hooking up and hanging out are not a permanent form that is evolving.

Studies in 2004, the article stated, revealed that after college students graduated they engaged and preferred traditional dating and rarely hooked up.

Welcome

Hello and welcome! I'll be posting news stories/articles that I post on one of my JCOM class' blogs here and things I write for the Statesman as well and other writings. Probably short stories or ideas I want feedback on. :) Tell me what you think.