Letter to the editor: Ban AK-15s, not books

Banning AR-15s instead of banning books makes schools safer. Books don’t kill people, and the “offensive” content used to eliminate certain books is actually censorship.

Hempfield Township is in the process of changing its policies on how books can be removed from school library shelves. This is a fascist assault against First Amendment rights to free speech. Books being banned include those on Black historical figures, slavery and gay, trans and minority issues, as well as many titles that have been staples of high school education for years (“To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Animal Farm” and “1984” are on the hit list in some states, though I couldn’t find the list of titles under review on Hempfield’s website). Now, any topic that deals with “someone who doesn’t look like me” is too controversial. Well, we wouldn’t want our kids exposed to anything that might expose them to real life situations. What hypocrisy!

Reading proficiency at Hempfield is less than 50% per the district’s own website, and the diversity ratio is 0.14%. Seems to me we should be encouraging our kids to expand their minds by reading more books and finding ways to expose them to other cultures and learning to be compassionate.

Elizabeth Veronica Weaver

Hempfield

The writer is a member of Voice of Westmoreland.