Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Take my glue, ban my books?

Glue. White-out. Some kinds of markers. Spray paint. What do they all have in common? Well, they're needed to create any self respecting project, I suppose. But no, that's not what I'm getting at.
Glue. White-out. Some kinds of markers. Spray paint. All of these things? I can't buy. Just like cigarettes and lighters and matches and knives and guns and bullets and all sorts of other 'dark' things, I can't buy glue, white-out, some kinds of markers or spray paint.
 Sound ridiculous?
No? I mean, yeah, sure, kids do strange things (Marijuana? Apparently it's out, and glue is in?) so maybe we shouldn't be allowed to buy these things.
How about this -- I'm given a school project. I decide to do it over the weekend. So, because I want to do my project over the weekend -- because, well, I'm a relatively good student -- I get in my car. I get in my car, my car that ways several thousand pounds, and I drive to the store. I take my life and the lives of everyone around me into my hands to get to the store.
And I am not allowed to buy supplies.
No. it really doesn't make me angry. It's odd and slightly humorous, but hey, whatever. Mostly, it is just annoying. It's a weird double standard. I can drive. I can jump off cliffs if I want to. I can swim in a lake, have a job, babysit. But I can't buy glue.
And in some schools?
I can drive into the parking lot, but I can't read certain books.
It's ridiculous. And some people -- specific people that I know personally -- think it's ridiculous that a sixteen year old can't buy glue. Yet they condone book banning -- because, after all, it's just a book. There are hundreds of others.
Here's the thing.
I can buy glue sticks, because you can't get high off of that. But it doesn't work as well; it doesn't stick to poster board very well. It's annoying that I can't just have what I want, and more than that, it's insulting. Really? Because of a couple idjit kids, you're going to keep something that they use in school away from me?
Because one parent doesn't like a book, you are going to keep a book out of my hands?
My school doesn't ban books. We've got these awesome robot pictures about it.
And some stores will let me buy glue. 
But the ones that don't are the ones that get the press. They're the ones everyone knows. They're the ones with all the attention. And whether it's banning books or taking away school supplies, it's just ridiculous. 
-shrugs- Harry Potter, Twilight, Vampire Academy, Slaughterhouse Five, To Kill A Mockingbird, Little House on the Prarie . . . . They're part of my life, part of my childhood and my teenage years. To take them away, to challenge my right to read them, but to hand me the keys to a Nissan and send me on my way? 
It's dumb.

2 comments:

mo said...

AMEN TO THAT SISTER

Katharine said...

Wow, in the USA they don't let kids buy glue? Ouch, that seems a tad unfair, and as for the book banning.... well, whenever I see a book thats banned, but I like the look of, it makes me curious about why it was banned, so I hunt down a copy and read it anyway.
Ya know, like the Lovely Bones, mum didn't want me to read it, but I read it anyway, and now its on my top ten favourite books ever.

Personally, I think its dumb to ban books and not yet yous in America buy glue!

xxxxx