Speaking Out Loud

I am a South Carolinian.  I am a writer.  I am speaking out loud.  South Carolina politicians are stripping funding from public colleges that teach books with LGBTQ themes .  The College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina Upstate had each selected a book for students to read, study, discuss, etc.  You know?  What students do at a university?  South Carolina Representative Garry Smith, a Republican from Simpsonville, proposed the cuts.  It started with a complaint he received from one constituent.  The constituent's daughter was going to the College of Charleston and would be reading "Fun Home."  This book was not even required reading.  It was part of a College Reads! program.  When others, politicians and citizens, wondered aloud about academic freedom, Rep. Smith stated, "It's not academic freedom -- it's academic totalitarianism."  Hmm. 


Academic freedom is defined as the freedom of faculty and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge without unreasonable interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations, or public pressure. Totalitarianism is defined as the political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an absolute state authority.  Again, hmm.  College is a place for learning, expanding, disagreeing, growing.  The list could go on.  College isn't about restricting knowledge.  If this is the type of experience a student wants to have, then there are private colleges.  My state government took my tax dollars and told the faculty of a public university what concepts/subjects they could teach, and this scares the hell out of me. 


While both of the books ("Out Loud") that were chosen dealt with LGBTQ themes, this censorship goes way beyond that.  When we allow the government to decide what we will read, then where is our line?  What's next?  In any relationship there are boundaries.  If we, as South Carolina citizens and citizens from other states, let a state government push our boundaries too far, then we will all be sorry.  No matter a person's view on the LGBTQ community, he or she should be able to understand that we do not want the government choosing our reading material.  If the students had been this upset about the reading material, then why weren't they protesting? 


I have been left with so many unsettling questions.  As a former faculty member of a public college and as a writer, I am Speaking Out Loud.  I encourage you to do the same.  Please go to Speaking Out Loud to find out how.