Cougar Cry
Page 3
press thank them? Surely not. Instead some of these
concerned citizens were condemned for not having read
the Harry Potter books they were burning, as if they
should subject themselves to the evil inherent in those
books when anyone can see by the titles and the draw
ings on the covers that the contents are rubbish.
Unfortunately, as a teacher of our young adults (and un
like many caring parents and religious leaders), I am not
always allowed to remain ignorant of the content of
some of our worst TV shows and movies. It is neces
sary for me, obviously, to know something about the cul
ture that my students are so immersed in. For that rea
son, I have forced myself to view certain episodes of
Southpark, to attend showings of films like Shrek and
The Fellowship of the Ring, and to read these Harry Pot
ter books. Let me here refute the liberal media's claim
that the books are harmless.
First, merely look at the length of these books. I know
first hand that most of my college-age students have
never read a book longer than Ernest Hemingway's The
Old Man and the Sea, and that reading didn't take place
until high school. (If you have missed this book, Charl
ton Heston does an admirable job reading it to you on
audiocassettes. This reading is available in our public
library.) The shortest of these Harry Potter books is
over twice the size of Hemingway's short masterpiece,
and the longest is well over 700 pages. How pretentious
of Scholastic Books to suggest that there isn't something
inherently wrong with providing our young children books
of such large size to read in the fifth grade or sometimes
even earlier. How many of us have ever managed to
read a 300-page book, let alone four books, the shortest
of which is over 300 pages.
The question here is: do we want our children reading so
much? Certainly it can't be good for them. Not only
does focusing on the text harm their eyesight, but the
sheer number of characters and events is bound to con
fuse their minds and crowd out all necessary moral edu
cation. And, of course, the sheer size of these books is
one reason - I would conjecture the main reason - why
most adults haven't read them. What adult has time to
follow along in her children’s lives when those lives in
volve 700-page books? No one can blame a mother or
father for not knowing the contents of these over-long
so-called "children's books."
But we do need to address the contents of the books,
because herein lies the greatest evil. Did you know that
in these books, the practice of magical arts is presented
as good while living a normal, law-abiding life is looked
upon as bad? The heroes of these books ~ children,
mind you - are sent to a special school where their stud
ies revolve solely around magic. They spend their im
pressionable years striving to become witches and wiz
ards, for heaven’s sake. The first climax of the book is
resolved, after a long fifty pages when it seems that a
non-magical family might have some good influence
against the magic with which the hero is cursed, when a
mixed-breed giant attacks the loving family and Harry
Potter is invited to attend this school. Here Harry is des
tined to virtually worship the magic of the school's princi
ple, Dumbledore, and to befriend the giant who attacked
his loving family.
As an example of the misleading nature of the books,
this family is not presented as loving - in order to win
over small children who know no better, the discipline to
which the family subjects Harry for his own good is por
trayed as virtual torture stemming from ignorance.
Again, the liberal media puts forth the idea that disciplin
ing our children in the way we see fit ~ such as having
them live in a small drafty broom closet under the stairs
and refusing to feed them well - is not our God-given
responsibility. In addition, the books promote the mixing
of many different types of children without any concern
for their racial, cultural, or religious heritage. Certainly
any book that portrays children attending school should
deal with the question of spiritual life and not simply with
how children develop friendships. But here magic
comes foremost. The books even suggest that children
should sometimes ignore adult authority and learn right-
and-wrong through their own choices and actions in
stead of being told by their parents or teachers. And this
blasphemy is being sold to our children through t-shirts,
fake wands and broomsticks, and movies, but most im
portantly, through the pages of these horrid books.
So, I beg you, for the sake of the children: If you see a
child reading one of these books, take it from her; if a
mother you know allows her children to read these
books, enlighten her. And to the list of Harry Potter
books, you should add other magical works such as the
Oz books (promoting scarecrows, lions, tin men, and
witches as good "people"). The Chronicles ofNarnia
(written by that liberal so-called Christian, C. S. Lewis),
The Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (all about how a
child's toys actually have lives of their own ~ scary stuff),
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Dr. Seuss
books (nothing but opium dreams full of sex and drugs),
The Wind in the Willows (where animals are portrayed
as having real feelings), and Where the Wild Things Are
(where evil demon creatures become sympathetic to our
children).
Feel free to use my expert opinions of these books
rather than suffering through them yourselves. Because
I am an educated teacher who believes in the Christian
ideals of this great country, and because I have nothing
to gain from my arguments against these evil works ex
cept an awakened society which seeks to take good
care of the moral rightness of what our children read and
learn, you can trust me.