At first glance, it appears that the Bible, Little Red Riding Hood and Webster's Dictionary have almost nothing in common, except for the fact that in some point in time, they have all been banned from public reading.
Representatives from Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union set up an information table Wednesday outside Willard Building to promote Banned Books Week. From Sept. 23 until tomorrow, students are encouraged to fight unlawful censorship by reading a banned book. Students can visit the information table today.
"Basically, we want to raise awareness about books that have been banned and encourage people to use their freedom of expression," said ACLU member Samantha Chirillo (senior-microbiology).
Censorship of all kinds is a large area of concern for members of both the ACLU and Amnesty. "A lot of Americans want to ignore it (censorship)," said President of Amnesty International Douglas Grane (sophomore-secondary education). "But people all over the world, except in America, are killed or tortured for it."
Publishers, authors and people of religious faith who read books of their religion are among those most commonly persecuted in countries such as China, Russia and Iran, Grane said.
The long-term goals of the ACLU and Amnesty, however, go beyond promoting Banned Books Week. Countless other current human rights issues take the main focus of both groups.
At present, Amnesty is working on gaining support for the enforcement of the Human Rights Information Act, which would help peace efforts in Guatemala and Honduras. Students plan to send letters to Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.), ask him to co-sponsorship the act.
For students interested in learning more about censorship or the ACLU and Amnesty International, both organizations have weekly meetings in 102 Health and Human Development East.
The ACLU meets at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, and Amnesty meets at 7 p.m. Thursdays.
"Freedom of expression is a basic human right, and unfortunately, people all over the world are suffering for it," said Grane. "When something as basic as books are being censored, basic freedoms are censored."
