Picture if you will a book of horror stories where horrible things happen to good people- including children.

Picture if you can a story where a God of wrath and vengeance decides that all of humanity, except for a very few, shall be drowned to death in a massive flood. Picture if you dare the screams of flailing children, sucked beneath the raging waters, screaming for their parents to save them, but alas, they too are drowning.

“Seven days from now I will send rain on the Earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the Earth every living creature I have made.”

Pretty strict, don’t you think? Now picture another story from the same book in which the same God feels like testing the loyalty of a decent fellow named Abraham, by telling him to murder his own son Isaac. And spineless chap that he was, he was just about to do it, but as Abraham raised the sacrificial sword above the hapless lad, an angel appears and says, “Now I know you fear God.” Who wouldn’t fear a sadistic psychopath playing head games for who knows what reason? Was God feeling insecure, and needed proof of Abraham’s loyalty? But why would he feel insecure, his being omnipotent and all? Uh oh, here I go on a tangent once again. Oh dear God, stay my hand and keep me on topic.

Now I ask, what decent, intelligent and sensitive people would allow children to be exposed to the above horror stories? Think of the trauma to the children’s tender young psyches, staying up late, wondering if their dad might be given such a test, their fears magnified a thousand fold if mom is named Sarah. What kind of people would allow children to be exposed to these nightmare inducing tales of terror?

People who ban books, that’s who.

Yes indeed, the good folks who feel they are better judges of what we should read than we are, are perfectly OK with the bloody, lunatic tales from Genesis, but come down hard on numerous other books, many of which are devoid of violence. And it’s not just books dealing with LGBTQ themes, Critical Race Theory or “Woke,” whatever the hell that is. Here are just a few:

Maus– The Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel depicting the horrors of the Nazi holocaust. Seems laudable, but alas, the characters are anthropomorphized animals, some of whom are shown naked. Guess which state pulled it from their library shelves? Texas, you say? Excellent guess.

The Call Of The Wild– No, I’m not being sarcastic. This Jack London classic that’s been perfectly fine for 120 years. This one seems, in some odd way, to tout Socialism, and animal abuse, which of course would never happen in real life, so blind fold the kiddies.

The Diary Of A Young Girl, by Anne Frank- Why this one? The scholars in Alabama deemed the 14 year old’s description of her own body”pornographic,”plus, they added, it’s a real “downer.”

Where’s Waldo– An illustrated book with few words, somewhere in the book appears a partially topless woman in a beach scene. She’s tougher to spot than Waldo.

Where The Wild Things Are– Maurice Sendak’s 1963 classic children’s book. Why? The protagonist, Little Max, after misbehaving is sent to bed without supper, and dreams he is in a Dark Land where he becomes king of the “Wild Things.” He then leads them on a raucous “wild rumpus.” Too dark for the kiddies. Plus, Little Max had to endure starvation when deprived of his supper.

Should I even venture into Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland? Use your imagination, like Lewis Carrol did.

There you have it, a tiny ice cube off the tip of the iceberg. Yes, we must protect our fragile children from the corrupting, mind warping affect of the above mentioned books. Give them something suitable from The Good Book itself. Ah, those wonderful heart warming tales of human sacrifice, genocide, war, plague and, for something they can really relate to, infanticide. Yes, wholesome reading that will make for sweet dreams- sweet dreams for the innocent, impressionable babes, whom we must protect at all costs from bad thoughts from banned books- or from thinking altogether.