Vonnegut laughing and educating from the grave

Perhaps 150 students at a Missouri high school who ordered “Slaughterhouse-Five” because had been pulled from their library’s book shelves can get a copy for free thanks to the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.

The offer for the students came rapidly after the Republic School Board’s decision to remove Vonnegut’s classic as well Sarah Ockler’s “Twenty Boy Summer”. They were removed from both the curriculum and the library.

“All of these students will be eligible to vote and some may be protecting our country through military service in the next year or two,” pointed out Julia Whitehead, the executive director of the Vonnegut library in Indianapolis. Clearly the message is if these students can take on those responsibilities, they can handle a non-fiction book. “It is shocking and unfortunate that those young adults and citizen would not e considered mature enough to handle the important topics raised by Kurt Vonnegut, a decorated war veteran. Everyone can learn something from his book.”

“Slaughterhouse-Five” is a satirical novel centered around the bombing of Dresden during World War Two. The school board removed the book due to a complaint from a local resident Wesley Scroggins, a Missouri State University associate business professor. His basis for the complaint was that schools needed to drop materials “that create false conceptions of American history and government or that tech principles contrary to Biblical morality and truth.” Wow, if I’d know it was that easy…

The Vonnegut library is only seven months old. This is an excellent opportunity to get some free press and back up the principles of its founding idealist. Kurt Vonnegut would have loved the go around.