EDITORIAL: Vietnam-era novel belongs in high schools
May 20—It took just a few minutes. But in that short time, Pete Steiner succinctly, eloquently and emotionally made his plea.
He told the Mankato School Board at its meeting Monday that the Vietnam War-era novel "The Things They Carried" should not be removed from high school shelves.
Steiner, a well-known retired radio news director and a free-lance columnist for the Mankato Magazine, spoke with passion during his brief time at the mic during the open forum.
He'd heard secondhand about a social media campaign to remove the book — adding that in these times isn't that how information gets passed along. The offended party on Facebook apparently complained that Tim O'Brien's novel contained pornographic language.
His voice quaking with emotion, Steiner said the book contained words that kids have been hearing since their early days on the playground and that "Kids in high school should be able to read the great novel of the Vietnam era."
O'Brien's novel, published in 1990 and a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, has been taught in schools for decades. The Worthington-raised author based much of the book on his own experiences as a soldier in Vietnam.
Steiner's plea to keep the book on the shelves strikes at the heart of how calls for more book banning are spiraling out of control.
We've taken stances against book bans before; we'll let Steiner say it again: "It's a real slippery slope."
