Welcome to Buster's Blog

Irregular commentary on whatever's on my mind -- politics, sports, current events, and life in general. After twenty years of writing business and community newsletters, fifteen years of fantasy baseball newsletters, and two years of email "columns", this is, I suppose, the inevitable result: the awful conceit that someone might actually care to read what I have to say. Posts may be added often, rarely, or never again. As always, my mood and motivation are unpredictable.

Buster Gammons















Friday, September 13, 2013

The Bluest Nose


Toni Morrison is a best-selling author, winner of both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, college professor, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and an Ohio native.  Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970 and is on the Ohio Dept. of Education's suggested reading list for high school students.  The fictional work is set in Ohio.  The main character is a young black girl who dreams about having blue eyes like some white girls.  In the story, she's raped and impregnated by her father.

The Bluest Eye is "totally inappropriate".  "It's pornographic."  "It should not be used in any school for any Ohio K-12 child."  "I don't want my grandchildren or anyone else's children reading it."  The State Board of Education should not "even be associated with it."

Who spoke those words?  None other than State of Ohio Board of Education President Debe Terhar.  She's a Tea Bag Kasich pal best known for equating Obama to Hitler on her Facebook page.

Toni Morrison is a giant in the field of literature, a living legend.  Debe Terhar is a small-minded, blue-nose prude.  And if she really believes she's protecting today's high schoolers from "porn" by banning books, she's living in the wrong fucking century.

Morrison's reaction to Terhar's diatribe:  "Ironic, at the least."
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2 comments:

  1. Phoebe AckleySeptember 16, 2013 at 5:01 PM

    Thank you for this story on Toni Morrison and Debe what's her name. Small minds are soon forgotten. Morrison is a giant among the literary greats. We are all bigger for her work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 19, 2013 at 8:19 PM

    "Small minds are soon forgotten." Debe who? You're right, I've forgotten already.

    ReplyDelete

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