The following letter to the editor is a response to an editorial published March 8, 2021.

Recently within this paper, there has been a claim that Dr. Seuss Enterprises stopped printing 6 of its books because they wanted to be more “equitable and inclusive.” I take issue with the idea that it is only mildly newsworthy when the Cancel mob is successful in pressuring companies to stop printing children’s books.

We have a culture of decency in this country, and bad actors can manipulate that idea of decency into telling you that the cartoons in children’s books are objectionable when really it’s the content they don’t like. If they can get children to believe they are not individuals with the right to life, liberty, and property, then they will not fight oppression. 

Every functioning society has understood that children are impressionable and that the books that they read, the shows they watch, and the music they listen to will all shape them as they grow. Bad actors understand this and are willing to call a company racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, or any other vapid slur to get ideas they don’t like taken off the market. 

You may have heard of the recent push to cancel “Paw Patrol” for depicting police in a positive light. Perhaps the attempt to ruin the famous actress Gina Carano by getting her fired from the hit TV show ‘The Mandelorian’. 

Entertainment matters and bad actors will remove content they don’t like while telling the rest of society not to worry about it. They say “It’s just a kid’s show” or “It’s just a children’s book.” 

You’re right. It is just a children’s book. Children are the most important part of our society and they should be protected from the predations of the the cancel mob and their “ruthless criticism of all that exists.” 

I still have many of these books and will be reading them to my children. Unfortunately if the cancel mob has their way they won’t be available much longer. 

Prospective parents, do you want your choice of books to be determined by a small group of offended people? How many things do they have to destroy before we are allowed to be concerned about their destruction?