The people who established our government were guided by their deep commitment to absolute freedom for each individual. Having experienced tyranny, religious intolerance, and injustice first hand, each of these men had a strong idea of what liberty really meant.

Today, we live in a society where freedom is prized. However, since no living American has ever lived with total repression, we take freedom for granted. Many Americans are willing to trade a little liberty for more security.

After 9/11, when our government pushed through the Patriot Act, The Bill of Rights wasn't referenced. All of our basic rights were suddenly in jeopardy.

Maybe the most powerful of our guaranteed freedoms and the one most likely to send our Founding Fathers spinning in their graves if threatened is Freedom of Speech. The ability of all citizens to hear, read, and speak ideas of any kind is paramount to a free republic.

Librarians, not usually a formidable force in the war for freedom, read the Patriot Act (unlike many Congressmen) and were terrified. A movement to protect Freedom of Speech was intensified.

September 23 through 30 was Banned Book Week. Most of us weren't aware it came and went. I thought it originated with the realization the Patriot Act was trying to make the Bill Of Rights null and void. I found out Banned Book Week has been going on for 25 years. Those demure ladies with the funny hairdos and old- fashioned glasses who seem so harmless have been fighting tirelessly for the rest of us for quite some time.

Trying to get a book banned because you don't like what is written is tyranny. It seems okay to many; the majority should be able to decide issues like this. We are better off without those kinds of books. We must protect our children. If the law protects the kids, then parents don't have to turn off the TV and do anything.

But it is still tyranny. Not only do you deprive a person from writing something, you deprive anyone of reading those words, and discourage any future like works to be written. A dangerous precedent even if every banned book is filth. But that isn't the case.

Among the 100 most challenged books since 1990, Of Mice and Men comes in at number 6, Harry Potter at 7, and The Color Purple is 18. Maya Angelou, J D Salinger, Stephen King, and Kurt Vonnegut all made the top 50. Not exactly backroom trash without merit.

It's such a simple idea. Allow everyone the freedom to read, communicate, and believe whatever they want. If you wish to keep those ideas away from your own family, do it. Let the rest of us decide for ourselves.

By the way, Mark Twain is included. Huck Finn is number 5 on the list of most challenged books. This story of life on the Mississippi River is also number 5 on another list, Laura Bush's list of books that inspired her.

mwc423@bellsouth.net