(September 29, 2005) — During my weekly stroll through the heart of Montrose, I happened upon a curious display in the window of Once Upon a Time bookstore. The glass had been covered in paper, with caution tape criss-crossing over the words “Banned Books.” What, I thought to myself, could this mean? Surely such a concept could not exist in the United States. With this in mind, I ventured inside to question owner Maureen Palacios. What she told me was mind-blowing. The past week (September 18-24) was Banned Book Week, a time where all the literature that has been challenged in the past is spotlighted in bookstores. Among these are George Orwell’s 1984 , Huckleberry Finn , and even the infamous Harry Potter. For those of you who are finding this hard to believe, welcome to the club. Palacios said that a controversial book goes through two stages before being banned: first, it is “challenged,” where a parent, for example, complains to the school district. Second, it is “censored,” where various parts of the book are actually blacked out. Finally, if the conservatives get their way, the book is banned; in a school district for example, such a book would simply not be allowed. I thought that literary censorship was something of the past, buried among various communist-related events in the annals of history. According to Ms. Palacios and the American Library Association (ALA), I was terribly misinformed. Isn’t it ironic how over a thousand American soldiers have been killed over in Iraq in the name of “spreading democracy,” yet we here in the United States can’t handle the democratic freedoms we have given ourselves? We pride ourselves on being the land of the free; the moment anyone gets mildly offended, however, such freedoms are forgotten and things like book banning take place. Every U.S. History teacher that I have had up to this point has drilled into my head the glory of the Bill of Rights; how lucky we are to have the First Amendment that blesses us with the freedoms of speech and expression. I’m sorry, but all that seems like baloney when I hear that Huckleberry Finn actually insults people.