STEVE SMITH -- What’s Up?

For those of you who believed that Newport-Mesa school board member

Wendy Leece’s recent attempt to keep two books out of the hands of high

schoolers was a failed censorship try, for those of you who could only

answer her request with name-calling and for those of you whose replies

were just plain juvenile and conveniently avoided the substance of the

issue, I have some startling information.

Two and a half years ago, a teacher at Costa Mesa High School

submitted a secondary reading list to the Board of Trustees in the same

way a Newport Harbor High School teacher did a few weeks ago, causing

Leece to make her objections.

In the earlier case, Leece objected to two books, “At Last We Enter

Paradise” and “A Perfect Time,” both poetry books by Richard Jones. The

recommendation or rejection of the book list appeared on the school board

agenda for June 9, 1998. Here is an excerpt from the transcript of that

meeting:

“Mrs. [Judy] Franco moved adoption of the secondary textbooks, as

listed, except for ‘At Last We Enter Paradise.’ Mrs. [Dana] Black

seconded the motion and it carried by majority vote, with Mrs. Leece

still expressing opposition to the textbook, ‘A Perfect Time.’ ”

Translation: Every school board member who was present at the meeting

objected to the inclusion of “At Last We Enter Paradise” to the reading

list. The book was denied. The vote would have been unanimous except for

Leece, who also wanted “A Perfect Time” kept off the list.

No outcry, no screams of censorship. No one called Franco a “religious

conservative” for moving to ban “At Last We Enter Paradise” and no one

suggested that Black appoint a “values czar,” whatever that is, for

seconding the motion.

As hard as it may be for many readers to believe, Leece’s school board

colleagues agreed with her that a book was out of bounds for high school

students. Accordingly, they did what they are supposed to do as trustees

and sent the message that the book exceeded the limits of their

standards.

There are, in fact, two standards. One applies when Leece is on the

losing end of a 6-1 vote. At that time, it’s OK to call her names and

distort her intentions. The other standard is when school board members

act to do the very same thing. Then, they are acting in the best

interests of our children.

Since I first wrote about my support of Leece’s proposal, I have read

the two books and still agree with her.

“Of Love and Shadows” is, in my opinion, a glorified romance novel

with the steam turned up. The book is supposed to be the story of a noble

fight against a military dictatorship by two journalists, but it is

really little more than a silly love story, with adults living their

sexual lives without responsibility.

One of the main characters, Irene, is engaged to an Army captain. He

is frequently unfaithful to her but does not love his other lovers, so

it’s OK to cheat. Irene then falls in love with her colleague, Francisco,

and has an affair with him.

Irene’s mother travels twice a year for trysts with Michel, a man

young enough to be her son. After each trip, she does not feel any shame

or remorse; she feels young and alive.

So people are cheating on loved ones and having lots of casual sex.

There is no consequence to all this -- no shame, no sexually transmitted

diseases and no pregnancy. It’s all neat and tidy and trite.

In the book, there are many graphic passages, the most disturbing of

which is the description of a soldier’s ravaging of a nearly dead

15-year-old girl who dies during the rape. According to six of the seven

members of our school board, all this is perfectly suitable for children

to read.

If you need further proof that this book is less a literary

masterpiece than a novel of no consequence, read the second half of a

review excerpt by the New York Times that appears on the back cover of my

paperback copy:

“She [author Isabelle Allende] can just as deftly depict loving

tenderness as convey the high fire of eroticism. And when you

successfully merge sex and politics with a noble cause, how can you go

wrong?”

Did this review praise the research conducted by the author or come

near to calling this a classic? No, it focused on sex.

The Orange County Public Library must agree with Leece too, because in

the entire system there is only one copy of this monumental novel

available anywhere.

I don’t expect those who called Leece a censor or other names to write

or phone this paper and say they were wrong. I can only hope that these

people now understand that our school board has a history of rejecting

inappropriate books and that it has nothing whatsoever to do with

censorship. It’s strictly a matter of declining standards.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Readers

may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (949) 642-6086.