American Civil Liberties Union

On July 25, 2011, the Republic School District Board in southwest Missouri voted unanimously to ban Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer from its curriculum and library. Banning books from libraries is nothing new, but across the nation a brave new era has dawned in the suppression of knowledge. Today, as libraries and schools provide access to the Internet, countless ideas are kept out by software filters. In fact, this blog post may be inaccessible in some schools and libraries. Because societal and individual advancement is fueled by the free exchange of ideas, the ACLU, as part of its Don't Filter Me initiative, is challenging those that seek to stifle public discourse.