The McMinn County School Board decided to ban Maus, a multi-award winning graphic novel about the holocaust. According to an official statement posted on Twitter, Maus was removed because:
“…of its unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide.”
I’m not sure these idiots know what the holocaust was. It seems rather inconvenient for them that it didn’t take place in a clean, white room where everybody was polite before the murdering began.
But in order to explain themselves they put forth that:
“We do not diminish the value of Maus as an impactful and meaningful piece of literature…”
And yet, they banned it.
To further illustrate the incompetence and stupidity on display here, soon after the news broke about the removal of the book, the school tweeted out a photo of the Board for School Board Appreciation Week, a time of the year that’s only slightly more important than National Pasta Salad Day. They wanted to thank the Board for all they’ve done. As an added bonus, the tweet included a picture of the school board members along with all their names.
That went over about as well as you can expect.
When the US Holocaust Memorial Museum shows up in your replies to tell you how badly you fucked up, then you’ve fucked up pretty badly.
On a personal note: I read Maus for the first time in high school. I checked it out, along with its sequel Maus II, from the high school library. And yet, I survived unscathed.
