A CALIFORNIAN CONTROVERSY:
LETTERS TO BILL

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If you feel strongly about the actions of Bill Postmus, the County Supervisor of the 1st District of San Bernardino, California and Chairman of The Board Of Supervisors, why not let him know. All letters to Bill can be sent to:

Mr. Bill Postmus
Chairman, Board of Supervisors, San Bernardino County
385 North Arrowhead Avenue, Fifth Floor
San Bernardino, California 92415, USA
email: SupervisorPostmus@sbcounty.gov
fax: (001) 909-387-3029

The most effective form of protest is a clear and well-reasoned argument. Please refrain from using threatening, insulting or otherwise legally actionable language when writing to elected officials.

Below are a sample of the letters that have already been sent to Bill Postmus :
Svetlana Mincheva, NCAC Director
Chris Rohrbach, Guilty Parties

Svetlana Mintcheva, NCAC Director
Letter to Bill Postmus
20 April, 2006

The National Coalition Against Censorship, an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations united in defense of free expression, is urging San Bernardino County Supervisor Bill Postmus to return Paul Gravett's book Manga: Sixty Years Of Japanese Comics to San Bernardino County libraries.

The letter argues that "removing the book because of the sexual content of a small section entirely fails to consider the indisputable value of book as a whole" and "ignores the library's obligation to serve all kinds of readers", not only children, but also adults. According to the Coalition, such an act constitutes censorship.

Svetlana Mintcheva, director of NCAC's arts program, commented "to remove a book about the history of the genre of Japanese comics, just because it contains a section on erotic comics, is comparable to removing an encyclopedia because of an entry on erotic practices, or a book of Renaissance paintings because it contains a myth-inspired depiction of Leda and the swan."

Supervisor Bill Postmus, Chairman
385 N. Arrowhead Avenue, 5th Floor
San Bernardino, CA 92415-0110
Fax 909-387-3029

cc: Ed Kieczykowski, County Librarian
104 West Fourth Street
San Bernardino, CA 92415-0035
Fax: (909) 387-5724

By fax
April 20, 2006

Dear Supervisor Postmus,

I am writing on behalf of the National Coalition Against Censorship, an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations united in defense of free expression.  We strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to remove Paul Gravett's Manga: Sixty Years Of Japanese Comics from all San Bernardino County public libraries. The book was reportedly removed in response to a single complaint by a mother whose 16-year-old son mistakenly checked out the book and showed his mother the section on erotic manga.

We believe this is a classic case of censorship and urge you to reconsider. The removal of the book was clearly based on objections to its content, which is impermissible under the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court said in Board of Education v. Pico, the constitution does not permit "officially prescribed orthodoxy" which limits what people may read, think, speak, or say.

The critically acclaimed Manga: Sixty Years Of Japanese Comics is one of the few introductions to the history of the genre of Japanese comics from 1945 to the present. Manga represent an extremely important type of cultural production: in Japan manga account for forty percent of everything published each year and outside Japan there has been a global boom in sales, with the manga aesthetic spreading from comics into all areas of Western youth culture through film, computer  games, advertising, and design. Gravett's history covers an extremely wide range of topics: from the specific attributes of manga in contrast to American and European comics and the genres of girls' and women's comics to manga's role as a major Japanese export and global influence. Clearly, when it was ordered, the book met the criteria that form the basis for the library's collection development policy. Having been checked out 128 times in less than a year (according to press reports), it has also received the community vote.

Removing the book because of the sexual content of a small section not only entirely fails to consider the indisputable value of book as a whole, but also ignores the library's obligation to serve all kinds of readers, including those who seek access to information about erotic art. A common misunderstanding is that "community standards" justify removing books with sexual or other potentially controversial content. In First Amendment law, however, "community standards" is one factor in determining whether material is obscene and would not authorize removal of otherwise legal material targeted for its content.

The book is now unavailable to all readers, including adults. Whatever arguments might be advanced to justify denying minors access to non-obscene sexual content are inadequate to deny adults access to legal materials. As the Supreme Court has repeated on numerous occasions, "The level of discourse reaching a mailbox simply cannot be limited to that which would be suitable for a sandbox."

We strongly urge you to protect the rights of all readers to read and think freely, and to reject the notion that the choices made by any one reader may be imposed on any other. By reinstating the book you will demonstrate respect for your readers and their choices, for the professionalism of the librarians who serve the reading public, and for the First Amendment and its importance to a pluralistic democratic society.

Sincerely,
Svetlana Mintcheva
Director
Arts Program
National Coalition Against Censorship
275 7th Avenue, Fl.9
New York, NY 10001
phone 212-807-6222 ext. 23
fax 212-807-6245

Chris Rohrbach, Guilty Parties
Censorship Alert! An Open Letter
19 April, 2006

At Guilty Parties we believe in free speech, and we DON'T believe that some government stooge from Hesperia (and the chairman of the county Republican Party) should be telling people what they are and aren't allowed to read. With that in mind, I offer this open letter to Mr. Bill Postmus, the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of San Bernardino County, California:

Mr. Bill Postmus
Chairman, Board of Supervisors, San Bernardino County
385 North Arrowhead Avenue, Fifth Floor
San Bernardino, California 92415

Dear Sir,

It was with great alarm that I read your office's press release dated April 13, 2006 entitled "POSTMUS ORDERS BOOK CONTAINING OBSCENE COMICS REMOVED FROM COUNTY LIBRARIES." While I applaud your commitment to protecting children in your community, I would like to express my concerns about your hasty action and the implications it may have vis-à-vis the First Amendment.

The book in question, Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics, by Paul Gravett, is widely regarded as a legitimate scholarly work on a well-known aspect of Japanese art and culture. Japanese comics, also known as "manga," cover a wide range of subjects and target a correspondingly wide range of readers. There are many examples of manga that are "adult" in nature, as well as material suitable for a more general audience. As a work of non-fiction exploring and explaining this phenomenon, Mr. Gravett's book is certainly justified in giving fair treatment to both juvenile and mature aspects of the art form. In my opinion such a book has a demonstrable value as a research tool and is not, therefore, "absolutely inappropriate for a public library" as you are quoted as saying in the press release. To draw a parallel, it would be equally unwise to condemn an exhaustive overview of Renaissance paintings because some of those paintings contain nudity or are sexual in nature.

There is certainly a responsibility, both legal and moral, to prevent the exposure of children to harmful materials. My concern, however, is with where that responsibility lies. Neither the library nor the government of the County of San Bernardino should be held accountable for the raising of children, because that responsibility belongs solely to the parents and legal guardians of the children in question. By ordering Mr. Gravett's book removed from your libraries you are denying access to the roughly 1.3 million adults in your county who are entitled to choose for themselves whether or not to view such material. History has shown us that the decision of what constitutes "obscenity" is best left to individuals, not governments.

In closing, I urge you to reconsider your decision to remove Mr. Gravett's book from your county library system. I am confident that, upon reflection, an alternative solution can be reached that will both protect children in your communities and protect the constitutional rights of the adults.

Respectfully,
Christian Rohrbach

If you like this letter, permission is hereby granted to print your own copy to sign and mail to Mister Postmus at the listed address.

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