Nose Over Tail

Have you heard about the dear lady who is trying to get the Harry Potter series banned from school libraries in Gwinnett County, GA? Oh yes, my friend. Did you hear the details of her argument? She's arguing that the Harry Potter books promote witchcraft, which is a religion, which violates the separation of church and state. Let's *paws* here for a moment if you will. My friends, I do believe this dear lady is standing at the top of what appears to be a slippery slope. And the funny thing about slippery slopes is that you think your footing is sure...that is until you end up sliding down the hill at breakneck speed, nose over tail, until you land at the bottom, all four legs in the air in a quite undignified position, waiting for Mama to come fish you out of the snowbank. Then, there's quite a bit of dusting off and your assertion, "I totally meant to do that. Didn't you see my triple-decker half-whirly flip?" Not that I would know. Hee.

Anyway, sometimes when you start your wild slide, you end up getting tangled up with other people, knocking the unsuspecting down, until you all end up in the snowbank together. Collateral damage if you will.

So, what's the collateral damage of pulling Harry Potter off the shelves? Clearly, in this dear lady's mind, not much. But, if she bases her argument on the separation of church and state, one other series automatically jumps to my simple, canine mind. The Chronicles of Narnia. If Harry Potter gets pulled on that basis, what would stop somebody else from going after The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe? After all, everybody knows it's a Christian allegory. Now, I know that this is not the dear lady's intent. But she has to consider the larger ramifications of that particular line of argument.

Not to mention the fact that most children's books have some element of fantasy or magic. The Wizard of Oz, Grimm's Fairytales, Lord of the Rings...I can go on and on. Where does it end? Are all the bookshelves in the library going to be as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard? Throw a dog a bone, here!