I posted the other day about how what I thought must have been an oversight in the The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) that prohibits American citizens from selling, giving, sharing, and probably owning if you get right down to it, any children’s book published before 1985. Apparently they came to the brilliant conclusion that this was a good idea after multiple reports of children eating parts off of dirt bikes. Yes, I know, that sounds to stupid to be true, but when will we learn that when lobbyists, nut jobs, and congress get together, nothing is too stupid? These are the guys that spend our money researching the sexual habits of Tse Tse flies – no reason this last outrage should surprise us.
Seriously, though, we have to stop it this time. This is a witch hunt based on incredible assumptions, over-the-top regulation, and stolen freedom. And it isn’t just our freedom at stake here, it’s 209 years of American Children’s Literature, and everything that came before. As an author who was published for the first time about twenty years ago, I find it interesting to hear from this committee that books aren’t worth anything after about twenty years. Really? So…I’m still alive, writing, and my early work should be destroyed because it’s beyond it’s value point?
This kind of idiocy has to be fought. I won’t be getting rid of any of the beautifully illustrated old books I own, nor will my children. How about this, Washington? You want to waste money on this, why not institute a federal training program. We’ll teach any parents not already on board with it that they need to instruct their children not to eat books. No licking the illustrations. Ink is not to drink, no matter what the Yink in the Dr. Seuss book (which by the way they are telling you you have to throw out) has to say about it.
President Obama – while you’re busy fixing things, how about this idiocy? I want my children safe as much as the next person, but sorry – no one has the right to my culture, the history of literature, or my inherent freedom. I don’t need all the Thrift stores and used book sellers put out of business to protect my kids from being poisoned by Winnie the Pooh. In fact, how stupid is it to impose such a rule on Children’s books and not other books? Kids stupid enough or unsupervised enough to eat children’s books are just as likely to eat mine.
PLEASE people, go to the various sites that are talking about this CPSIA nonsense and join in the fight.
There is a rally in Washington DC on April 1st – the date of the hearings on this. More details can be found here. If you can attend, or support, please do. This isn’t just another silly little thing, this is a great big culture-crushing deal. This is something worth standing up against…don’t let them burn the magic.
Written by David Wilson - Visit WebsiteFollow me on Twitter
Thanks for keeping on the ball on this. I might not be able to attend a rally in Washington but I'm happy to help spread the word.
Can we be certain that the publishing industry isn't sitting back and salivating a little at this?
They get to sell "safe" copies of all those old books, and reap the same benefits that the RIAA did once everyone upgraded from cassettes to CDs.
As a matter of fact, why not go through and "sanitize" the content as we go, eliminating all of those troublesome details that might lead people to inconvenient notions about history and culture.
The Fire Department is here for your collection, Mr. Wilson…
Maybe someone you reach will make it….and you can contact your reps in congress.
That's even more frightening…letting them "cleanse" content…and preventing new authors from getting their books sold by the reprinting of old classics on clean lead-free pages… (sigh).
ARGH
Great follow-up! Congress keeps saying they never intended to include books, and perhaps they didn't. But they seem embarrassingly unfamiliar with the accepted definition of the word 'ALL,' then, as in, "ALL products intended primarily for the use of children 12 and under…"
This law also places the government in the role of censor, as it's not enough for the manufacturer, author, publisher, seller, to slap a 13 and over label on the product- the government must agree that they think the product is for 13 and older rather than 12 and younger.
[...] David Niall Wilson (”Glimpses Into an Overactive Mind”) contributed two passionate posts (”This idiocy has to be stopped”.) The popular James Lileks, whose eponymous site is [...]