Undue Sway?

A parent in North Carolina did not think Ralph Ellison’s classic “Invisible Man” suitable for her teenager and wrote the school board who promptly banned the book from the whole county schools and libraries. Not far in Tennessee, a stepfather complained that a proposed field trip to a mosque favored “Islamic tolerance”. Although the field trip, also including a visit to a Hindu Temple, had taken place for several years, it was cancelled. As incidents they may be anecdotal but seem to reveal something disturbing about a segment of the American public. Suppose a parent had written in to suggest a given book or a visit to a mosque, the requests would have been noted but no action would have been taken. Does it mean that the narrow minded among us, those who believe intolerance is justified have undue sway? The incident in North Carolina, however, created such a backlash, that within 9 days the school board was forced to reverse itself. This time it took many emails, calls and letters, not just one, but then it succeeded in not only leading to a reversal but also make a valuable point— that several open hearted people are stronger than one narrow minded one.