Letter to the Editor: Relax – you can still read Seuss
Young students, just beginning to learn to read in the first few years of the sixties progressed through the Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue Books, to advance to the first hardcover book: “On Cherry Street.” Once you were “On Cherry Street” you had it made. A family was featured throughout the series; little Suzy had blonde hair just like her mommy, and little Bobby had sandy brown hair, just like his daddy. Suzy helped in the kitchen, while Bobby played outside. Somehow, Bobby’s hands and face never got dirty, and he didn’t rip his jeans at the knee. A delicious and nutritious dinner was always ready to be served when daddy got home from the office at Five O’clock. The great drawback to the story was that it was totally fiction, pretending to be fact. It wasn’t close to the truth for that classroom, the county, the state, or or the country at that time; and as the decades passed that scenario faded further and further from reality.
That made supplementary reading that much more important. Stepping forward to fill the need was Dr. Suess. Suess’ books were, and still are entertaining, interesting, imaginative, and highly motivational for young readers. No doubt, a child of 6 or 7 would know that the creatures in Dr. Suess’ books were imaginary, fictitious, and a lot of fun.
The company controlling the copyrights to Suess’ work has recently decided that six of the books include characterizations that aren’t suitable in this day and age. Some conservative broadcasters and politicians consider it to be “cancel culture” to cease publication and distribution of those six titles. I’d like to urge Representative McCarthy and Senator Cruz to relax; you can still read “Green Eggs and Ham,” and more than fifty other titles by Dr. Suess.
Gene Nielsen
Crescent Mills