A farm boy speaks

by Tom Arenbcrg & l Dong Scllultz

Ben See calls himself “a farm
boy", He grew up in Grinnell and
lived here until 1955. During that
time he says he did just about
everything a person should not do.
He then moved to Texas to attend
college, and last June he returned
home with his wife and five
Children. Soon after, the farm boy
from Grinnell accused his alma
mater school district of having
“obscene and vulgar" books on its
library shelves.

See, who is an insurance
salesman and a lay preacher,
bases his charge on Chapter 1267 oi
the laws passed by the sixty-filth
general assembly of Iowa. He said,
“Our state general assembly has
defined ‘Obscene'. Now all we have
to do is to lay the books down
beside the definition and see are
they abscene or not? We’re not
deiining it, we’re only comparing."

The law‘s fifth section states
criteria by which questionable
material may be exempted from

the label ‘obscene’. According to
See, however, none of the seven
controversial books is “ap-
propriate material tor educational
purposes,” which Section Five

stipulates for exemption.

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School Board Committee Invalid

The ninth section of the law
states that “. . .the sale and only
regulation of obscene material
shall be under the provisions of this
Act. . ." For this reason, See
believes that the committee ap-
pointed by the school board to
investigate the issue has no valid
purpose. He stated, “After getting
my hands on this law, it appears to
me that the committee has no
reason to exist. . . I asked the
superintendant to dismiss the
committee because of Section
Nine. I don’t think they can sit in
judgment of my complaint." Also,
See disapproves of the school
board selecting the committee.
”Have you ever heard of an ace
cused man being able to select his
own jury?" See asked.

Although See wants the school
board to eliminate the opportunity
for students to read the
questionable material in the school
district, he thinks it is a parental
matter whether or not a child reads
such material. “As faras the law is
concerned and as far as God’s law
is concerned, the parent is the
responsible individual to decide
whether these books can be read or
not,” See commented. He later
said, “I’m not opposing any

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parents who want their child to
read these books. That’s their
privilege."

Brothrr's keeper

Personally, See dislikes the idea
oi children reading questionable
material. He said there is “a
tremendous potential danger” in
such exposure. He added,
“Because I am my brother’s
keeper, 1 would certainly try to
persuade someone to spend his
time more properly than reading
this type at material because I
firmly believe. in view of all I have
read from behavinrial scientists
and psychologists, that there is an
inherent danger in an overexA
posure to this type of material and
We never know what an overex-
posure is until we look back and we
see how it attected people. .

Even if questionable material
has high literary quality, See still
opposes reading it. “You can’t
wade through the cow manure
without having some oi it stick on
your shoes," he’said. “You just
can’t read these books (of high
literary quality) without having
some it (the questionable parts)
stick in your subconscious mind.”

Parental Mattel-

Although See thinks reading
questionable literature is a
parental matter, he rejects the
idea of allowing the controversial
books to be available to those
students with parental consent,
“Parents who don’t want to spend
their tax dollars for those type of
books because they don’t buy the
books themselves, are being
subjected to spend their tax dollars
for those type of books. We're
being forced to spend our money
[or something we wouldn't spend
our money for otherwise.” He later
continued, “They’re forcing the
silent majorityeand it is a silent
majority at this pointito buy these
books to put them out there
whether they want them or not.”

See is concerned that a lot of
people are overlooking “the silent
majority". He remarked, “Our
local newspaper and our local
radio station have made it appear
that I’m the only person that’s
unhappy with the books up there
and that ain’t so.” He also added,

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“Our educational staff has not
taken the pulse of the parents to
see what they want.”

‘ The failure of educational staffs
m7 general to allow parental in-
fluence on school programming
worries See. He likens this to
communism and suggests that
“we're getting very close to that
right now."

See believes that if parental
influence is ignored in this case
and the literature is not removed,
petitioning and changes trom the
next election would be likely
because enough people advocate
banishment at the books to do so.
“These aren‘t fly-byrnight people
who are running around with three
heads and no Sense, as we would be
depicted by the news media," See
stated. “These are just common
people, but they've go a great fear
that their kids are being exposed to
something they don’t want them
exposed to and that they may not
be able to handle."

See thinks that some of these
people have convictions so strong
that if the books are left on the
shelves, they may demand
prosecution or may personally sue
a teacher. See said he intended
only to bring the issue to attention
and probably would not pursue the
matter to such an extent.

Bible Convictions

But See has strong convictions,
too. Most of those develop from his
adherence to the Bible, which he
believes to he completely true. See
said, “The problem we have today
is that man‘s law is fallible. . .
God’s law is not fallible and I
would defy anyone to show me

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anyplace in the Bible where it
contradicts itself.” He stated that
because God created man, all
mankind is subject to God’s law,
“if not in this world, then in the one
to come." But he worries that
people are not obeying God’s law
as much as they should.

When See first learned of the
book situation he was surprised
that questionable literature was
being “flaunted in the face of
children. When I Was here in 19551
remember a young man getting
kicked out of school because he had
a pocketbook that had words like
‘fuck'. They kicked him out of
school, Now we've got them on the
library shell so the kids can come
check them out and read them!”

it won't be like that much longer
ifa farm boy from Grinnell gets his

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