When discussing “banning books,” one things remains remarkably consistent: Those who oppose it never quote excerpts of contested literature.

Never.

The reason for that is quite simple. The questioned passages could very easily qualify as obscenity according to Texas law. The literature we are arguing about is a wild deviation from what would be acceptable material for most of our lives.

Who really believes having a book that offers instruction for performing oral sex on a man is appropriate for the section of the library marketed to 12-year-old readers? I truly understand that many/most people fundamentally do not want to limit access to literature, but in doing so they are implying that all literature is beneficial.

It is not.

Literature can enrich lives. It matters. It is vital in a thriving, well-educated society. However, stories filled with F-Bombs, sexual violence, and vulgar promiscuity should not be the stories we are encouraging people beginning puberty to fill their minds with. I honestly do not understand why we are arguing about this.

No one is advocating banning books. We are saying tax-payer funded institutions should have standards of decency and when there is clearly violent and vulgar material, it should be housed in the adult section.

If parents knew, every time they dropped their kids off at a movie theater, that there were R rated and X rated movies available for their kids to go watch, how would they feel? There are rated R books in the library section marketed to minors, and rated X books in the graphic novel section of the library.

Please explain to me why that is worth fighting for.

In her opinion piece published Oct. 20, Cate Carrejo builds her opinion on the argument that parents cannot choose who their children will become, and says people like me don’t have the maturity to accept that. Fascinating.

I do, however, have the intellect to accept that I can know who my children are when they are children. Sounds repetitive, but they are children. This, by definition, means they are not adults.

Which brings me back to the point of this kerfuffle: Move sexually violent, instructive, and vulgar books to the adult section because we don’t want teenagers filling their precious minds with tax-payer funded sexual violence, instructions, or vulgarity.