This is a letter-to-the-editor I sent to the Sacramento Bee some years ago, in protest:
On August 23, the Sacramento Bee told us that the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's had been yanked out of a Sacramento film festival because the Asian-American community found Micky Rooney's impersonation of a cranky Japanese offensive. Here is my reaction to this:
Once again the barbarians won. Gutless Vice Mayor Cohn had no business apologizing, trying to edit and finally canceling one of the arguably twenty five best movies ever made, then replacing it with Ratatouille.
Do the barbarians who advocate censorship understand that by their rules, just about every book, every movie, every work of art should be banned? Ratatouille most certainly, as it toys with the French. Also the “Chinoiseries” of Van Gogh and Gauguin. And much of the work of Mark Twain, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Shakespeare and just about everyone else should also be banned, or at least thoroughly edited. And the one book that really needs to be banished is the Bible, especially the ancient testament, which offends women, gays, and just about every other conceivable group. Perhaps we should have a Ministry of Culture in charge of censoring bad stuff - like Goebbels, Lenin, Mao, etc.
© Tom Kando 2014
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