Seeking Balance To My Viewpoints
P. Scott Cummins © 2004 The UrbaneR
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance. And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
-James Madison, The Writings of James Madison (1840)
A long time ago I was given volumes containing the ancient, almost-sacred linen pages and kidskin bindings of that quote - a gift from perhaps the most conservative thinker I have ever met. Yet he listens to public radio and reads Village Voice publications – despite what that may do to his blood pressure. The person who gave me those rare volumes of wisdom from one of our nation’s most revered founders is a business owner and friend, from right here in Magnolia. He gave me that treasure knowing full well that unlike him I am pro-reproductive choice, anti-death penalty, avowedly environmentalist – yet we are both staunchly Republican. He did so to symbolize that ideas matter, particularly when in the full cry of competition with other compelling notions. Like William F. Buckley, he wanted to say don’t take it for granted – that democracy will cease to exist when the interplay of ideas dissolves into a seething bonfire of rigid fundamentalist face off.
With these watchwords I listen carefully to many viewpoints. Particularly this year, when the over-heated feelings kindled by the presidential election have unfortunately led many to shrink at the sidelines and look away in disgust. The James Madison ‘effect’ tells me this is no time to pale – we should instead redouble efforts to be informed – to focus more on the ‘light’ of ideas than the ‘heat’ of debate. And hey, its summer – grab some books and get outside - that’s my watchword! In this political summer I have quite a few bestsellers on my reading list. Already a number of them have made it into that good ‘ole canvas tote bag for trips to the Karen’s Place Playground, Woodland Park or even (if I’m lucky) Alki Beach - and the remote possibility of a fresh cinnamon roll. One of those is A Patriot’s Handbook by Caroline Kennedy. Calling it a collage of America, Kennedy says “(i) t is for my children and others growing up in a world where being an American brings responsibilities as well as opportunities…” And so looking for more pre-teen parenting insight I went back down to ‘Our (convenient) Village Bookstore’ in search of Mary Matalin’s Letters to My Daughters – a source of great humor I’m told.
The problem was it wasn’t there. Caroline Kennedy, yes. Mary Matalin, no. At first I thought it was a question of being in bad taste (Ms. Matalin, like her husband James Carville, can be rather coarse at times). But then I saw books by Bill Maher, Al Franken and (even) Michael Moore. Groovy. So that wasn’t it. What’s going on here?
Look, I get most of my books from the library. But in the summer, it is all about schlepping children, dog, toys, sunscreen, snacks and any manner of kid-collected ‘found objects’ for later artistic display – in that ubiquitous canvas tote bag. I am not going to chance damage to hard-earned credit and good standing with my beloved Seattle Public Library. So I spring for a paperback – often at ‘Our (convenient) Village Bookstore’. Besides, one of the true joys of summer is to share a great read with friends, both new and old, in that rite of Seattle summer involving the exchange of books. If you haven’t tried it, you should. Summer reading got me started on the mind-blowing novels of Knut Hamsun over twenty five years ago, for example. And Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Oh, those were the days. Summer, just perfect for stealing a moment (and finding a treasure) at ‘Our (convenient) Village Bookstore’ – or at least so I thought.
Summer is also a time for travel, when (yes it’s true) I actually get out of Magnolia on rare occasion. And still wondering about the dearth of divergent viewpoints (though none may call it censorship) at ‘Our (convenient) Village Bookstore’ I wandered into a big box chain retailer and found the book department. And sure enough, there were the familiar groovy guys named Al and Bill and Michael – but mixed in among them were other names as well. Like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Bernard Goldberg, Ann Coulter, James Hirsen, Dick Morris, Laura Ingraham, David Horowitz, even Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Bestsellers all. The funny thing was, they were all mixed in together – a hodgepodge of slants and rants that actually made me smile. I picked up a Horowitz - there has to be something to him because, like Dennis Miller, he is no longer respected by the French. He’s in there now, on duty in the canvas tote bag – waiting for – what do you have to trade? George Soros’ The Bubble of American Supremacy? And you want to get together to talk about it too? Awesome! I’d like to start with his experience in Nazi-era Europe, how one day books favorable to Judaica were no longer in the shops. And what intolerance does to society. Maybe we can meet at the bakery, you know, the one next to ‘Our (convenient) Village Bookstore.’ Now, about Ezra Pound...
1 comment:
Cummins wrong to raise specter of censorship
It was with dismay and outrage that I read the July 21 opinion by P. Scott Cummins ('Discovering gaps on 'our' bookshelf,' Magnolia News). As a Magnolia's Bookstore staff member, naturally I must regret that his recent visit was not a positive one. But, in expressing his unhappiness, Cummins has raised the specter of censorship. This is outrageous, and cannot be ignored.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, censorship is performed by 'an official authorized to examine printed matter, etc. before public release, and to suppress any parts on the grounds of obscenity, threat to security, etc.' It is not, therefore, an activity which a bookstore may perform. Nit-picking, you may say. Surely I know what Cummins intended to suggest: that the bookstore employs a policy of suppression, limiting access to authors who express certain viewpoints.
This is equally outrageous. Fortunately, it's incorrect as well.
The issue is not one of ideology, but of economics. As a small business, we must, by necessity, make choices. If our choices are not yours, the solution is simple: You may order the books you want. If it's available to us, it's available to you. Ordering books is a vital and pleasurable part of our enterprise; judging books - either by cover or content - is not, nor is it behavior in which we indulge.
Lack of instant availability may be disappointing and frustrating, but it does not constitute suppression. In seeking to infer that it does, Cummins has revealed no ones intolerance but his own.
Cameron Dokey
Magnolia
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Totally unfair tool
I am upset over the Urbane R column of July 21 ('Discovery gaps in 'our' bookstore,' Magnolia News). P. Scott Cummins went beyond the call of duty and denigrated one of Magnolia's most cherished businesses, Magnolia's Bookstore, because it did not have a book he wanted.
This is a small, but very generous company that has given back many benefits to the community (including to the school Cummins' children attend) and does not deserve to be the victim of his mean-spirited bullying. Small bookstores don't have the shelf space for every book in the universe, but the Magnolia bookstore will gladly order anything you want. I am willing to bet that either Cummins did not ask them to do that, or he did ask them and then got annoyed that he would have to wait for something he wanted.
It is totally unfair to use his column in the Magnolia News as a tool to publicly bully and punish a fine storeowner.
Gale Shinozaki
Magnolia
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Balancing 'balance'
I am writing in reaction to the guest column 'Discovering gaps in 'our' bookstore,' by P. Scott Cummins, published in the July 21 Magnolia News.
I do not understand how Cummins believes he is entitled to publicly condemn a popular private business in our community because he was unable to find books by the specific authors that he was looking for, on the specific day that he wanted them.
In one short article, he manages to congratulate himself for his scholarly, name-dropping taste in literature and to accuse Magnolia's Bookstore of a hidden revolutionary agenda - although, as he states, '...none may call it censorship.' His next-to-the-last-paragraph reference to Nazi censorship of Jewish books is inexcusable.
If Cummins wants access to all titles at all times, he should be looking for his books at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, or our huge new public library. Obviously, a small, privately owned bookstore cannot have the permanent inventory of a megastore.
Our wonderful bookstore in Magnolia manages to accommodate a section for children's and young adults' books, periodicals, art and photography books, travel guides, classics, biographies, mysteries and science fiction, books on tape, as well as a large selection of popular fiction and nonfiction. The owner and staff are knowledgeable, friendly and happy to order any title available. Books are, by necessity, ordered in small quantities; they sell out and are reordered.
When I wanted to purchase a copy of "The DaVinci Code" and was told that it was temporarily sold out, I did not immediately accuse the bookstore of having a pro-Catholic agenda.
Comparing the selection at a small local bookstore to that of a big chain retailer is as faulty as comparing the inventory of Ace Hardware to that of Home Depot or Costco.
I was surprised to see an opinion piece in a local newspaper attacking a respected and popular local business in this way.
Marcia R. Binney
Queen Anne
Economics, not politics, determines books in stock
Scott Cummins' recent opinion piece ('Discovering gaps on 'our' bookshelf," July 21) begins with a wonderful quote about knowledge and then descends to a strange rant that: 1) his local bookstore did not have the book he was looking for in stock; and 2) the books on the shelves of that bookstore do not reflect his political views.
Of the nine authors Cummins lists as so charmingly mixed in with the 'familiar, groovy guys' on the shelves of the big chain retailer he then visited, four are also on our shelves, filed alphabetically by author among the other political writers. Most of the remaining authors he lists have new books coming out later this summer or fall, and we have them on order. Earlier books by these authors are no longer on our shelves because we do not have the luxury of allotting space to books that are no longer selling.
The collection in our store represents two things: titles currently being published by major publishers, and titles that sell. We try to stock as many new books as we have room for, and those that do not sell within three or four months are returned to make room for newer titles. The fact that there are currently far more best-selling books containing political views not in line with Cummins' than otherwise is a phenomena he might want to investigate, but it is not something our store can fix. In different times, different views prevail: not so long ago our shelves were laden with anti-Clinton polemics (a Hillary-bashing book or two can still be found).
I am sorry that Cummins did not find his Mary Matalin book; had he asked us to, we would have happily ordered it for him and had it in his hands within a few days. This is something we do every day, compensating for the limitations of our size. We can't have everything on hand that all of our customers might want; and our survival as a small business owes a great deal to our many wonderful customers who understand this.
Cummins' criticism of our small bookstore amounts to a complaint that we do not have as many books as a big bookstore, and that seems a bit absurd.
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Ah, so Cummins should be silenced
For a man apparently so well read, Scott Cummins makes a rather surprising mistake of logic in his commentary 'Discovering gaps on 'our' bookshelf' (Magnolia News, July 21). The explanation for why he is able to find a wider selection of books at a 'big chain retailer' than Magnolia's Bookstore is the crux of the difficulty that all independent booksellers face: the economy of scale. A 'big chain retailer' with 100 times the shelf space and likely 100 times the sales volume can afford to keep on its shelf books that have limited turnover on the off chance that Cummins might wander in and enjoy the juxtaposition of Michael Savage and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
A local bookstore provides the great service of personal recognition, something that is rarely seen in a 'big chain retailer.' And Magnolia's bookstore can and will order any book that is available to them. (Next time you are in a big chain retailer ask to special order a book not in stock and see how long it takes to be delivered.)
I am also disappointed by the lack of oversight and discretion that you, as editor, exercised over a freelance submission to the Magnolia News. It stands to reason that if one were to compare quality and diversity of content between newspapers that one should compare relative size of publication and audience. It hardly seems appropriate to compare the variety of material in the Magnolia News, a community newspaper, with The Seattle Times, a much larger, regional paper; or even the Christian Science Monitor, which although not large in number of pages draws on an international audience.
Why then did you feel it was appropriate to publish Cummins' opinion whose only criteria for comparison was that there are more choices in a big store than in a local independent store, therefore there must be some ideological censorship being exercised. Surely you have more material available to publish than an essay that looked for controversy but found only its own unsupported inference at the expense of a local, highly respected merchant.
One final note: Cummins should review the root of the term censorship. Most dictionaries, including the OED and Merriam-Webster, define 'censor' as 'an official who examines books, plays, films, etc. to suppress anything objectionable.' Hence censorship implies control by a governing body over what material is available to the body governed. Individuals usually have opinions, governments censors.
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