Can We All Agree Banning Books Is Ridiculous?

Earlier this week, the ALA updated it's banned books list. Before I give you the break down (the entire list from 2001-2012 is in the link), may I just say how much I hate the idea of banning books? Okay. This is a whole can of worms best left un-opened for me. It's just so unnecessarily aggressive. Avoid books covering topics you know will trigger you. We don't all have to love the same things, but you don't have to ruin them for everyone else. You don't have to take a vendetta out against, I'll say it again and again, a heap of paper and ink or ideas. And yeah, we've all read books we expected to love, but found that we HATED them (I'm looking at you, House of Leaves). But would I burn every copy I found of that book? .... okay, I probably would. (I really, really, really hated that book. I know it has a lot of fans, so whenever people bring it up I just leave the room. I haven't actually set it ablaze. Though I may yet.)
Anyway. I digress. I've noticed that this list, and many others from the previous years, have a majority of YA books and children's books. I understand a parent's right to restrict what their children are exposed to, but I really feel that something like this is sending children the wrong message. It's not just that kids are exposed to violence and sexuality literally everywhere, though most notably on TV anyway, so why does reading about it make it any worse? It's because every parent I know and have ever met wants their kids to like reading books. The message you could be sending children is that "books that describe violence and sex are worse than watching it outright on TV." But the books that make these lists? SERIOUSLY. Their only crimes are that they're popular. There is literally nothing offensive about them - especially if you hold them up to the shit your kids are watching with you on TV.

I've gone on too long. I knew that would happen. Follow the cut to see the list.

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
   Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
3. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group
6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence
9. The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
10. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

And I'm going to leave you with my favorite quote from the late comedian Mitch Hedberg:

"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read."