To the editor:
I want to thank Phyllis Allen for encouraging my kids to read "The Merchant of Venice." Nothing like being told "no" stirs the incentive to read. Imagine the level of readership if she also mentioned there were sure-fire come-on lines in "Merchant."
I would also like to thank her for raising the level of community discussion in Lawrence. No longer is the Lawrence community focusing on adjectives such as bigger, better, and more with regard to community expansion, but rather the collective wisdom of exposure to repugnant ideas. The Journal-World has printed good letters arguing that exposure to anti-Semitism is one of the best tools to rid society of that rotting bias. Justice Louis Debnitz Brandeis, the first Jew on the U.S. Supreme Court said, "Sunshine is the best disinfectant."
Ultimately, I object to Ms. Allen's proposition. The anti-Semitism to which she so rightly objects is based upon prejudice, which is nothing more than intolerance coupled with the power to forbid. Yet Ms. Allen's objection is no better. Her intolerance of the language of "Merchant" and a request of the curriculum committees of the school district to forbid exposure to "The Merchant of Venice" for junior and senior high schoolers is censorship. Her censorship comes out of her intolerance seeking to be coupled with the power to forbid.
I reread "Merchant" last night. In the climax, Bassanio urges the Duke to do a great right by doing a little wrong. He urges him to void Shylock's bond, the wrong, in order to do right, save his friend Antonio's life. Portia replies the Duke is powerless to do so. Let us hope the school district curriculum committees will take Portia's lead. Trust our kids taught to think well can discern the folly of intolerance both anti-Semitism and Ms. Allen's.
Jonathan C. Becker,
Lawrence
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