What?
Wilder Publication is under fire for putting warning labels on copies of historical US documents, including the Constitution. The label warns “This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today.” From the article: “The disclaimer goes on to tell parents that they ‘might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.'” – Slashdot.org
Again, what?
Something’s funny here. I’m, not sure what it is though.
The publisher in question, Wilder Publications is based in Radford, Virginia. And the copyright on the warning is 2007. The publisher itself seems to run heavy into pulp new-agey Christian self-help, sold entirely through Amazon.com.
Weird.
[Update] A smart commenter on Slashdot pointed out that the publisher evidently puts this disclaimer on all their publications. Which makes sens considering what they publish.
[Update 2] The publisher himself has already debunked this story in a blog post of his own. That post is worth reading in its own right.
So the truth is, had we thought about it, we probably would not have put that disclaimer on the book. That being said, it doesn’t change the fact that the offended people aren’t putting much thought into this. The U.S. Constitution legalized slavery and forbid women from voting. In fact, our illegal immigration problem is a direct consequence of the slavery laws. I’m being told that values have not changed since this document was written. Do these people really mean that they don’t think women should vote and that African Americans should still be slaves? If they don’t mean that then they don’t really have much of an argument because values have changed and if the U.S. Constitution were written today it would be different. So either the issue is not well thought out or it’s intellectually dishonest. Personally, I think it’s a bit of both. – Warren LaPine
Some further digging shows that the books Wilder sells are just reprints of “Mind” self-help books from the 1920s! Check out this excerpt from review of one of their books:
**Don’t be duped!** Collier’s The Book of Life is really the Secret of the Ages but under its original title. It was published in 1925 but the title was changed to its current name a year later (and a revised and expanded edition was published in 1948).
I smell a publicity stunt.
I’ve been hearing about this ad nauseum on Jay Sekulow (of the Christianist right opposition group to the ACLU) as if it’s a legitimate story – it sounded pretty dubious to me, too. Sekulow has been using it as a foil to get his overheated radio listeners to contact him for his own annotated version of the Constitution, “that comes without a warning label!!”
The following is a post written by Holly Bowne from her blog, Write Expressions. http://hollybowne.blogspot.com…
I love how people like to forget that the amendments are a part of the Constitution. Sure, the original was written from a perspective that would be different today, but the Constitution – by being a fluid and living document – transcends those individual perspectives. In fact, by reading through the Constitution and it’s amendments in full, a person gets a very clear picture of exactly how our society’s values and perspectives have changed over time and how well the document has adapted.
“We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union…” are still working at it over 200 years later – and we’re succeeding! Blacks aren’t kept as slaves anymore, women can vote, and our country spans from “sea to shining sea” – all thanks to the ability (written in by our forefathers) to amend the original document to keep it current. Is the warning label accurate? Sure, but only if you think the Constitution is a static document.