It's a sin to kill 'A Mockinbird'

In Lindale, Texas, you are exercising the appropriate community values if you lie about being raped, attempt to lynch innocent people, believe in terrorizing children and snub those who are a little odd. At least that's the conclusion I draw based on the town's reaction to Harper Lee's classic tale, "To Kill a Mockingbird." The book, about a white Alabama lawyer's quixotic fight to free a wrongly arrested black man and the effect the battle has on his young children, was kicked off the advanced placement English reading list in Lindale because "it conflicted with the values of the community."

Anne...