In America, we love our holidays. There are the traditional day-long festivals, such as Halloween, Christmas and Thanksgiving, as well as month-long memorials like Black History in February and Breast Cancer Awareness in October.

But underneath these well-known celebrations are a countless number of holidays that have slipped into the obscurity of American culture. For example, did you know January is National Oatmeal Month? Or March 30 is National Doctors’ Day? Neither did I, and I also didn’t realize that last week, I had passively been a part of yet another little-known celebration: Banned Books Week.

After hearing about BBW, I felt compelled to do some research about it. My initial assumption was that someone created it to commemorate all the controversial literature that has pushed the boundaries of society and gotten our country where it is today.

I expected to find information about books that were banned 50 or more years ago and read the stories of those who bravely stood up for their right to include those works in their schools and libraries. While this is partially the case, I was shocked to find that BBW celebrates books that are still being opposed to this day.

The American Library Association, one of the largest sponsors of BBW, has a list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books of 2000-09 that includes such classics as “The Color Purple” and “Of Mice and Men,” more recent phenomenons like “Kite Runner” and the Harry Potter series, and absurdities such as the Goosebumps series and “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

In fact, two of the top 10 challenged books in 2009 were the Twilight series and “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

The fact that BBW exists shows that there is a lot wrong with our country today. I’m not referring to the existence of offbeat holidays — that’s one American quirk I fully embrace — but rather that there are still people who believe certain literature should be censored or completely unavailable to youth.

For example, in 2006 a concerned Georgian mother named Laura Mallory attempted to have the Harry Potter series banned from schools and libraries. Mallory claimed the book was evil and against Christianity. In fact, an online petition to have the series banned still exists, arguing that Harry Potter depicts numerous scenes of violence, crime and other offenses to God, such as witchcraft. All of these objections, of course, are coming from a group of people who endorse the Bible, which is littered with incest, rape, theft and murder.

But it isn’t only for religious reasons that people oppose students reading some of these books. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” for example, is challenged because of the way it deals with race issues and acts of violence. Similarly, the ttyl series by Lauren Myracle gets most of its flak for drug references and sexual explicitness. Regardless of the specific objection, it’s sad that in 2010 we’re still wasting our time fighting about what should and shouldn’t be said, sang or written.

In the end, extreme censorship only shelters people from the real world. Whether you like it or not, reality will catch up to everybody some day, and it’s important to be knowledgeable and prepared for it. This isn’t to say that we don’t need limitations, but until “A Clockwork Orange” starts being taught in elementary schools, I think it’s safe to say we’re doing a good job.

Nobody is forcing you to read obscene material, and if you don’t want your child reading a book because of its controversial content, that’s your responsibility as a parent, and nobody else’s. Especially not the government’s.