"I'm embarrassed and ashamed for Norwood," says longtime Wright's Mesa resident Grace Herndon about the recent banning of the book, Bless Me, Ultima, at the Norwood High School.

Herndon writes an opinion column, Dateline Wright's Mesa, for The Telluride Watch.

Bless Me, one of nine recommended books at the top of First Lady Laura Bush's reading list on the website www.whitehouse.gov,'s, is described by its publishers as placing "an emphasis on thinking independently about moral decisions" as its young hero, Antonio, struggles "to reconcile the complexities of his experience with his religion" and ultimately "conclude that he must make his own decisions."

Bless Me is on the school's ninth-grade composition course reading list, reportedly alongside John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury, and Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.

Norwood Superintendent of Schools Bob Conder freely acknowledges that he "pulled" the book.

"The main reason I pulled it is because the school district does not sponsor that language," says Conder, a retired Navy man now in his second career, he moved to Norwood from Ridgway, where he was school superintendent in the late 1990s.

Conder declines to repeat the language in the book of which he disapproves. His main concern, he says, is that parents would "think we really approve of this, when in fact, we don't approve of it.

"So much of the garbage in it really bothered me," he continues. "I'm not a book-burner type of guy, and certainly there are classes that we teach here that have language that's probably inappropriate to our policy, but when it's inappropriate, we let the parents opt out."

Bottom line, however: "I don't see this as censorship," he says, but rather as a case of "not having sponsorship."

As to reports of widespread parental concern about inappropriate content in Bless Me, Conder says, "I only had one call from a parent.

"But I know pretty well after six years in this community that the majority of people would support the fact that we are not sponsoring the book," he adds.

As to the fate of the returned copies of Bless Me, Conder says: "We were going to destroy the books. I have the authority to do that. But then the parents asked if they could do it."

The three school board members reached by The Watch did not indicate concern over Conder's decision to dispose of Bless Me, Ultima.

"We don't have a position," says board member Trace Campbell. "It was brought up at our last board meeting," says board member Tom Colander, "and Bob let us know that the book was removed because there was inappropriate content."

School Board President Jackie "Doc" Williams reports that he too "was aware of it about a month ago," thanks to a letter from Conder in the January board packet.

Williams asks what Conder has said about the incident.

"That's exactly our stand," he says, upon having Conder's comments about his decision to destroy the book read to him.

"I'm fifth generation Norwood," says Williams. "My kids are sixth-generation Norwood. The people that have deep roots here wouldn't approve of using tax dollars" to buy books like Bless Me, Ultima.

"Anything but G-rated material, parents have to opt their children into that. Therefore, we can't make it a mandatory requirement" for students to read the book. "If they want to buy the book, we would never attempt to dictate that. If parents want to educate their children that way, they are welcome to."

Of the purported book-burning, Williams says, "I never saw it as a big deal. We could have easily had the janitor do it and paid to have it done. But a parent volunteered to do it, instead."

Williams sounds genuinely interested to hear that Bless Me plunges its readers deep into the heart of post-World War II New Mexico.

"I have a good link to Hispanics," he says, through the landscaping company he operates in the summertime. "We've been to Mexico. We're very linked to the Hispanic culture here."

Upon hearing that this reporter believes she has bought the last copy of Bless Me, Ultima up for grabs in San Miguel County, he says: "Please send it my way when you're done with it. I'd love to read it."

ONE PARENT'S COMPLAINT

Rhonda Oliver was reportedly the lone parent who called to complain about Bless Me, Ultima.

Norwood teachers, students and parents say Oliver was so dismayed by its contents that even "opting" her daughter out of being asked to read it was not an option.

Instead, Oliver reportedly met with Conder and her daughter's ninth-grade composition teacher and asked that all of the school's copies of the book be collected and destroyed.

"Where are the books? That's a good question," says Oliver, from her home in Norwood. "Hmmmm. I don't know where they are.

"I think of people as being good and kind," she continues. She seems surprised to hear that Bless Me, Ultima is on First Lady Laura Bush's Recommended Reading list for schoolchildren.

"That would be wonderful," she says. "I really respect Mrs. Bush."

Could that respect possibly extend to Bless Me?

"I don't think that would be the case," Oliver says politely. "I have no opinion."

There is a long pause.

"I must be terribly honest," she says finally. "Due to the fact I would like to protect my children from any emotional or physical harm, I will go no further."

Just how badly has the Bless Me flap hurt her children?

"No comment," she says, mildly.

"Well, you know," she says, yet after another long pause, "I'm just really not that good on the phone. I'm really sorry I can't be of any help. You know, it's too bad, with all the wonderful, positive things that are happening in the school, and in this community, that people choose to focus on one incident instead of building our children up and making this a community."

When she expresses a preference for in-person conversation, this reporter suggests meeting for a cup of coffee.

"I don't drink coffee," she says politely. And then, perhaps concerned she might seem rude, she says, even more politely: "But I do drink chamomile tea."

FEAR ITSELF

A longtime teacher in the Norwood School District, who declines to be named, says that after Oliver complained about Bless Me, the assigning teacher was told to write a letter to parents explaining why she had assigned the book, and asking students to bring back their copies. She then met, reportedly, with Conder and Oliver in Conder's office. Her coworkers say the books were there when she left the room, and that she had declined to either box them up or to hand them over to Oliver directly.

According to the Norwood School District policy handbook's Special Interest Materials section, "all materials used in the classroom shall be subject to the ultimate authority of the Board of Education."

A quick flip through Bless Me reveals the word "fucker" on page 36, alongside two "bullshits" and two suggestions to "go to hell."

By page 76, there have been a few terse descriptions of visits to a brothel.

Tame stuff, by today's pop-culture standards, but understandably offensive to conservative parents hoping to protect their children's innocence just a little bit longer.

But the offensiveness works both ways. "I'm offended," says one teacher, by Conder's "unilateral" decision to destroy school property, and by his going so far as to forbid a teacher to teach a widely beloved post-World War II American novel. "I don't think one parent has the right to dictate for the rest of the students, at all.

"I'm a professional, and my judgment should be trusted. I have been trained to be responsible for your children, and parents should trust that."

A coworker backs her up. "I absolutely agree with her," says a second teacher, who too asks that her name not be used. Regarding Oliver, she says: "There are books she would be upset about now, and there are books she has been upset about in the past." And while "this title has been removed from the library, there are other books in the library that she would feel strongly about.

"I think there can be something objectionable or controversial found in everything," she continues.

"There are many references in the Bible to sex and violence and paganism. "Ask Rhonda if she wants to destroy that."

"I'm very upset that public property was destroyed," she continues. "These books belonged to the taxpayers of Colorado. I think it's an atrocious act."

We talk briefly about the irony of the fact that "the U.S. is reportedly bringing civil rights to Iraq," and, she says, U.S. citizens in Norwood, Colo., "are not receiving our civil liberties or our civil rights." Students in the Montrose and Telluride schools "are reading this book," she says indignantly.

So is at least the one person in Norwood who has checked Bless Me out of the Norwood Library.

"It is a lovely book," says Barbara Youngblood, who runs the Norwood Library (where Rhonda Oliver works occasionally).

Youngblood points out that Bless Me, Ultima is on the American Association of Libraries' recommended reading list. Bless Me had languished on the library shelf for more than two years, she says. But it's checked out now — with a three-person waiting list (of two adults, one child).

Youngblood reflects on some parents' desires to protect their children from the darker goings-on in the adult world.

"It's a difficult thing," she muses. "When you're an adult and you've read a lot of cusswords, they don't stand out as much.

"Rhonda's child is in that class, and she's probably concerned, as a parent, that something was wrong."

But of Conder's decision to allow the books to be destroyed, Youngblood, a member of the Norwood School Board for four-and-a-half years, says quickly: "Something didn't happen right."

A 27-year Norwood resident, she recollects "kind of an interesting thing" that happened "maybe 30 years ago.

"A group of parents came in and asked for certain books to be removed from the library." Years later, "the librarian told me there was never a record anywhere of what was removed.

What's more: "'I've probably replaced everything they've removed,'" the outgoing librarian told Youngblood.

History does repeat itself. As we speak, Youngblood is scouting out used copies of Bless Me on the Internet, to embellish the library's collection.

'IT PISSES ME OFF'

School Board President Williams is not the only Norwood resident who wants to read

Bless Me, Ultima.

"It pisses me off," says ninth grader Sarah Setzer, "that someone can censor a book about religion.

"A lot of us saw it coming," she says of Oliver's request and the book's subsequent banning.

"I do want to read it," says Norwood ninth grader Skyler Hollinbeck. "It sounds very interesting.

"Personally, as a student who is in the freshman composition class, it's wrong, it's against our rights, to forbid us to read a book. They say it has profanity. We've read books in the past with much more profanity, I've heard."

Hollinbeck had the book in his possession, briefly.

"She gave it to us," he says of his composition teacher. "The first day we were supposed to start reading it; the next day, they took it away. I'm pretty sure the students in the class want to read it."

Enough so that one ninth-grade girl is collecting money to buy Bless Me on an upcoming trip to Montrose. Both Hollinbeck and Setzer have placed their orders.

"I don't think she's going to find it in Montrose," says Marty Hollinbeck, Skyler's mom. "I'm thinking of ordering a bunch of copies off Amazon.com to make them available.

"It's one of my favorite books," she says of Bless Me. "My sister-in-law is a teacher in California; it's required reading at both the schools she has taught in there. It's a really good cultural book about a poor Mexican family. It definitely talks a lot about Catholicism, and the cordilleran," or Andean, "view of the world."

Of the school's decision to banish the book, Marty Hollinbeck says: "It's a cultural slice. To say that we're afraid to look at a cultural slice…" she stops to collect her thoughts. "It is definitely a breach of our freedoms, and that's a mistake.

"The way they handled it was really too bad. If you want to ban a book, there has to be a process for the community. It can't be one or two parents who go to the school and say nobody can read it. They can't make policy for the school." She echoes a comment made by other parents and teachers as well. "There was no procedure to follow."

The unrelenting burp of busy signals answering a good number of nighttime calls to Norwood parents, students and teachers could be interpreted as an indicator of the degree of concern among conservatives and liberals in Norwood about banning Bless Me, Ultima.

THE PROTEST

TAKES SHAPE

In a small town like Norwood, telephones — even newspapers — aren't really necessary to disseminate the latest reports flying around town.

One parent reports that the ninth-graders are planning to stage a protest outside Conder's office, reading passages out loud from the offending book. Another says a Denver-based university professor has offered to pay $1,000 for each banned copy of the book that the school can produce. A third parent chuckles and talks about her children's teacher who "likes to buy satanic and heavy metal" adornments for her car — "just to drive Conder crazy."

Fingers are being pointed as the battle lines are drawn, and people on both sides of the fence have lists of names of people on their teams who will help make their case to reporters.

Late Thursday afternoon, both Sarah Setzer and San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes call to report that a protest sit-in is planned, for tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 11, at 8 a.m., in the gym at the Norwood School. And Goodtimes has teamed up with Western Wares, a Norwood software company, to come up with 11 prizes — one $100 prize and ten $10 prizes — "for the best reviews of Bless Me, Ultima."

Goodtimes further reports he's just discovered that President George Bush, in 2001, awarded the National Medal of Art to Bless Me, Ultima and its author, Rudolfo Anaya.

"Of course, as flaming liberals, we think it's a lot of fun," says Herndon, whose grandson attends Norwood High School. "I tell him not every household in Norwood has the freewheeling discussions we have going on."

A trip to the grocery store got "one gal, who's very much of a straight arrow, telling me she was just outraged over the whole thing. She compared it to Nazi Germany."

Perhaps some of the more-profound-than-usual questions found on the Cliff's Notes website for Bless Me, Ultima, can lend some insight into the underpinnings of the controversy. Of the main character's dreams that he can't save his family from heartbreak, it reads: "The dream foreshadows Antonio's shift from absolutist thinking to relativism. To transcend absolutism, one must withdraw one's commitment to a particular perspective in order to be able to appreciate other perspectives. Antonio's transcendence intimates a cosmic death balanced by regeneration and rebirth. Out of conflict and chaos comes a new level of understanding that restores unity and harmony to the world. But this understanding, as portended by the dream, is something he must achieve on his own. Ultimately, individuals must live their own lives in accordance with their own views.

"A list of questions further illuminates the debate," the notes say further on. "What is paganism? Who are non-pagans, and what are the boundaries between pagans and non-pagans? Is Ultima," a healer, midwife, mystic and herb collector, "pagan or a non-pagan?"

So more than words, perhaps, have allowed this tempest to escape its teapot.

Herndon's closing comments suggest a sense of humor may be the best way to help the Norwood population start getting along again.