When FoxNews.com wrote that a small publishing company put warning labels on copies of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, and other founding documents of the American republic, the immediate response was negative, and viral. The disclaimer on the publisher’s reprints of Common Sense, the Articles of Confederation, and other historical documents reads: “This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today.” The disclaimer goes on to warn parents to discuss the contents with their children before allowing them to read those documents.
Bloggers and website commentators have had a field day in excoriating Wilder’s disclaimer:
Unbelievable. File this one in the “Orwellian story of the day” file. I wonder if we will one day face the day in America where our Founding documents are outlawed…[or considered to be] hate speech?
This is so offensive I can’t even think straight. Literary censorship is already stupid enough as it is…
Do not buy from Wilder…I can understand why Wilder chose to put a disclaimer on [these] publication[s]. Reading [them] will make you question the current state of government in our country…Buy [them], read [them], understand the words, and look at your government in a different light.
I, for one, will NEVER purchase anything from this bunch again. To denigrate the founding principles of our nation is despicable…behavior and cannot be tolerated!
You’ve got to be out of your mind to do something like that! Why don’t you just tell everyone that you don’t think the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and other founding documents are valid any more and then we can just rewrite them to do away with everything this country stands for? Idiots.
What a sad and disgusting tribute to the sink hole we are headed for!
Stupid is as stupid does.
How about getting back to actually teaching American history and getting kids to thoroughly understand the Constitution? We’d all be in a much better place if we did.
As a US Marine, who fought to defend and to UPHOLD the Constitution of the United States of AMERICA even if it took my LIFE to do so, I find this company UN-American to put such a clause or WARNING label on our AMERICAN documents that we were and still ARE founded on. What’s next, publishers, you gonna put a warning on the BIBLE too?
Wilder Publications…how DARE you??…Shame on you!! [I’m] telling absolutely everyone to not buy one single product from you…ever!!
Warren Lapine owns Wilder Publishing which he claims has over 1,000 titles in print. On his Facebook page, he likes Barack Obama, Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to the Prom, 1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling, Strange Women Lying in Ponds and Distributing Swords as a Government System, and the Rachel Maddow Show. In addition, he favors Weird Tales magazine, Realms of Fantasy, GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), the Democratic Party of Virginia, ParaNormal Romance, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation New River Valley, and Science Fiction.
If Lapine is using this disclaimer to generate publicity for and traffic to his website he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. On the other hand, in light of his interest in the paranormal, weird tales, and science fiction, others may be asking just what planet is he from?
