They are afraid they are losing control.
Fear is powerful.
It can spread throughout the body
and paralyze or
spur someone on to action,
sometimes dangerous action,
punitive and not thought out.
What can we do. . .
those who believe in freedom of speech,
who believe in live and let live,
who revere the written word?
How can we open a book,
turn the pages lovingly,
and open up our minds
to a world of new ideas and concepts
and still feel safe ourselves?
Will someone crawl out from behind the stacks
and snatch it from our hands?
and will they even know what is in that book?
Maybe not.
They only understand what they think they know,
or what they have heard from a source,
often without validation,
usually driven by fear of what they don’t know. . .
or understand.
There are those who want to take away our ability to choose,
and the rights of parents, not government,
to make their own decisions about what their children can read,
and the rights of children to learn what is true.
What will come next?
Book burning in the square?
Giant shredders turning books into scrap?
It can’t happen, of course. . . can it?
I believe there will still be those who save the books they love,
and even those they don’t.
Let’s be those people.
© 2023 Dorothy A Joslyn
That is all I have to say about this topic at this time.
What is a book that sticks in your mind, that inspired you, taught you something, touched you, entertained you, one that you loved? Write about how and how it affected you.
What is a book that appalled you? Do you think it should be banned? Why or why not?
Write down your feelings about banning books. . . or how to save them.
This says exactly what I have been sensing. Let me have the right to choose what I want to read. If I don’t like a book I can put it down or return it. It may speak to someone else in just the way they need to hear. Banning books is slippery slope to loosing our freedom. Thank you Dottie for putting this so succinctly.
Thanks, Wendy, for your response. It’s a scary time that we need to stop!