Building Bridges

In honor of Banned Books Week, I was asked share my favorite banned book. To refresh my memory I googled a list of the books most often banned. The list seemed longer than the last time I looked and it is impossible for me to choose a favorite. So many of the books that have been banned are on my personal library shelf and have often been shared with those— both children and adults— whom I love. 

This is only a partial list of my favorites, starting with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank which has been part of me for the longest. I've often expressed the bond I have always felt with Anne. When I first read her diary I was just a bit younger than she was when she wrote it. We shared the same name, the same feelings,  the same dreams.  As I've noted in other postings, I mourned Anne death— and still do— as if she were a neighborhood friend. 

Reading Anne's diary brought the knowledge of cruelty and violence into my young life but it also helped shape the attitudes I embrace to his day. Is this the influence that makes book-banners afraid? That I should learn that the world is not always a safe place? That people can be cruel? Surely, the existence of unspeakable evil is one of the lessons a reader takes away from reading Anne's diary. But through the years what I've reflected on most is that that goodness is a choice. Despite unspeakable conditions, acts of courage and kindness continued to exist in Anne's world as it does in ours. Anne's words have echoed in my mind for decades.  Despite everything, she wrote, I believe people are really good at heart.  Reading Anne’s diary made me want to honor her life with the choices I'd make in mine.  Like Anne I try to look for beauty and hold onto goodness and kindness in a broken world. Is this a dangerous concept?

Books open our minds and give us the opportunity to learn empathy. As Kamala Harris says, we are more alike than different. Kamala has a bigger platform than I do, but I've been saying that for a long time. When we read about other cultures, choices and lifestyles, we are building bridges of understanding and respect. 

Why are the book banners afraid? Charlotte and Harry teach us about friendship and about facing our fears. I am better for having met them both, but still don't believe in talking animals or magic potions! 

Napoleon the pig helps us recognize  the pitfalls of society, the danger of too much power in the hands of too few. Seems a worthwhile lesson, especially these days.

THE BLUEST EYE broke my heart as did THE COLOR PURPLE , but both made me aware of society's concept of beauty and what makes us feel valued. Again these are worthwhile reminders of what really matters in life.

THE GIVER helped me appreciate that conformity may appear to offer us a sense of security, but in truth, it only steals our freedom and the individual possibilities inherent in each one of us. 

There are a number of LBGTQ books on the banned list. While I've only read one, MELISSA, I applaud all of them. Reading them will do one of two things. It will help sensitize readers to others who may be questioning their place in the world, or it will give those questioning their place in the world a space where they feel seen and connected. For just as we are all more alike than different, we are also all connected. 

Those who wish to ban books really wish to close our minds. They seek to control our thoughts by mistakenly believing that the words found in books create unrest. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Silence builds walls of intolerance and mistrust. Books build bridges of understanding and respect. I prefer a world of bridges to a world of walls.  Books are the tools that help build this world.