Over this past week WNYC and NPR have carried the story of Roxana Caivano, the Roxbury, NJ, librarian who is suing four parents in her town for defamation based on their statements that she is a “child predator” because of certain books in the school library. It is more than distressing that when people disagree with book choices, they resort to attacks on the librarian.
This kind of attack goes beyond merely disagreeing with a book choice and is beyond reprehensible. It’s a way of refusing to even argue about the merits of a particular book. Dictatorships are afraid of the new ideas a book can bring. That’s why they burn books, thinking that a new way of approaching the world threatens their narrow worldview.
Censorship is one of the last resorts of the fearful that the little world they have built for themselves will crumble. Censoring history is also part of the battle of the small-minded who want to eliminate the truths about us as a Nation and a society. We cannot build a more just society by pretending that certain events in the past never occurred. Taking responsibility for our past enables us to create a future open to all.
Prayer for the Day
You know our inward fears and longings, O God,
And the boundaries we create for ourselves;
Move us beyond the limitations of seeing only black and white
Into the gray wash of everyday life.
Grant that we look outward with your strength,
Rather than inward in fear our world will change.
In the name of the One who is the source of strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
- John F. Kennedy, President (1917-1963)
It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences.
- Audre Lord, contemporary American writer
For fear is nothing but a giving up of the helps that come from reason;
And hope, defeated by this inward weakness,
Prefers ignorance of what caused this torment.
Wisdom of Solomon 17: 12-13