Florida’s book bans continue unabated. On Tuesday night, the Martin County School Board met and held an hours-long hearing about the proposed banning of books that some feel are inappropriate.
During the meeting, where some people voiced support for banning books while many others voiced anger and dissent at such censorship, 100-year-old Grace Linn, a Martin County resident, spoke into the microphone from her wheelchair. Saying she was “a hundred years young,” Linn spoke about her husband who was killed in action during World War II while “defending our democracy, Constitution, and freedoms. One of the freedoms that the Nazis crushed was the freedom to read the books.”
Linn brought and displayed a quilt that she made in protest of a potential book ban. Stitched into Linn’s quilt are books that have either been targeted or banned. She explained that the books on her quilt represented “a few of so many more books that are banned or targeted and need to be proudly displayed and protected and read.”
The end of her remarks brought the audience to cheers, and rightly so. Linn’s speech is all that needs to be said about banning books.
“Banned books and burning books are both the same,” Linn said. “Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge. Fear, not freedom. Fear, not liberty. Fear is control. My husband died as a father of freedom. I am the mother of liberty. Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this. Thank you.”
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GOOD for her!!!! Thanks for sharing this one, Scottie! We need many, many more like her who are not afraid to stand up against the bigots and racists! Hugs
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Hello Jill. Oh yes, that generation, the ones that stood up to face the growing darkness and gave all they could to beat back the Nazis along with any other countries that wanted to destroy democracy are an inspiration. How today antifa is thought a bad thing stuns me. It is short hand for anti-fascist as you know. Yet in a time when the majority of elected federal republicans are supporting active Nazis, and governors like DeathSantis are actively courting them while republican members of congress like Marge Greene are actively spouting Russian talking points like they are on Putin’s payroll makes me really wonder what is going on today in the US. I think that Ronald Reagan himself would be called a RINO. Hugs
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The thought comes to mind, after watching the welcome reception Viktor Orbán received at CPAC a month or so ago, and the glowing adulation Trump received in Waco this weekend, that if Adolf Hitler showed up in the U.S. today, he would have every maga Republican in this country eating out of his hands within 24 hours. You are right … Reagan, Bush, and too many others to name would not fit into the GOP today and would be ostracized as ‘rino’ by most. We need two viable political parties in this nation, but today I do not consider the Republican Party to be ‘viable’. Hugs
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If only I, at 73, was as eloquent as her at 100! She was spot on with her comments.
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Hello Barry. I understand the compliment you are making to her and it is grand, but I want to let you know you have opened my eyes on issues with your comments. I appreciate your voice here, I have learned from you. Thanks. Best wishes.
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