Someone asked me the other day why I chose to write my first book after things that are going on in the world, especially here in the U.S. They were shocked to find out that I didn’t begin writing The Choices We Made when the writing was on the wall of where we would see the country go with this current administration. Instead, I was able to tell them the idea came to me over two decades ago as a barely eighteen year old who was bright eyed and ready for the future, wondering about “What if?” The younger version of me would never have imagined we have gotten where we are. That we, as a civilization, have still yet to learn from the mistakes of our ancestors or more importantly, learn from our past.
Books are incredibly important, especially in times as these. I came across a list of banned books that had classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies to memoirs such as A Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Even some of the more popular books of the last two decades like Harry Potter, Handmaidens Tale, and Twilight find themselves on the list. None of those titles are bad books or even have anything in them that may traumatize a child. (unless they struggle with understanding segregation of blacks and white in America or how the Jews could be singled out in a country like Germany and exterminated.) Sure, some books have themes that some parents feel are a bit above their child, like LGTBQIA+ themes, but when is trying to understand different types of people a bad thing? What a lot of the books that seem to be getting banned lately have in common is they make people think.
Fascist governments (or administrations in this case) thrive on the uneducated. People who can’t think for themselves or are uneducated are the best sort of people for these types of government because they are moldable. If the people can think for themselves or dare to question the behavior of the administration/government that is supposedly working for the best interests of the people, the fascist ideals can’t thrive. That is why the government loves to ban and censor books. Even things so nostalgic to us older millennials, like Harry Potter, is a threat because the themes of good conquering evil, challenge what they try to instill in it’s people and therefore unable to suppress the people in a way they deem successful.
Challenge the beliefs of following blindly. Read. Dare to think for yourself and not believe something just because you are told that is how it is.
Reading is Resistance. Remember that.