Burn, baby, burn

What difference is there, really, between burning books and banning them? No difference at all, except in the details of the spectacle: Frightened people howling around a bonfire, or frightened people howling at a school board and a librarian. It’s all the same: saliva dripping from their lips.

When Nazis burned books in Germany after taking power in 1933, more than 100,000 people in the United States marched in protest. And today?

Republicans holler ban the books; recall the school board; fire the librarian; fire the teachers. But above all, ban the books.

Cowards, all. Let’s take a look at other things Republicans want to ban — and are banning. Let’s start with public school sports. Whatever happens on those playing fields, is it really a problem? Even if your team loses?

With all the problems in our world — Russia’s war against Ukraine; Israel’s war against Palestinians; the Supreme Court’s war against women; Alabama’s war against in vitro fertilization; all the civil uprisings against presidents and warlords in Africa; melting of the polar ice caps; deforestation of the Amazon Basin; melting of the permafrost in Canada and Siberia; widespread extinctions of plants and animals — how important, really, are rules about letting transgender kids play on a junior high school soccer team? Or even — dare I say it? — softball.

This is not important at all, to anyone with a particle of brain.

So why do Republicans make such a big deal out of it?

It’s because they have nothing constructive to say about our real problems, including, of course, mass emigration to our country.

That’s a word you seldom see in stories about our border: emigration. Sure, people are coming here — after leaving countries where they’ve lived their whole lives. Why are they doing that, do you suppose? And why don’t Congress and state governors talk about that?

After all, one of Tom Jefferson’s criticisms of King George III in the Declaration of Independence was: “He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither … .” 

(A recent study by the United Nations indicated that mass emigration from Venezuela has boosted the economies of other South American nations.)

Tom again: “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” Like Speaker Mike Johnson’s toadying to the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green, and refusing to do anything about immigration, to make life a little easier for his Fűhrer?

Now let’s consider another issue of vital importance to our republic: drag shows?

Really? This is important? Eddie Izzard is a threat to our national security?

This is insane. The Republican Party has devoted itself to screwing up the country as much and for as long as possible, to help their Fűhrer goose-step back into office.

Banning books. Picking on little kids. Violating medical privacy. What are Republicans so scared of?

Something else every day. But above all, it seems, things you can learn from books.

Here is a small selection of books that have been banned from school libraries, culled from the “ban” and “books” links above. Pay particular attention to the books banned in Florida.

“Beloved,” by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison; “The Grapes of Wrath,” by Nobel laureate John Steinbeck; “The Sound and the Fury,” by Nobel laureate William Faulkner; “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” by Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway (Nazis burned all of his books available to them in 1933); “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee; “Invisible Man,” by Ralph Ellison; “Lord of the Flies,” by William Golding; “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker; “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie; “Animal Farm" and "1984," by George Orwell — and on and on.

Now consider a very shortened list of books that have been banned in Florida schools: “The Holy Bible, King James Version”; “The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version”; “The Lion Children’s Bible — Stories from the Old and New Testaments”; “The Beginner’s Bible — Timeless Bible Stories”; “Noah’s Ark — Words from the Book of Genesis”; “The Bible Story for Boys and Girls”; “Psalms and Proverbs”; “Mary, The Mother of Jesus”; “To Every Thing There is a Season — Verses from Ecclesiastes”; the “Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson”; “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul” …

Wow. Florida loves to ban books about the Bible. Why would that be, do you suppose? Could it be that Ron DeSantis and his acolytes have never read the Sermon on the Mount? And that deep down in the tin cups they use for a heart, they hate it?

No, my friends. Today’s Republicans’ dream state is modeled on Iran:

Split up the country between religious beliefs and associations. Let’s call them Shi’as and Sunnis. Pick a side* — only one per customer. Hate the other side. Excoriate them. Then milk those phony divisions for all they’re (not) worth.

And, oh, Mr. DeSantis: Check out that last banned book. “Chicken Soup”? For white Christian kids? Sound a little too Jewish for you, Guv’nor?

And if God loves everyone, how come you all hate so many people?

What would Your God say about that?

(Ssshhh—let’s listen)

*Here is a paragraph from the opinion of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker, effectively making in vitro fertilization a criminal offense in Alabama:

“In summary, the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama encompasses the following: (1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself. Section 36.06 recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life—that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”

Pardon me, but this is U.S. law? Really?

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