Friend -

I’m not the first person to say this and I won’t be the last: those who ban books are never on the right side of history.

Currently, 44 states have proposed bans on teaching of ‘divisive concepts,’ and 18 states have passed them (The Guardian). I know that the pendulum will swing back. That, ultimately, people like you and I will help win the fight for our freedom to read what we want, think what we want, and be who we are: capable of handling sad stories, new perspectives, hard lessons and rough histories.

As children, my siblings and I mined our father’s classroom for books. He was a high school English teacher (he often ended up having to teach Spanish as well since that was his first language) who, as a lover of literature and language, and a Vietnam Veteran, did what was so good at — he taught kids how to be good citizens, how to think critically, and how to access worlds through the pages of books. His classroom was a magical place for me and my siblings. In the summer, we’d go to the high school and bring home books to read — history, literature, you name it; I think my twin even borrowed a book on genetics. Often those books were of more mature topics than our classmates were reading. Yes, we had to ask questions. Yes, we were sometimes shocked or saddened by what we read. But we also were given the opportunity to discover the world in a safe environment — where we could think critically about what we were reading. We could ask questions and find other books that might teach us more about what we had read. Most importantly, we had the agency to open any book — knowing we could close it, and decide, on our own, not to read it.

But Republicans are trying to take everything off the shelf that doesn’t serve a white, heterosexual perspective. They want to erase the stories that have made America what she is. This isn’t a culture war, it’s a degradation of our freedom.

They are coming for our books and they are gaining devastating victories. But just like we always do, we will turn the page and write a far better story than them. Thanks for being a part of this chapter.

Reading everything from sea to shining sea,