I’m going to assume something about you now. If you’re reading this, I bet you enjoy stories. At least I hope so. My whole life’s work is dedicated to stories. So I can’t imagine you’re reading a post on my blog if you don’t as well like stories.
Because I can assume you like stories, I bet you have some terrific memories of a library. Maybe a school library, or the local library in your hometown. I certainly do. One of the good things about living in my hometown is that I’ve been able to visit the same library for most of my life. My entire life is peppered with days of reading and writing in the quiet spaces tucked into this lovely building. Surrounded by the scent of old books, in the company of other people who are close but not speaking with me. Whatever has happened in my life, I’ve had this refuge to escape to.
In elementary school, my favorite day was always library day. I loved the time spent there, and getting to leave with two whole books that I’d picked out myself. I picked out books that mattered to me. I discovered Avalon, the Salem Witch Trials and a love of all things spooky.
Libraries, in short, are great. The world is quiet there.
That might not be the case for long if we don’t do something. More on that later.
As a child I found libraries to be a source of stories and peace. As an adult, I rely on my local library for so many reasons. I like to go write there so I can’t hear the dishes in the kitchen. I print things there, at a much better price than anywhere else in town. I often ask the librarians for advice. For instance, when I co-hosted a young adult book podcast called Byte Sized Horror, I got a lot of the ideas for books to include by talking with the librarian in the kids section. Then, of course, there’s the fact that most of the books I read come from the library. Books are expensive. I can’t afford to buy as many as I want to read. In short, I don’t know if I could do what I do without my library.
In one visit to the library, I can get work done, print out a draft to red pen and pick up a Silvia Moreno-Garcia book to relax with.
So, I told you all that to tell you this. Libraries are in trouble right now. And so are our librarians.
Just in case you haven’t heard yet, librarians have been under attack during the recent influx of ghoulish book bans.
Please understand that I am not being dramatic. I am not using a metaphor. I mean that librarians have been physically threatened because their libraries refused to remove books that some people didn’t like.
Some books have been the target of censorship attacks for years. These are book I consider to be required reading, like Maus, The Diary of Ann Frank, The Color Purple, and To Kill a Mockingbird. But things have gotten so bad in some places (Cough cough, Florida, cough, cough) that they’ve just given a list of books that are allowed because it’s shorter.
I’d like to point out that I don’t think any book should be banned. And that includes in school libraries. I’ll be generous and suggest maybe some books should require parental approval, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go.
Books are one way that we can experience the world through the eyes of people who haven’t lived the kinds of lives we lived. For someone like me, who grew up in a little town with almost no diversity, it might be the only bloody way aside from television. And we all know how sanitized tv is. I sure wasn’t learning anything the experience of being black in America by watching Family Matters, though it was a fun show. I learned some of what that feels like from Maya Angelou, who I love. It’s not enough to really understand, but it’s a better start. It got me asking the right questions.
This is, I think, what those who seek to ban books want to avoid. They don’t want their children asking questions. Are black people treated badly in America? Is it okay for two girls to like each other? Is there maybe something terribly wrong with how Native tribes have been treated? Is there maybe nothing wrong at all with transgender people? These are questions that make, well, a certain kind of person very uncomfortable.
Good. We should be a little uncomfortable. That’s how we know what we need to fix.
But I’ve told you all that to tell you this. Public librarians are being attacked. They’re being threatened. They’re being physically attacked. And I will not stand for it.
Now, fortunately my library hasn’t been under attack yet. And I hope to keep it that way. I will be writing to politicians, asking for protections for our libraries and against censorship. I will be voting for politicians who follow through with those protections. But I’ll also be watching. So far, there hasn’t been any protests or performances that censors plan at my library. I’m ready to counter protest. I’m ready to be counted, and stand up for my librarians.
Are you?
AA season two is out now, new episodes every Tuesday. You can listen to the first two episodes now on Haunted MTL.
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