The blowback from book bans

Two very well-written articles, a Commentary by Susan Campbell and a Forum article by Jeannette Ickovics, in the April 18 edition are worth reviewing. Both articles deal with the banning of books and the power of words.

Our current political system is one where there are now those who wish to control the use of words and are fomenting confusion among the voting public. One such individual is the governor of Florida, who aspires to be the 2024 nominee for the Republican Party for the presidency. Then there are people like the current congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Green, aka “MTG,” who states that the Rothschild family (Jewish) from France “sent over a laser beam to ignite forest fires in California.” What nonsense, and yet her following grows daily along with financial support.

Also there are those who deny the Holocaust. As Tennessee Williams once wrote: ”There are magicians that can make an illusion and portray it as the truth, and the truth portrayed as an illusion.” Back around 1885 Elaine Marx, Karl Marx’s daughter wrote about socialism. The German government at that time prohibited the word “Socialism” from being printed in any form. I would like to add at this time that even as a retired capitalist I once worked for a socialist organization. Its nickname was ‘Tropic Lighting.’ Officially known as: The United States 25th Infantry Division.

There is a saying attributed to WWII when Nazi Germany burned books written by people like Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt and many others: “Those that will burn books will someday burn people.”

Susan Campbell has it right: ”If you don’t want your child to read a particular book then by all means raise that child the way you think best, but remember that in matters of reading material you make decisions for your child and your child alone.”

Marvin Cohen Hamden