Do the Work…and go to the Library!

I was spending time with a teenage girl recently, and we went into a book store. She noticed a couple books: The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, The Color Purple…and several others. She then made this comment, “We can’t get those in our school library, they were taken out. We can’t even get them in our county.” I stopped in my tracks and said, “Excuse me!?!” We then had a conversation about the fact that her school banned certain books and she had never seen them in hard copy She only ‘read’ them through audio books or had to order them online and not take them to school. I was shocked! I mean SHOCKED! I could not believe that in 2024 school districts and county libraries were really banning books. How could this be happening? Once I calmed down and thought about that experience, and our ensuing conversation (which was fantastic!), I found this quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower:

Eisenhower said these words more than fifty-five years ago. That young teenage girl’s grandparents were teenagers at the time. And yet she could NOT get these books in hard copy (except in secret), and kept it secret that she read them. WHAT!?! Just when you think the world has progressed, you realize that not everyone has freedom of speech no matter what we are told. People are still trying to control what people think and understand….so sad!

What I found exciting about this was her attitude about it all. She took the banning of books in stride and found another way to get her hands on these works. She said she was used to the “small town America” attitude and just found another way to get what she wanted. Good for her! She knew she had the right to read whatever she wanted, so she did. Foo on you school district and county leaders – banning the books only made them more attractive to that young mind AND gave her the incentive to find them another way. Woo Hoo for the ingenuity of youth and the internet!

All in all we had a fantastic day together, and I was even more impressed with her than I was before. She is a fine young woman who has a VERY bright future ahead of her. I have no doubt that if she sets her sights on anything, she will achieve it. And won’t we all be blessed when THAT happens!?! Sometimes the narrow mindedness of things only makes us want it even more. No matter how you feel about what is happening in your life today, you do have the power to do anything you want…you just have to be willing to do the work! Oh, and go to the library and read every book you can get your hands on!