Grace Linn is a 100-year-old widow who lives in Martin County, Florida. She went to the Martin School District council meeting to speak truth to power against the book ban that has been unleashed in her state.
She told the council how she had lost her husband in World War II while he was fighting the Nazis, who were also miserable book banners and book burners.
Banning books and burning books are the same thing. Both are made for the same reason – fear of knowledge.
Fear is not freedom. Fear is not freedom. Fear is control.
Linn explained to them that the Nazis wanted to ban the books and burn the books as a means of controlling the people. Without saying it in so many words, she implicitly compared the people banning books in Florida to the Nazis.
She’s not wrong.
We need more Grace Linn. We must be Grace Linn. Regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, or race, we must stand up to these would-be lords and look down on them.
Fear is not freedom.