The op-ed below was submitted by the steering committee of the NC chapter of Writers for Democratic Action.
As we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States, communities across the country find their freedom to read threatened, censored, and banned.
It is absolutely critical that the unalienable right to read, which goes hand in hand with the unalienable right to free speech – protected in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution – remains sacred and cherished.
Books supply wisdom on how to distinguish between right and wrong; how to navigate gracefully the tricky terrain of an often-troubled world; how to engage, through discussion, sensitive ultimately human dilemmas; how to unite and move forward in reconciliation, joint humanity, cooperation and charity rather than in suspicion and intolerance. Books remind us that the human spirit is inextinguishable, that the future of the only planet we have depends upon our threshold to embrace and adapt to difference through shared inquiry.
Apart from the pure enjoyment and edification that books impart, they reorder and discipline our instincts in profoundly human and humane ways; provide moral compasses, social consciences, the transformative beauty of the word when wielded judiciously, the limitless possibilities for a fully realized and happy life, and the miraculous power of imagination – which Einstein declared “encircles the world.”
As a culture, we habitually discuss the safety of our children. Nothing is more important. As writers and teachers, we take very seriously the safety of all children and students – as seriously as we take the safety and well-being of the beloved children in our own families.
Prohibiting books imperils the intellectual safety of children, so crucial not only to their lives, but to the great state of North Carolina, and well beyond.
Books help raise children into Americans with capacious hearts and judicious minds whose first reaction to any situation is measured discourse leavened with courage, compassion and intellect – not condemnation and xenophobia. We must guard our children by guaranteeing them the unfettered, democratic freedom to read.
By Alex Albright, Joseph Bathanti, Margaret Bauer, Belle Boggs, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Wiley Cash, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Jaki Shelton Green, Jill McCorkle, Thomas Mills, Michael Parker, Bland Simpson, Ed Southern, and Lynn Yor
