#BanBookBans: Authors Will Not Be Silenced Nor Silent!

Image Credit: Neda Kekil

You know y’all, it simply bites my butt that we have to be discussing book bans and it didn’t just start either. In February 2010 I wrote a post, 12 Credible Reasons to Avoid Banning Dictionaries From Schools and Libraries. I had no idea how banning dictionaries from libraries would metastasize into the book bans we see today. In May 2023, I was furious when I wrote this post, Book Bans, What Are These Attacks Really About? Last year, I also wrote about how books of poetry have been affected by these crazy bans, but I will share that again tomorrow. #BanBookBans

This week my friend Pat, from e-Quips Blog wrote some interesting articles about the freedom to read, the cost of book-banning campaigns, and book sanctuaries which simply blew me away at the depth banning has risen to. Pat is a retired librarian, but not a retired spokesperson for the freedom of reading whatever the hell you want to read. This reignited my fire and encouraged me to pick up my sword again and go all “Zorro” on these banners to keep our voices from being enslaved or extinct by their chains of ignorance. #BanBookBans

So for today, I decided on behalf of book and literacy advocates everywhere, here’s a sarcastic “acrostic” poem just for those pesky book banners. Initially, the first word of my poem was “Fallacious” but after sleeping on it I changed it. I intentionally did not give this poem a title because it will speak for itself, which may raise a few eyebrows.

Sanctimonious
Understanding of
Cognitive creativity and communication
Knowledge deficiency in

Your
Obtrusiveness to
Undercut
Reading capabilities with

Belligerent
Observations laced with ignorance
Oblivious to a
Kaleidoscope of

Brains, brawn, and beauty
Announcing your denouncing of diversity among
Novelists, poets, and authors alike, who know your
Sinister efforts will self-implode through your self-inflicted wounds.

In conclusion for this moment, yes I am perturbed to the highest level by these despicable book bans, but let’s be clear, we will not run away, roll over, and play dead. We will let our voices of outrage resonate boldly and loudly, not with hatred but with the fighting spirit to ban illiteracy and book-banning idiocracy! The more they ban, the more we fight to reverse these outrageous, unethical, and lawless regulations. #BanBookBans

Image Credit: Tim Kaye