last week I had the good fortune to attend a conversation about book banning...it was hosted by former Congressman Steve Israel...now a writer and owner of Theodore's Books in Oyster Bay...I remember him from another lifetime on the Hebrew School car pick-up line...but anyway...with him was Congressman Jamie Raskin...hopefully beating cancer for a second time...still mourning the tragic 2020 suicide of his son...member of the January 6th committee...a constitutional law professor for twenty-five years before political life...quite engaging in his bandana...was this the one given by Steven Van Zandt?...a man who truly loves our constitution and our democracy...and fights the good fight the best he can...and so I listened to spirited banter...and thoughtful and funny questions from the audience...the topic of book burning searing the hearts of this group of readers and thinkers...and I wondered...(oy, I sound like Carrie Bradshaw...the Mensa version)...what can I do?...the whole notion of book banning sends a lightning ripple of fear through my second generation Jewish American soul...it wounds the fabric of who I am as a writer...it leads me back to a phenomenal reading list in high school...in a Staten Island high school with no money...during turbulent times...would a high school student in southern states in 2023 be exposed to Solzhenitsyn, Camus, and Kafka?...or would it offend one parent who would have it ripped from the library bookshelf, or worse, curriculum?...how do I fight the good fight?...I think that's what everyone at this event was thinking...what are the answers?...voting...yes, but not enough...getting these banned books available where they are banned...yes, but...I think much of this boils down to reading...technology and social media...and teaching to test...have pulled this nation away from true literacy...we need to overhaul the educational system...the public educational system first...many who have had books removed from their schools...wait for it...never read them...so, my retirees who are looking for meaning in this new chapter of your lives...see if your local school or library is looking for reading tutors...and while you're at it...work on their writing too...so that they can compose more than a three-word text...that small child with an open mind will absorb all you can give...I'd like a future filled with Camus, not Boebert...the good fight starts page by page...k?
