Books are a gateway to knowledge, imagination, exploration, love, diversity, and so much more. Books are powerful. Words are powerful. Book bans are a coward’s attempt to control ideas and words that make them think critically or (gasp) learn to love and accept those that are different from them.
Amanda Gorman’s Inaugural Poem, The Hill We Climb, is an exceptional poem that speaks to both the deep hurt and great hope that America carries. Our past is heavy. Our present is still incredibly heavy. We can see and know these flaws and still embrace the hope for a better future. We can celebrate our progress while still knowing there are mountains left to climb.
Erasing and silencing history doesn’t celebrate our country. Embracing and understanding our complicated past does.
Banning books goes against the very core of the values this country was built on.
“And yes, we are far from polished,
far from pristine.
But this doesn’t mean we’re striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our union with purpose,
To compose a country committed
To all cultures, colors, characters,
And conditions of man.
And so we lift our gazes not
To what stands between us,
But what stands before us.
We close the divide,
Because we know to put
Our future first, we must first
Put our differences aside.”
The Hill We Climb, Amanda Gorman