The news that a man recently took it upon himself to burn 100 books that he checked out of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Beachwood because they did not meet his approval should be a much bigger story.
As it stands, the story barely enjoyed a 12-hour shelf life; perhaps because there’s so much being thrown at us these days.
At a time when public libraries and their funding are under siege, police say the suspect checked out and torched 100 books on Black history, LGBTQ+ education, and Judaism.
It is the same old playbook: Othering and scapegoating those deemed as inauthentically American because of who they are or what they believe.
According to Beachwood police, the suspect made a video of the burning books that included a caption of “cleansing” the library.
Who takes it upon themselves to decide that the rest of us should not be allowed to check out certain books?
Such self-appointed authority is based on what?
Libraries and media outlets are under attack because they trade in knowledge, and because when people have access to it, they’re much less likely to be manipulated.
As President John Adams so famously put it, “Facts are stubborn things.”
The arson in Beachwood also is symptomatic of a larger backlash against knowledge and intellectualism, which some have termed as “elitism.”
But who wants the surgeon who gradated at the bottom of the class to do their procedure?
Libraries are holders of history, which tends to repeat itself when it goes unheeded. Not to mention that the public library is one of the greatest things we humans have ever concocted and remains one of the markers of a civilized society.
As history warns and reminds us, burning books was a tactic employed by the Nazis, who convinced ordinary citizens that books written by Jews posed a threat to society, when their only crime was in being Jewish and producing material which fostered critical thinking, thus putting the regime’s policies into question.
Now, we all can agree that not all materials in a public library are suitable for children, and that at the very least, any children’s material should be age-appropriate. But do-it-yourself vigilantism eventually devolves into someone deciding that “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “Ruby Bridges,” and the Bible should not only be inaccessible, they shouldn’t be published or even written.
In case you’re thinking this is an exaggeration, it most assuredly is not. All of the above-mentioned titles have been targeted by book banners.
Censorship always contains an element of the ridiculous, so that titles such as “Captain Underpants” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Kite Runner” are deemed as unacceptable.
There is an argument that children need to be protected from undue influences. But if a child wants to check out a book about Black history, Judaism or the LGBTQ+ community, he or she is already curious about it.
Maybe we just ought to be glad a kid is just willing to darken the door of a library these days.
If protection is really the goal, there is a way to affect change and policy. Public libraries are always seeking people to serve on their boards. This seems a much more reasonable option than destroying materials that belong to taxpayers.
If there is a spark of hope to be had from this incident, it is that that religious organizations and the Interfaith Group Against Hate amassed a donation of 1,000 books — 10 for each one destroyed.
The kind of radicalism that results in book burning never stops at the object of its derision. Like an untreated disease, it progresses, eventually devouring everything, including even those who might shrug or cheer at such action.
After all, the Final Solution didn’t stop at the Jews.
Perhaps you’ve heard it said that “Every time an old man dies, a library burns down.”
Every time a book burns, this country dies a little.
Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ohio book burning should set off an alarm for all Americans | Opinion
Reporting by Charita M. Goshay, Canton Repository / The Repository
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