Come and Take Our Books
In the name of
George Orwell and Ray Bradbury,
whose novels 1984 and Fahrenheit 451
warned us of the dangers we now face.
25 October 2023
Louis Vincent Balbi
Chapter I
Liberty
“Come and take our books
from our cold, dead hands.”
Fair warning: We bookish folk
are a real, resolute sort
when the right to read
is threatened by rash racists
and intolerant rant mobs.
We remember the ugly,
antebellum South
when Black slaves were banned
from reading by most so-called
“masters,” who were savages
attired as gentlepersons.
Thank the Lord, our God,
those days are long gone.
Readers are timeless;
we are of all time and place;
our books make us thus.
And so, we are of that time
when humanity’s dark sins
were not hidden under bans
in schools where students
are kept in ignorant state
by those ignorant state laws
preventing “offense,”
trashing their education.
A revolutionary
war was fought and won
by rugged Americans
to gain their God-given rights.
Their blood cries out from the ground
beneath our delicate feet.
The First Amendment must be
held inviolate for We,
the American people,
to be truly free.
Liberty must never be
surrendered or banned.
“Arise, arise, readers and writers!
Foul deeds awake, Liberty is attacked!
Our freedom of thought
is being corralled!
Our books are at stake!
Spears seek to breach our shield wall.
Be brave, strong, and hard as stone.
Shout, ‘Our shields shall not shatter!’
Send our words into battle.
Know, we will not lose
as long as we do not yield.”
Chapter II
Mobs Against Liberty
Fascists come for our books first
then they come for our holy
of holies, our sacred heart,
our constitution,
the testament of our rights.
Wannabe tyrants,
third-rate deceivers,
extremists, racists,
and different-phobes,
hear our democratic hearts
drum: “You will not oppress us.”
Learn to be better readers
overall but certainly
of the inspired word.
Faith does not require
unevolved, closed minds.
The kind Nazarene,
that good Jewish boy,
He-who-sacrificed-for-us,
would be saddened and ashamed
to behold some unchristian
souls masquerading
as true believers,
an army of anti-Christs.
Heed these words: “Live and let live.”
There are enemies enough
without manufacturing
phantoms from fearful,
dark imaginings.
All families disagree
on occasion. Some
flare their hot tempers
as often as some
scatter-brained ones lose their keys.
Things sometimes get out of hand.
But one civil war
was already fought to make
the United States
of America
a righteous democracy.
Do not dare try to undo
all the good that formed
this world-class, standard-bearer,
more perfect union —
or else we all will lose all.
Chapter III
Banned Books Battle Cry
[Adapted and abridged from Shakespeare’s Henry V, Act III, Scene I]
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our burned, banned books!
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To their full height. On, on, you noblest readers,
Follow your spirit; and upon this charge,
Cry ‘God for America! and freedom!’
Chapter IV
"Molṑn labé"
At the heroic Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, when the invading King Xerxes of Persia demanded the greatly outnumbered Spartans surrender their weapons, Leonidas, King of Sparta, defiantly responded, “Molṑn labé,” “Come and take them.”
The memory of this epic battle and Leonidas’s brave words have survived the centuries, in large part, because Herodotus (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC), “The Father of History,” recorded them for posterity in his book titled, “Histories.”
Books eternalize
thoughts, speech, and actions.
They memorialize lives
with their loves and hopes,
their heartaches and joys,
their brief moments of glory
for which they sacrificed dreams.
The soul of humanity
lives forever bright,
a torch on the horizon,
when words are written
and books held in high esteem.
Image Credit: USA Flag by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.
Text Credits: Adapted “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.” from Genesis 4:10 [NKJV Bible].
“Arise, arise” speech is inspired by Theoden’s speech from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Return of the King.
Adapted “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle,” from President John F. Kennedy’s speech when he presented Winston Churchill with honorary American citizenship [Note: Kennedy was quoting Edward R. Murrow, who originally coined the phrase].