Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
~ Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
As someone who takes Dylan Thomas’ advice to heart, I’m please to let centenarian and “Craftivist” Grace Linn introduce herself to us all:
“I am Grace Linn. I am a hundred years young. I’m here to protest our school’s district book-banning policy. My husband, Robert Nicoll, was killed in action in World War II at a very young age. He was only 26, defending our democracy, Constitution, and freedoms.”
And with that opening salvo clearly aimed at DeSantis earlier this week, Grace Linn brought the house down at the latest Martin County School Board meeting in Florida! Most of the 500-plus overflow crowd was there to show their support for Ms. Linn’s personal and heartfelt protest of Ron DeSantis’ fascist book banning obsession.
She continued:
“One of the freedoms that the Nazis crushed was the freedom to read the books they banned. They stopped the free press and banned and burned books. The freedom to read, which is protected by the First Amendment, is our essential right and duty of our democracy. Even so, it is continually under attack by both the public and private groups who think they hold the truth.”
While addressing the crowd comfortably seated on her walker, a friend of hers displayed the quilt she made last year of just some of the books that have been banned. At DeSantis’ goading, Florida’s public schools’ libraries have now banned close to 200 “offensive” tomes from their shelves.
Each square of Linn’s quilt shows a stack of books that have been banned and targeted – many of which have been penned by authors honored with numerous literary awards, including several by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.
Linn said that burning books and banning books is done for the same reason: fear of knowledge.
She made clear she was there to oppose Florida’s schools that are being goaded by DeSantis to ban books that irritate right-wingers and evangelical fundamentalists – a danger she compares to the evil her first husband fought and died for fighting against Nazism in WWII.
“Banning books and burning books are the same. Both are done for the same reason. Fear of knowledge. Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control. My husband died as a father of freedom. I am a mother of liberty. Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this. Thank you very much.”
On her departure, Ms. Linn was greeted as the hero she truly is …
During a later interview Ms. Linn explained the purpose of her quilt:
“To remind all of us that these few of so many more books that are banned and targeted need to be proudly displayed and protected—and read, if you choose to.”
Having lost her first husband in WWII’s battle against Nazis and Fascists, along with two brothers (one who was wounded while battling Hitler’s forces and the other suffering PTSD from personally participating in the liberation of Auschwitz), Ms. Linn (who still drives and lives by herself) promised to continue the good fight.
“I always feel that it’s my duty. When history is forgotten or not used and not allowed to be used, history will repeat itself and we had enough of that during the Nazism that occurred in Germany.”
