Hitler and the Nazis burned books that did not endorse their ideology. All Quiet On The Western Front was written by a decorated WW I soldier, Eric Remarque and it pointed out the horror of the Great War. His book was among those burned and he had to escape to neutral Switzerland. In today’s Trump world books are banned from schools and libraries that are not approved by a small but vocal community minority. Our service academies are not exempt from the removal of books. I know Why The Caged Bird Sings by renowned author Maya Angelou was banned but not Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Anything that even hints at Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity are OUT!

This goes against out first amendment rights; this current government wants to control what we read so I will mention books to read: Martin L. Gross’ The Government Racket from A to Z, How Democracies Die–a chilling foretelling of what awaits us, The Privateer about the take over of public education and funneling state money to private schools (in Ohio, the state constitution is required to fund public schools and not non-public schools, but yet in the current Ohio State budget nearly 1/2 of education funding is diverted to nonpublic schools and vouchers which ae used by wealthy families to send their children to nonpublic entities.) The largest school district in Ohio–Columbus City Schools– must cut millions of dollars from their budget. If the state had properly funded public schools this would not have happened. Funding nonpublic schools by state tax dollars is a violation of the Ohio Constitution. How does Ohio’s Republican controlled legislature get away with doing this? Because we do not know who they are and what they are doing, so lets vote them out; hold them accountable! Read Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson which goes over how reactionaries have repeatedly attack liberals. By the way the liberal word is a hot button for politicians like calling someone a communist in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In fact when the US Constitution was written, it was a liberal document and remains so today which is why people calling themselves conservatives attack it. Free Lunch by David Cay Johnson describes how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense and stick us with the bill and Rebellion (How Antiliteralism is tearing America Apart) by Robert Kagan, and finally read the weekly magazine–The Week–it is not cheap but a must reading. From time to time I will recommend other readings.

Remember: Life is too short to ignore evil and injustice.