Turning the Page

During the recent presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris came clean and admitted she owns a gun, a Glock, in particular.  Glock advertising promotes a firearm that is safe, reliable, and simple to use.  In a spirit of solidarity, I thought I should come clean as well.  I, too, have a weapon that is safe, reliable, and simple to use.

I am a registered book owner.  I prefer a good hardbound tome. Come into my house, and I might throw the book at you.  My shelves are loaded, and I keep one in my nightstand drawer and another under the seat of my car.  I am dangerously enthusiastic and known to wave a loaded book around in a crowded room.

I am a card-carrying member of the NRA, National Readers Association, an informal but large group of people devoted to keeping both a diversity of ideas and the written word alive.  Members are not ashamed to have their entire book-borrowing histories subpoenaed and reviewed by the authorities.   We firmly believe that anyone who has never read a book should not be licensed to speak sparing us the barrage of words and the assault on our minds.  We prefer thinking heads to talking heads.

Members of the NRA understand that while it is the job of social media is to infect its users with outrage, the job of a good book is to inject its readers with insight.  Unlike the chaos of social media, a good book calls our minds to order.  We know that good books have been thoroughly reviewed and thoughtfully edited.  In times of crisis, members of the NRA take to opening lines of communication and sharing book titles, beautiful poetry, and stirring essays.

Our members know that on the internet, incendiary ideas are not policed—“free speech” its users demand, but some of those same free-speechers seem to want to go after our rights to carry a book.   Some posting free-speechers claim social media conspiracy theories don’t harm people, books do.  They worry our kids will be harmed by a book tucked away on a library shelf—if those kids ever get off Tik Tok to look for a book that is.  Many of our members have seen t-shirts and vanity license plates with more inflammatory ideas than To Kill a Mockingbird.

Even as we hear over and over about the declining mental health of our children, some parents and authorities fear children will get “ideas” from books, and so they seek to ban those books.  NRA members believe it is naïve to think that children are not getting bad ideas every day from social media, the internet, television, and each other.  We believe a teen might be safer in a private space reading a book to sort through an issue in their lives rather than having to live through it.  A kid can feel less alone with a book, less self-conscious.  A book provides context and perspective.  NRA members believe we should be thanking librarians and turning to them to find out what’s on the minds of our children so that we can be better parents, better teachers, better adults, and better political representatives.
  
We live in a time when fiction and truth are dangerously blurred.  Too often, important decisions are made based on shared wild imaginings alone. We members of the NRA believe it is an act of bravery to open our minds and open a book before making important decisions.

Interested?  The NRA welcomes new members.  Our motto is:  “Let’s exchange ideas instead of gunfire.”  There are no membership fees and no background checks.  All you have to do is open a book.  We are confident that opening a book will open your mind.  Be brave!