The hero of Bradbury's novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.
And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.
So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
Mr. Vonnegut goes off in extreme directions in this essay, he's tired of the hate and bullshit this year has brought us. He has been driven to the point of comparing American's to Nazi's and reminds us that Hitler was a Christian too. These are the words of a man who's close to broken. Sometimes, all the hate and slanderous bullshit makes me feel that way as well, I want to hide from the hateful self-serving human race.
In the bookselling environment, I have the pleasure of hearing all the hateful, bitter shit people spew when I tell them I don't have that ridiculous book Unfit For Command. They say we're censoring the book, or we're hiding it or they won't be able to get it until after the election. Not exactly, the fact is the first printing was rather small and the bookstores and Amazon have the book on backorder, why do you think we'd censor it when we want so badly to have your money? People who want this book already know who their voting for in November, so basically they want it to justify why they hate Kerry.
When Clinton's book was released I heard nothing but bitter shit about him, that made me make my displays bigger and add Hillary's book as well. When one old man called her a Jezebel, I asked him how he knew that for a fact? Unless he stuck his wrinkly and withered winky in her, how could he possibly know that?
I take it all with a grain of salt now and unlike Mr. Vonnegut I don't want to hide from the human race, except for that 'special' time of the month and trust me, you don't want to be around me then, bloodletting isn't easy yanno, God is a cruel bitch....where was I? Oh yeah, I've decided I'm going to educate myself on every fact I spew about. I want the facts 'mam and I'm not going away anytime soon, and I would expect that if you choose to spew as well, that you know what the fuck your talking and back your words and statements with facts, not ignorance, solely because you belong to one party or another.
I disagree with Mr. Vonnegut on one major point in his article, "we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were. " We as a country aren't feared as much as we are envied, because we do have the right to read what we want, say what we want, pray to who we want, all without the fear of being executed and or imprisoned. And because of those very facts, I have faith that one day our human race will be less persecuting and more unified (except, for the Gaza strip, for all the 'God' that is there, it sure looks like Hell on Earth to me). Until then, know absolutely what you believe in and educate yourself. I've no problem selling you the books you need to achieve your knowledge or I might suggest that you go to the damn Library for fuck sake, but for the love of God, know why you say, what you say.
[Via: Bookslut]
