The Librarian of Burned Books

by Brianna Labuskes

“Books are a way we leave a mark on the world, aren’t they? They say we were here, we loved and we grieved and we laughed and we made mistakes and we existed. They can be burned halfway across the world, but the words cannot be unread, the stories cannot be untold. They do live on in this library, but more importantly they are immortalized in anyone who has read them.”

The only thing that burned eternal for her were grudges and bridges.

The men who sought violence didn’t understand that while swords could destroy bodies, a pen could destroy a nation.

“Burning books about things you do not like or understand does not mean those things no longer exist.”

There were moments like these in life, presenting themselves sometimes rarely, where you could hold on to grudges, burn relationships to the ground, salt the earth, and only look back to seethe in anger. Or you could acknowledge that people made mistakes, were flawed, and deserved second chances.

an attack on books, on rationality, on knowledge isn’t a tempest in a teacup, but rather a canary dead in a coal mine.

good people existed but so did fear and hatred. Most would do anything to protect their comfortable worldview and the status quo that helped them survive.