SOLSC '26 Day Twenty-two: Windows and sliding glass doors, mirrors too

 

Thirty-one days, thirty-one posts for the

Slice of Life Story Challenge.

Today, online, I read

an article about the removal of 

almost one thousand, five hundred

books

from a school district's libraries,

just down the highway

from where I am sitting

reading a book that I would have placed

in the hands of my own older teenaged children

with some caveats, the overall story--

historical fiction, but well-researched--

a window, a sliding glass door

into the prejudice and maltreatment 

of people with skin darker than ours,

in a time that wasn't much darker than

ours is now.

We would have looked in the mirror, 

together, after sharing the book

and talked about our white privilege

and my own more modern experience

as a military BRAT in the same spaces

as many of the book's settings.

I bet this book would be on that list,

had it been on their shelves 

(it's not--I checked; did you know

that most public school library catalogs

have been available for public viewing

for awhile--the book banners

would have you believe otherwise).

I am glad that I can read this book

from my own public library.

It's not my favorite genre, but I

feel compelled to keep reading,

keep learning,

keep growing in understanding and

compassion.