Still Fighting at 101 Years Old!

An excerpt from Dan Rather's Steady Column - 

A 101-Year-Old’s Fight Against Book Banning

Inspiring young 92-year-olds like me

DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

Credit: PEN America/Damarcus Adisa

I’m often inspired by those younger than I who work tirelessly to help our country survive and thrive. But at 92, it’s not every day I find someone older who is such an inspiration. Grace Linn is a spry 101-year-old with strong opinions about what’s happening where she lives in Martin County, Florida. The school board there has been at the forefront of book bans in the state, removing more than 80 titles from county classrooms. 

I recently came upon a remarkable and inspirational interview with Linn. Her husband died in 1944 fighting the Nazis, who were notorious book burners. Linn was so disgusted by the book bans in her Florida school district that she made a quilt depicting 84 banned books and displayed it while testifying before the school board. “Banning books and burning books are the same. Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge,” Linn said. “Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control.”

Linn’s dedicated activism got me thinking about the surge in book bans specifically and the culture war being waged more broadly. The idea of a culture war is not something new in America.

https://steady.substack.com/p/a-101-year-olds-fight-against-book?