Remember the scene from “Carrie,” where the hand pops up from Carrie’s grave and grabs Sue’s arm, dragging her downward? How, just before that happens, you know something terrifying is coming because . . . well, because it’s a Stephen King story? And how, even though you know, and you’re anticipating something shocking, you still jump, and maybe even scream?

Well, that’s what life has felt like lately: I keep waiting for that hand to spring up again.

And every day, there is some new, unimaginable horror: an attack on the Treasury; the takeover of the Kennedy Center; the appointment of a totally incompetent wacko as head of Health and Human Services; wholesale firings of employees who have done nothing wrong; convicted felons being pardoned and released from prison; an army of thugs demanding access to the most confidential information in the government’s records . . . and a complete reversal of international policies that have succeeded in staving off a third world war for the past 80 years.

And just as you think it can’t get any worse . . . it does.

*. *. *

First, a little history:

“On April 6, 1933, the Nazi German Student Association’s Main Office for Press and Propaganda announced a nationwide initiative ‘against the un-German spirit,’ climaxing in a literary Sauberung, or cleansing, by fire. Local chapters of the group were charged with the distribution of literary blacklists that included Jewish, Marxist, Socialist, anti-family, and anti-German literature and planned grand ceremonies for the public to gather and dispose of the objectionable material.” [“The Empty Library,” Wikipedia.]

The following month, on May 10, 1933, some 40,000 people gathered at the Opernplatz (now known as the Bebelplatz) in central Berlin to watch 5,000 German students, carrying burning torches, march past them to set fire to a pile of books that had been collected for the event. Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s Reich Minister of Propaganda, spoke to the crowd, saying that:

“ . . . the era of exaggerated Jewish intellectualism is now at an end … and the future German man will not just be a man of books … this late hour [I] entrust to the flames the intellectual garbage of the past.” [Id.]

It was just the first of 35 book burnings to take place across Germany that month.

I have stood at that spot, gazing down at the barren underground shelves that commemorate that night of horror under the Nazi regime. It would take another 12 years, and a world war of indescribable death and destruction, before that regime and its leader — Adolph Hitler — would be defeated.

The book burnings were just the beginning.

*. *. *

In comparison to recent events in the United States, the following incident may seem insignificant. But viewed in the context of history, it is anything but that.

Julianne Moore is a noted American actress who has also written a series of children’s books — known as the “Freckleface Strawberry” series — the first of which has been adapted into a musical that premiered in New York in 2010. It was written for her young son when he expressed dissatisfaction with some facet of his personal appearance, and tells the story of a girl (herself) who is teased about her freckles and wishes to be rid of them, but eventually learns to accept them.

Moore grew up in a military family, and is a graduate of the Frankfurt American High School operated by the U.S. Department of Defense. And now her books have been banned by the Trump Administration from all schools operated by the Defense Department.

The official synopsis for the first book reads:

“If you have freckles, you can try these things: 1) Make them go away. Unless scrubbing doesn’t work. 2) Cover them up. Unless your mom yells at you for using a marker. 3) Disappear. Um, where’d you go? Oh, there you are. There’s one other thing you can do: 4) LIVE WITH THEM! Because after all, the things that make you different also make you, YOU.” [Jack Dunn, Variety, February 16, 2025.]

In response to the news that her sweet children’s books promoting self-acceptance had been banned by the Trump administration, Moore had this to say:

“‘Freckleface Strawberry’ is a semi-autobiographical story about a seven year old girl who dislikes her freckles but eventually learns to live with them when she realizes that she is different ‘just like everybody else.’ It is a book I wrote for my children and for other kids to remind them that we all struggle, but are united by our humanity and our community.” [Id.]

What could be more innocent? And why would a children’s book even warrant the attention of the White House?

Because it promotes uniqueness, acceptance, and — by extension — the dreaded DEI: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Something that Donald Trump, somewhere in the dark, deluded depths of his impenetrable mind, has deemed to be a threat to mankind and must therefore be stamped out. That’s why.

We haven’t started burning books yet. But isn’t this how it begins?

Welcome to 1933, America.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/18/25