A Tale of Two Countries
Most of my life, when I have read about authoritarian governments whose leaders strongly encourage citizens to snitch on one another for having opinions that don’t align with the state’s official position, I have felt grateful to be living in the USA where freedom of speech is protected by the constitution. Where there are no thought police waiting to arrest me for having an unpopular idea. I recognize that bad things have happened to outspoken people throughout our history, but in general, we have enjoyed a legality of free speech that is not sanctioned in dictatorships.
I recently read an article about Putin calling on Russia to “purge itself by spitting out traitors ‘like gnats.’” His goal is the silencing of anyone who opposes the war in Ukraine.
At the time of the news story, 19,718 people had been arrested for opposing the war in Ukraine. Many others have been harassed or have lost jobs. Paranoia runs deep, the report explained. People are afraid to express their opinions. Public spaces have become dangerous. Classrooms have become particularly shaky ground.
After reading this, I wasn’t able to retreat into the safety of my American citizenship quite the way I once was. The content sounded familiar. Like news items I’ve been reading about our own public spaces.
Here are some recent quotes from a reputable news source regarding perils currently faced by teachers and librarians. All but one of them concerns recent happenings in the United States of America, where free speech is theoretically protected. The item that is not about the USA is from the aforementioned article about Russia. While you can probably tease out which is from the Russian story, I hope you glimpse a parallel between the two nations that causes some unease.
“… school and public librarians, as well as teachers, can be imprisoned for up to six years or fined $10,000 if they distribute obscene or harmful texts.”
“… she had already submitted her resignation from the school a week before showing the movie. She said she did so because of ‘politics and the fear of not being able to be who you are’ in … public schools.”
“Many teachers and districts complain that the laws’ standards are so vague they don’t know what books might place them in legal jeopardy.”
“… new rules compelling him to catalog books in his classroom led him to empty a small library he set up where students could choose to read something that interested them. Now those volumes are stored in a box he’s stashed in his closet for fear of getting in trouble.”
“… nearly 2,000 librarians from throughout the country strategized on how to protect their patrons and themselves, and how to get the public to wake up to the urgency of the threat.”
“You can be arrested any moment, but you never know if you’re going to be arrested or not. They target several teachers in several places, just to let every teacher know, ‘Be quiet,’ And the point is to make everybody feel fear.”
“In the case of libraries, they say, book bans are only a first step, followed now by legislation to weaken librarian control over collections, moves to strip libraries of legal protections and, in some examples, efforts to define libraries altogether. The effects on librarians are personal, and often terrifying.”
“A librarian … who received a death threat after opposing censorship said she installed a home-security system, bought a Taser and sleeps ‘with a shotgun under my bed.’”
I am grateful that I am still able to access these news accounts—and legally share them. But watch out. Totalitarianism can sneak up on you.