Banned Books Week
September 22 – 28, 2019
“Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.” That is the original German. My English translation would be ‘That is but a prelude, where they burn books, they will in the end burn people.” It is from Heinrich Heine’s 1821 play Almansor.
While technically not a banned book, one of the most important written documents in the United States is seemly unread. That is the Constitution of the United States, the law of the land. The current Resident of the White House would do well to read Article 2, which is the ‘job description’ for the position he captured. From there he can proceed to the Amendments. If he reads the whole thing, he won’t find any mention of a flag or a national anthem. Those are creations of Congress and are subordinate to the rights guaranteed by the Amendments to the Constitution.
