October 7, 2025: The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

Today's episode (the 106th) was all about books and their power, even as the screen seems to dominate our lives.  Opollo and Barbara welcomed our new co-host, Robo, and a return to our original name:  Voices of Resistance.  We also welcomed two guests, Jeffrey Pax and Vicki Weeks, to talk about books and their power in our lives.

Jeffrey is the organizer of the 3rd annual Savannah Book Drive and Local Author event scheduled for Saturday, October 11 in Johnson Square, at the intersection of Bull and Congress, from 10 am to 2 pm.  More than 30 local authors will have their books available for sale and signature.  Those who attend are invited to donate their gently used books to Book Nation of Dreamers for community literacy activities here in Savannah.   Jeffrey is also an author.  His first book, The Rules, is a how-to manual written in English, Spanish, and both for children and adults of all ages, a positive guidebook for good behavior.  He is authoring On His Way Home, a chapter book published in Richmond Hill Neighbors and also on line at https://www.jeffreypax.com.  Each chapter provides clues as to the whereabouts of Leo the cat in his journey home.  Jeffrey talked about his how to break into publishing and gave thanks to local bookstore Stacks for supporting his and other new authors' efforts to publish.

Banned Books Week is an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association.  It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools.  The annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas as enshrined in the 1st Amendment to the USA Constitution.   2005 Banned Book Week is October 5-11.  Most libraries and bookstores will have special displays of banned books, including shelving them behind yellow police tape.  If the pen was not powerful, why would books be banned?  Vicki welcomed all to the UU Church's Banned Book Club, held on the first Thursday of the month in Rahn Hall on E. Macon, between Lincoln and Habersham.

Next week we will honor Indigenous Peoples' Day with a discussion of Exploration and Settler Colonialism from the 15th to the 21st centuries and its impact on indigenous communities' right to their land.