“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” – Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, p. 76

Yesterday, after weeks of drought in Northeast Ohio, the skies clouded over and the rain came down as both a drizzle and a downpour, continuing all afternoon and into the evening. At last!

Although I considered staying cozy and dry at home, I had a meeting to attend. So I grabbed my raincoat, started my car, flipped on my wipers, and drove along streets shining wet with our much-needed rain.

When I arrived, I would find food. I would find wine. But more importantly, I would find a gathering of mostly women doing their best to resist the tyranny under which we are all living at this terrible time in the history of the United States of America.

Not in my lifetime

I have not been around forever, but I can say that we are living in a time like none I have experienced before.

Not during my childhood, when some whites and many Blacks of all ages lay their lives on the line to demand civil rights. Not during my college years, when students faced teargas (and in the case of Kent State University on May 4, 1970—bullets) to protest the Vietnam War and women of all ages marched for equal rights.

So it is no surprise that I—and many others—feel anxious. And afraid. And disillusioned, depressed, and angry. But many of us also feel resolute, determined, and strong. Because we are committed to the belief that we can take our country back if we keep our minds free, keep the truth safe, and work together to take action.

Woolf’s words apply today

At this moment I find that Virginia Woolf’s words quoted above speak to me more than ever. They soothe my soul and give me hope that despite everything the felon’s regime is doing to destroy our freedoms, we will always have the freedom of our minds. That is the one thing that no one—not even autocrats—can control.

But here is how they persist in trying.

Libraries — and their books — under threat

Libraries are not locked yet, but they are under threat. Federal grant funding has been eliminated, and book bans are widespread.

Not surprisingly, 72 percent of those challenges came from pressure groups and government entities, according to the American Library Association.

Academic freedom disappearing

School is back in session, but public schools, which Thomas Jefferson and John Adams believed were necessary for an educated populace and a successful democracy, are losing funding to unregulated charter and private schools through voucher programs pushed by the right.

In addition, our felon in chief has made it legal for individuals to donate up to $1,700 to an organization that supports private schools and take a 100 percent tax credit for their donation.

Our federal Department of Education is being dismantled. And diversity, equity, and inclusion programs have been banned across the board.

At the state level, Texas has mandated that some time each day be allotted to prayer and Bible study. Ohio has passed a law that requires schools to give students “release time” to attend religious instruction during school hours. And according to a Pew Research Report, “Just over half of U.S. adults (52%) say they favor allowing public school teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus.”

Colleges and universities are still open, although the felon’s administration has withheld or threatened to withhold billions of research dollars from Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Northwestern, Penn, Princeton and the University of California, Los Angeles until they succumb to his demands.

Professors are still teaching, although they are being closely watched, with at least 60 of them suffering recent retaliation due to comments they made on social media regarding Charlie Kirk’s murder.

Campus women’s centers and LGBTQ+ centers closed before fall semester. And ethnic studies programs are either dead or under threat.

Media censored

The media—public broadcasting, legacy media, and the major television networks—are still functioning, although in the case of for-profit media, their hands are increasingly tied and their mouths shut so their business mergers will receive government approval.

The felon’s toadies in Congress cut $1.1 billion of funding for NPR and PBS this year. The felon himself filed lawsuits against the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CBS News (Paramount), and ABC News for simply reporting news he did not like.

And two of the main comedic truth tellers of our time—late night TV hosts Stephen Colbert (CBS) and Jimmy Kimmel (ABC)—have either had their show’s tenure cut short or suspended because they dared to criticize the felon in the White House.

Woolf’s eternal relevance

Today, in the face of this rising tide of autocratic populism, Woolf is more relevant than ever. Her methods of thinking, reading, and writing—as both critic and creator—remain effective fighting tools for us today and into the future.

Like her, we must value and preserve the freedom of our minds, so we can wage a smart fight against those who would take away our freedoms. As Woolf wrote in her diary during World War II:

“This idea struck me: the army is the body: I am the brain. Thinking is my fighting” (D5 285).

And so we must do as Woolf advised in Three Guineas (1938):

Think we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think as we pass the Cenotaph; and in Whitehall; in the gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts; let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals. Let us never cease from thinking – what is this ‘civilization’ in which we find ourselves? (62-3)

We must use our thinking to resist the horrors we confront in the news each day, as Woolf did in the face of even graver threats. For ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny—and we will never become handmaids.