Librarians, authors and civil libertarians are invited to sign onto the Read A Burned Book campaign, which will be officially launched very soon. The statement and current list of signatories is below. Anyone wanting to add their name can please email libertas(@)dialmaine(dot)com

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"There are worse crimes than burning books.
One of them is not reading them"

Joseph Brodsky, 1940-1996

We, the undersigned authors and librarians, voice our support for the
“Read A Burned Book� campaign, and we urge freedom-loving people around
the world to read the books which tyrants burn.

We especially urge young people in all lands to read and discuss the books
which were ordered “incinerated� by judges subservient to Fidel Castro in
2003. The paper of books written by Guillermo Infante, George Orwell,
Martin Luther King Jr., Carlos Franqui, Vaclav Havel, Oswaldo Paya, Pope
John Paul II and many others may have been burned, but their words have
flown like birds to the minds of those who yearn to be free.

Tyranny in any nation cannot long survive, nor easily arise, when the
people demand to freely read. We look forward to the day when the people
of a truly-independent Cuba will thrive in a land where books are not
burned, independent libraries are not destroyed, and journalists are not
jailed.

Signatories:

Carlos Franqui, Cuban Revolutionary, Author "Family Portrait with Fidel",
editor of Carta de Cuba literary journal.

Prof. Carlos Eire, Yale; Author "Waiting For Snow in Havana", Winner of
National Book Award

Amb. Armando Valladares, Poet and Author of "Against All Hope", former
prisoner of conscience in Cuba and US Ambassdor to the United Nations
Human Rights Commission.

Humberto Colas & Berta Mexidor, Founders, Independent Library Project of
Cuba, ALA Members

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Author of Lupe Solano Mystery Series and
recipient of the Flamingo Award.

Nat Hentoff, Internationally-respected Journalist, Jazz Critic, and Civil
Libertarian

Andrei Codrescu, Poet, Novelist, and National Public Radio columnist,
recipient of ACLU Freedom of Speech Award.

Sandy Berman, Maverick Library Author and Honorary Lifetime member of
American Library Association

Steve Marquardt, Ph.D, Co-Chair FREADOM and South Dakota State University
Dean of Libraries Emeritus

Beth Hill, Asst. Professor, University of Idaho, Librarian & ALA Council
member

Steve Fesenmaier, Librarian, ALA member

Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz, Former Solidarity activist and Librarian

Walter Skold, Poet, Librarian, and Co-Chair of FREADOM

Werner A. Lind, Assistant Director, Easley Library, Bluefield College ,VA

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