“I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: No fear.”

— Nina Simone

On the website of Rebel Heart Books in Jacksonville, the words of the famed singer, songwriter and activist were posted this week on the store’s quote board.

The message spoke to strength and defiance in the face of a series of confrontations that culminated in a misogynistic and threatening letter — one sent anonymously that not only spoke about women in a highly derogatory manner, but described ways in which they could be killed.

Eileen Bobek, owner of Rebel Heart Books, said that it wasn’t unusual for customers and passersby to engage in discussions about the books that the store stocks on its shelves, or displays that bring attention to such events as Pride Month.

“People love to talk about freedom, but not as a concept,” she told the Rogue Valley Times. “It’s about their own freedom. If they feel their freedom is violated, then they feel entitled to violate others’ freedom.”

And while the violent imagery in the letter took things to extremes, what’s happened at Rebel Heart is a microcosm of a national culture war being fought over a long-established lightning rod.

Books.

In schools, in libraries and in bookstores, what books are made available and are being read has led to heated debates, the loss of jobs and a battle over appropriateness that falls in line with Bobek’s comments on freedom.

Animosity has arisen among those who feel aggrieved that their social-cultural stances are somehow violated by the reading choices presented, taught or preferred by others. 

It’s a manifestation of the fear that allows for only a narrow view of the world.

Books, of course, challenge that perception — which is why they are challenged, banned and burned.

Books open our eyes and expand our minds. They grant us permission to actively imagine a world outside the parameters of the one in which we live.

Other forms of media leave their imprints on our psyches and our cultures, but books dare to translate the written word through the prism of our own value systems … they force us to develop our capacity to think critically.

It’s why they’re so beloved, and it’s why they so frighten those who find comfort in that narrow worldview — limiting themselves and seeking to prohibit the growth of others beyond the boundaries of the ordinary.

What Rebel Heart is experiencing, what has been seen in schools and libraries elsewhere across the state, is in itself an attempt to shape — and control — minds.

The attacks on the Jacksonville bookstore aren’t always as lacking in subtlety as the letter. Items have been left on the doorstep. Books have been turned face down by those who found them objectionable. People have pounded on the windows, made rude comments as they passed the open door and suggested that the store be subject to a boycott.

Bobek hopes to find an avenue to discuss the issues raised by such behavior.

“These are tough conversations,” she said, “but that is when you work the hardest.”

“No fear,” Nina Simone said, was her definition of freedom. Rebel Heart Books is carrying that torch.