It saddens me when I hear about people who live in a society where books are censored or banned. Earlier this year I struggled with the re-release of The Tales of Huckleberry Finn after Alan Gribben changed the “n-word” to slave, but it was even more distressing when I heard that books were banned in Tunisia and Egypt. The ban is finally off and a book sale is set to happen in Tahrir Square at the end of March. This is a major milestone in the transition from dictatorships in these countries, and should remind us of our own basic political freedoms as we celebrate their freedom with them.

It is nearly impossible for young adults from the United States to understand what it means to not have access to books. We have never truly had to hide our books away for fear of political prosecution; or worse, experience getting caught reading with a flashlight at night or hiding a book in our desk during class. We cannot imagine going into a Borders or a Barnes and Noble and seeing only government-approved books and magazines, and I know we wouldn’t want to.

Many of the books that were previously banned or criticized in the United States are now glorified. The American Library Association sponsors Banned Book week in the last week of September and this year the NCSU Libraries and the Society for Collegiate Journalists rounded up students and administrators to read excerpts from some of them. Chancellor Woodson read a part from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and Coach Elliott Avent read Gone with the Wind. Many of these books are also assigned reading in high school meant to make us think, as well as to reflect on a time when the ideas were contrary to thinking in society. Tunisia and Egypt can now experience a renaissance in ideas and thinking.

As free citizens, we can relate and relish with the Egyptian and Tunisian citizens that the ideas and stories from decades ago are now free to flow in these countries. Books are an accessible way of spreading knowledge and ideas, and setting the tone of society. According to Time, La Regente de Carthage by Nicolas Beau and Catherine Graciet, a book which outlined the corruption of now former Tunisian first lady Leila Ben Ali’s family, was promptly banned there when it was published in 2009. Since the outing of the regimes, the book and many others are now reappearing in bookstores in Egypt and Tunisia for sale, which can help these societies reestablish their identity.

Thomas Jefferson, known for his love of books, said, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” From our early days as a country we believed this. Freedom of the press is guaranteed in the First Amendment, and has protected our right to freely write and disseminate information from the government since the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. This freedom is now a reality for Tunisia and Egypt. These countries can start enjoying again the freedom that reading and writing give a society.