Leonard Pitts Jr, writing earlier this week:
There is in the act of burning something primitive and tribalistic, something that appeals to the lizard brain which has no ability or desire to reason, no comprehension of ideals and abstract concepts, that knows only that it lives in fear of a world it cannot understand and will do anything to send the fear away.
The process of becoming a truly human being is the process of conquering that lizard brain. Unfortunately, some people never do.
On Saturday, some of those people will gather round a bonfire to watch pages blacken and curl and turn to smoke. You listen to the hatred spewing from respectable leaders in prominent places, you think of how normal that has become, and one thing suddenly seems starkly clear:
We're burning a whole lot more than books.
(Photo: Pakistani lawyers carry a burning US flag during a protest in Multan on September 9, 2010 to denounce the plans to burn the Koran by a US church. By Mohammed Malik/AFP/Getty.)