HISTORY CONNECTS THE STORIES of the two Marthas. One, Martha Ballard, a midwife and the main character in a book of historical fiction, The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. The second Martha is Martha Brown, local author, educator, speaker, musician and political candidate for state representative in my district. She shared her personal reflections about a trip to Cambodia on Thursday evening at the Faribault library in a presentation titled “Cambodia—Healing a Broken County.”
I’d just finished reading Lawhon’s book earlier Thursday so the commonalities between a story set in the late 1700s in postrevolutionary America and Brown’s recent trip to Cambodia connected in my mind. In both stories exist violence, trauma, strength, power and resilience within an historical context.
THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE
I’ll start with Brown. She focused on the time before and after the 1975-1979 Cambodian Genocide in which some 2 million Cambodians were murdered under the rule of Khmer Rouge, the Communist political party then in power. She also touched on the illegal and secret bombings of Cambodia by the U.S. in 1969 against North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia. That, too, claimed untold civilian lives.
I don’t want to get into historical details here or a political discussion about the Vietnam War. Rather, I intend the focus to be on those who suffered in Cambodia and those who survived. Just as Brown focused her hour-long talk. She arrived in Cambodia expecting to see trauma from the genocide. But instead, she said, she found recovery, healing and joy. She saw survivors of the genocide as part of the healing.
A HORRIFIC HISTORY NOT HIDDEN
The history of the genocide has not been hidden nor erased in Cambodia. “They don’t bury their history,” Brown said. I jotted that quote in my notebook, mentally connecting that to current day America and ongoing efforts by the current administration to erase/hide/rewrite history. We all know the quote—”Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”—by Spanish Philosopher George Santayana. We would do well to contemplate and hold those words close.
In her presentation, Brown did not avoid the hard topics of children recruited and indoctrinated to participate in the Cambodian Genocide killings of educators, doctors, ordinary people, even those who wore eyeglasses. Perpetrators were never punished, went back to their lives, now live among the population. This was hard stuff to hear, especially about the brainwashing of children to kill. “We need to teach our children well,” said Brown, ever the educator who cares deeply about children.
LESSONS LEARNED IN CAMBODIA
Her passion was evident as she spoke of hugging survivors, of apologizing for the U.S. bombings of Cambodia, of crying while in the southeast Asian country. She learned that how you live and treat people is more important than wealth. She learned that people can be poor and still be happy. She learned about the differences in a society that focuses on community rather than self.
When Brown’s talk ended, others shared and a few of us asked questions, including me. Mine was too political to answer in a non-political presentation. But I asked anyway about the internal and external factors contributing to the rise and fall of empires. Brown hesitated, saying only that we could draw our own conclusions from her talk.
A MUST-READ BOOK
Then I wrote “The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon” on a slip of paper. Not to give to Brown, but rather to the local director of Hope Center serving survivors and victims of sexual assault and domestic violence and their families. I handed the paper to Erica Staab-Absher after hugging her. “You need to read this book,” I said.
In this book of historical fiction, the author bases her writing on real-life midwife Martha Ballard, who documented her life in a journal. Ballard was witness to violence, sexual assault, injustices, secrets, manipulation, power, trauma and much more. This book will resonate with anyone who has survived a sexual assault or cared about someone who has been so viciously attacked. I cannot say enough about the value of reading this book and how empowering it was to me as a woman. It is a love story, mystery and a documentation of strength and resilience.
Resilience. Strength. Healing. Those three words come to mind as I connect the work of a New York Times bestselling author and a talk about the Cambodian Genocide at my southern Minnesota library. By reading and listening, I learned. To read a book pulled from the shelves at my public library and then to listen to personal reflections about a trip to Cambodia on the second floor of that same library are freedoms I no longer take for granted. Not today. I choose to remember and learn from the past. And hope we do not repeat it.
© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
A Banned Books Week commentary on free speech October 10, 2025
Tags: 1984, America, American Library Association, Banned Books Week, books, Books on Central, Buckham Memorial Library, censorship, commentary, freedom of speech, George Orwell, libraries, opinion, reading, Right to Read
AS A WRITER, journalist and avid reader, I’m a firm believer in free speech. Never have I seen that right more threatened in America than it is today. It’s downright scary—efforts by the federal government to suppress voices (already occurring), promises of retribution (now being carried out), abuse of power (happening on so many levels) and much more that threatens our very freedoms, our democracy. I could go on and on.
But today I want to focus on Banned Books Week, which ends tomorrow. Thursday evening I gathered with a group of volunteers for an appreciation event at Books on Central in Faribault, a used bookshop founded by the Rice County Area United Way. While I don’t volunteer there (yet), I’ve blogged about the bookstore numerous times because I love books and I love that monies from BOC book sales help nonprofits in my area. We weren’t there to discuss banned books, though, but rather to celebrate volunteerism and this small bookshop which has become much-beloved by the Faribault community and beyond.
It was not lost on me as I sat there surrounded by books, listening to volunteers share their passion for this place and for books, that everyone who walks in the door is surrounded by choices. As it should be. Choose what you want to read or want to share with others.
Yet, there are individuals, organizations, elected government officials and others who want to determine what we can read by banning books from libraries, schools and elsewhere. That, my friends, is censorship. And I’m not OK with that. If I find the content of a book to be offensive, then I can stop reading it or never open it in the first place. Likewise parents can monitor their child’s reading materials just as they would online content.
In the words of the American Library Association’s 2025 Banned Books Week theme, “CENSORSHIP is so 1984.” That’s a reference to George Orwell’s prophetic 1949 novel, 1984, about a totalitarian government. That’s a simplistic summary. But the book is particularly relevant to today. I intend to check it out from my library to reread.
After the bookshop appreciation event Thursday evening, I stopped at Buckham Memorial Library to see if staff had created a Banned Books display as they have in the past. They did. After I read the information and looked at a sampling of books that have been banned (not from my library), I grabbed a green bracelet imprinted with this message: CENSORSHIP is so 1984. READ FOR YOUR RIGHTS.
I will continue to read. I will continue to write. And I will continue to embrace, support and advocate for free speech. I have a voice. I refuse to be silenced.
© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling