Ray Bradbury’s novel "Fahrenheit 451" is set in a near-future American city where mass entertainment, constant noise, and shallow media have replaced reading, reflection, and meaningful conversation, and where owning books is a serious crime.

On March 31, President Trump issued a new executive order on citizenship records and mail‑in ballots entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” The order has nothing to do with election integrity — the name is like “Newspeak,” Orwell’s fictional language for a totalitarian state. It is an unlawful attempt to seize control of how Alaskans vote and to make an error‑ridden federal database the gatekeeper of our ballots.

History is replete with public figures who have sought to consolidate their power or aggrandize their role as leaders by dominating their landscapes with images of their likeness.