The program, running from April through May 2026, encourages residents across the coast to read the same book and engage in community conversations around it. And whatever your politics, this is a pick worth taking seriously.

For a publication that talks a lot about government overreach, Takei's memoir is essentially a case study in what happens when the state decides that an entire group of citizens can be stripped of their property, their liberty, and their dignity — with virtually no due process. Executive Order 9066 wasn't passed by some foreign authoritarian regime. It was signed by FDR, upheld by the Supreme Court, and carried out by American bureaucrats. Over 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most of them U.S. citizens, were forced into camps because the government decided their ethnicity made them a threat.

If that doesn't make a liberty-minded person's blood boil, nothing will.

The graphic novel format makes it accessible — this isn't a 600-page policy tome. It's a deeply personal story told through illustrations, making it ideal for younger readers and families. And in a city where we're constantly debating the proper limits of government power — from housing regulations to surveillance to emergency mandates — grounding that conversation in historical reality is genuinely useful.

Here's our take: Read the book. Attend one of the library events if you can. You don't have to agree with George Takei's current politics to recognize that his childhood story is a powerful warning about what happens when fear gives government a blank check. The best argument for limited government isn't an economics textbook — it's the lived experience of people who had their constitutional rights suspended by their own country.

The SF Public Library still does some things right. This is one of them.