Across the country, right-wing activists and politicians are pushing to ban hundreds of books from public school libraries. While this is often described as an effort to remove "pornography" from school libraries, Popular Information has repeatedly documented most of the targeted books have LGBTQ characters or are literary works with sexual content. Other books have been banished for accurate historical portrayals of racism, which these activists consider "Critical Race Theory."
Having retired after more than 35 years as a library educator, I feel more than justified by current events in my choice of career. We are never so exalted as when we are persecuted, as Thomas Merton might say. When libraries are attacked, I can be sure that we are doing our jobs in facilitating the flow of ideas. Ignorance will never win, even if all libraries cease to exist, because human curiosity and the need for human expression will outflank it every time.
We have people where I live echoing the same cries of “pornography” who have tried to protest the curriculum of the schools with regard to sex ed and to remove books from school libraries. I live in what is considered a “Blue” State. School Board meetings were so disrupted by theses people that they had to impose new rules to maintain order. These people have been influenced by “Moms for Liberty”. One of the ringleaders in particular has been going after the schools for years complaining about curriculum, even before she picked up with “Moms for Liberty”: a vindictive and unhappy person. And yet she has a special needs child who receives lots of special care from the public school system. She apparently has no problem with our taxes supporting her child, but she certainly wants to impose her unhappy will on everyone else. Another one who ran for School Board participated in the January 6 insurrection.
If you think where you live is immune from this, you are wrong. If you sit on your hands and do nothing, they have won. Try showing up at School Board or local government meeting sometimes to see what’s going on. As the Tennessee Three have shown us, Stand Up. Make your voice heard.
“They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” arguing that “[i]t’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”
If this wasn’t so tragic, I would find it hilariously funny. One of my all time favorite jobs was when I worked briefly as an assistant to the Children’s Librarian in the public library of a small town in NJ. I loved reading to the kids, helping to develop programs to promote reading and my co-workers were wonderful, caring people. As I am sure is the case with many of you, libraries will always feel like safe places filled with wonderful worlds to explore. The Republican effort to remove all sense of safety for our children goes SO beyond heartbreaking and cruel. Children can no longer feel safe in schools due to gun violence and now our libraries are at risk. This is complete INSANITY!!!
So, to be clear, the Republican position is that people--especially kids--should NOT be allowed to read about LGBTQ kids and/or this nation's accurate history. However, coming home from school free of bullet holes, that's a step too far for them?
The ridiculousness in the details of these stories is that it’s often only one or two people initially who have a complaint. That should not get a ball rolling on such a measures but such is the hatefulness and desire for power of these twisted Republicans that it does get the ball rolling.
The story gets picked up by local media and Republican dogs sniffing the air looking for such stories, finds it & gets it backed by dark money or influence, who then campaigns to push the right buttons for ignorant, uninformed people. Soon the one or two people become 56% of a town not wanting a public library at all!
Clearly this is Fascism. They always go after books & education first. You cannot have an educated populace; educated people fight back,
If all it was about was a parent not wanting their child to read a particular book, (that they prob don’t know exists) the solution is simple: create an opt-out form so parents can ban it for their child! Simple. Instead, they are seeking to stop all parents choices and what ANY other child can read, not only in school, but in public now! Takes the choice away from adults as well. And takes away 10,000 books for students, for college students, for pleasure readers... and kill the jobs of Iberians, custodians, researchers, etc all because you don’t want your kid reading 3-4 of the books the library has?!! If that’s not pure Fascism, what is?
This is why people need to understand who they’re voting for in their local elections. Who would think this would be happening when they cast their votes or when they don’t vote at all at local and state levels...
I hope that the lesson being learned here by the general public is to get your asses out there and cast your vote before we are all living in a Republican dystopian nation.
Dailey Beast coincidentally published a piece today describing a person who is/was involved with Moms for Liberty in PA. Titled “Moms For Liberty Leader Allegedly Hijacked Dead Woman’s Facebook Page to Harass Foes”, you can’t make this up. My mouth dropped open at the chaos and damage this one woman has inflicted on people and organizations before people started pressing charges. Apparently this woman had a reputation for trouble before Moms for Liberty.
Wow. This is so discouraging and unsettling. I’m nearly finished writing a 400 page nonfiction book that is about gifted children now grown up. Case studies. It’s about what factors have some smart children end up socially, emotionally, and psychologically healthy as adults and others endlessly struggling to recover from the quagmire of typical childhoods in our schools and homes. Of course some of the subjects are gender divergent. Most interesting, of the approximately 60 people who weighed I. On what they think of the topic, only two stated clearly they think it is wrong to be or entertain the idea of a deviation from the Christian norm. The ages of these people who answered are from 20 to 45. Two of the youngest are the ones who think it is wrong. I sure hope my book doesn’t get banned. Thank you for your Terri I work, Popular Information!
The problem with government is that there are far too many religious nut jobs in positions of power. It's on both sides but obviously more on the right. We need to elect more atheists and people who can use common sense when making a decision and don't base every view they have on the bible. This is so wrong on so many levels. Exposing kids to different ideas and viewpoints should be celebrated. But these christian psychos don't see it that way. It's their way or else. Seems pretty un-American to me.
"The people pushing to remove books from school libraries often argue that they are not pushing book "bans." Rather, they claim to be focused on ensuring schools have age-appropriate materials"
Righto. And Dobbs was just about states' rights in deciding on abortion laws. The camel's nose under the tent.
Can any of these cultists explain how a kid reading about a gay kid's sex life will lead to human trafficking? Is the kid going to traffic himself? Or become a pedophile in waiting, for when he turns 21?
There are some stupid mother lovers in this country. You can’t defund the police killing innocent people but those books are dangerous so let’s defund the libraries. Hey guns don’t kill people so make them more available to everyone. Are we number one yet?
If a group launched on Facebook, less than a year ago, with fewer than 300 members, can have this much influence, we should ask ourselves: where are they getting their funding? A number of similar groups, crusading on so called “parental rights”, are funded by outside, Dark Money sources. They are radical-right, libertarians who actually care little about the latest moral panic, but are happy to froth up those prone to panic, if it leads to their ultimate goal: PRIVATIZATION.
Having retired after more than 35 years as a library educator, I feel more than justified by current events in my choice of career. We are never so exalted as when we are persecuted, as Thomas Merton might say. When libraries are attacked, I can be sure that we are doing our jobs in facilitating the flow of ideas. Ignorance will never win, even if all libraries cease to exist, because human curiosity and the need for human expression will outflank it every time.
We have people where I live echoing the same cries of “pornography” who have tried to protest the curriculum of the schools with regard to sex ed and to remove books from school libraries. I live in what is considered a “Blue” State. School Board meetings were so disrupted by theses people that they had to impose new rules to maintain order. These people have been influenced by “Moms for Liberty”. One of the ringleaders in particular has been going after the schools for years complaining about curriculum, even before she picked up with “Moms for Liberty”: a vindictive and unhappy person. And yet she has a special needs child who receives lots of special care from the public school system. She apparently has no problem with our taxes supporting her child, but she certainly wants to impose her unhappy will on everyone else. Another one who ran for School Board participated in the January 6 insurrection.
If you think where you live is immune from this, you are wrong. If you sit on your hands and do nothing, they have won. Try showing up at School Board or local government meeting sometimes to see what’s going on. As the Tennessee Three have shown us, Stand Up. Make your voice heard.
There should be a class action suit demanding that churches who violate the separation of Church and State must pay taxes.
“They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” arguing that “[i]t’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”
If this wasn’t so tragic, I would find it hilariously funny. One of my all time favorite jobs was when I worked briefly as an assistant to the Children’s Librarian in the public library of a small town in NJ. I loved reading to the kids, helping to develop programs to promote reading and my co-workers were wonderful, caring people. As I am sure is the case with many of you, libraries will always feel like safe places filled with wonderful worlds to explore. The Republican effort to remove all sense of safety for our children goes SO beyond heartbreaking and cruel. Children can no longer feel safe in schools due to gun violence and now our libraries are at risk. This is complete INSANITY!!!
So, to be clear, the Republican position is that people--especially kids--should NOT be allowed to read about LGBTQ kids and/or this nation's accurate history. However, coming home from school free of bullet holes, that's a step too far for them?
I presume the Bible will have to be banned for all the sexual and violent content that seeks to indoctrinate the vulnerable in society.
The ridiculousness in the details of these stories is that it’s often only one or two people initially who have a complaint. That should not get a ball rolling on such a measures but such is the hatefulness and desire for power of these twisted Republicans that it does get the ball rolling.
The story gets picked up by local media and Republican dogs sniffing the air looking for such stories, finds it & gets it backed by dark money or influence, who then campaigns to push the right buttons for ignorant, uninformed people. Soon the one or two people become 56% of a town not wanting a public library at all!
Clearly this is Fascism. They always go after books & education first. You cannot have an educated populace; educated people fight back,
If all it was about was a parent not wanting their child to read a particular book, (that they prob don’t know exists) the solution is simple: create an opt-out form so parents can ban it for their child! Simple. Instead, they are seeking to stop all parents choices and what ANY other child can read, not only in school, but in public now! Takes the choice away from adults as well. And takes away 10,000 books for students, for college students, for pleasure readers... and kill the jobs of Iberians, custodians, researchers, etc all because you don’t want your kid reading 3-4 of the books the library has?!! If that’s not pure Fascism, what is?
This is why people need to understand who they’re voting for in their local elections. Who would think this would be happening when they cast their votes or when they don’t vote at all at local and state levels...
I hope that the lesson being learned here by the general public is to get your asses out there and cast your vote before we are all living in a Republican dystopian nation.
Holy Christian Cats BatMan. Where do all of these Prurient Pilgrims come from?
Well old chum, unfortunately, they were already here. Home grown if you will.
Just stick an AR-15 and a St James Christian Bible in the ground, water it with beer
(not Bud) or the after-water, so as not to waste the nectar of Gods and in 3 days, you
done grown yer own!
Dailey Beast coincidentally published a piece today describing a person who is/was involved with Moms for Liberty in PA. Titled “Moms For Liberty Leader Allegedly Hijacked Dead Woman’s Facebook Page to Harass Foes”, you can’t make this up. My mouth dropped open at the chaos and damage this one woman has inflicted on people and organizations before people started pressing charges. Apparently this woman had a reputation for trouble before Moms for Liberty.
Wow. This is so discouraging and unsettling. I’m nearly finished writing a 400 page nonfiction book that is about gifted children now grown up. Case studies. It’s about what factors have some smart children end up socially, emotionally, and psychologically healthy as adults and others endlessly struggling to recover from the quagmire of typical childhoods in our schools and homes. Of course some of the subjects are gender divergent. Most interesting, of the approximately 60 people who weighed I. On what they think of the topic, only two stated clearly they think it is wrong to be or entertain the idea of a deviation from the Christian norm. The ages of these people who answered are from 20 to 45. Two of the youngest are the ones who think it is wrong. I sure hope my book doesn’t get banned. Thank you for your Terri I work, Popular Information!
The problem with government is that there are far too many religious nut jobs in positions of power. It's on both sides but obviously more on the right. We need to elect more atheists and people who can use common sense when making a decision and don't base every view they have on the bible. This is so wrong on so many levels. Exposing kids to different ideas and viewpoints should be celebrated. But these christian psychos don't see it that way. It's their way or else. Seems pretty un-American to me.
whoa! Lets defund schools while we are at it. They have this stuff called "Biology" classes. After all, Evolution is a Biblical issue.
"The people pushing to remove books from school libraries often argue that they are not pushing book "bans." Rather, they claim to be focused on ensuring schools have age-appropriate materials"
Righto. And Dobbs was just about states' rights in deciding on abortion laws. The camel's nose under the tent.
Can any of these cultists explain how a kid reading about a gay kid's sex life will lead to human trafficking? Is the kid going to traffic himself? Or become a pedophile in waiting, for when he turns 21?
There are some stupid mother lovers in this country. You can’t defund the police killing innocent people but those books are dangerous so let’s defund the libraries. Hey guns don’t kill people so make them more available to everyone. Are we number one yet?
If a group launched on Facebook, less than a year ago, with fewer than 300 members, can have this much influence, we should ask ourselves: where are they getting their funding? A number of similar groups, crusading on so called “parental rights”, are funded by outside, Dark Money sources. They are radical-right, libertarians who actually care little about the latest moral panic, but are happy to froth up those prone to panic, if it leads to their ultimate goal: PRIVATIZATION.
My question is this? Who is grooming who? Think about it.