On March 8, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) conducted a press conference in which he purported to debunk the "book ban hoax." During the event, DeSantis claimed that Florida schools, under his leadership, were not banning educational materials. Rather, they were simply removing "pornography" from school libraries and classrooms. DeSantis
I would love to simply call out DeSantis as an idiot chasing the vote of people who do not or refuse to know better. But of course it’s worse than that: HE does know better and has sold his soul to the lowest denominator for the votes and amplified ignorance as a badge of honor. Hope like crazy his skulduggery catches up with him and bites him all over. Until then, all believers in the power of books to educate, comfort and make aware need to vote and to show up at the crazy meetings where the book banners behave badly.
Katherine, DeSantis is done. And there is no way in hell he would EVER get traction in a national campaign. Trump is over. He knows it. Unfortunately, news channels keep him on the news. That’s a disgrace. On the bright side, republicans are eating their own.
"Jalani and the Lock" is "pornography" because it recognizes the role slavery played in the building of America? Guess anything you don't like is considered obscene or pornographic.
Brussels sprouts? Pornographic. Turtleneck sweaters? Pornographic. Waiting in line at checkout? You better believe that's pornographic.
Younger millennials and older Gen Z sometimes brings up 9/11 as some of the only content we learned in school as "too much" or excessively grotesque and unnecessarily thorough.
The detail in which 9/11 is described to students of all ages is actually horrific and excessive; I saw people jump to their deaths every year from around 2007 and onward. Propaganda, in my opinion, to fuel the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, or wherever else the US shoved their business and tax dollars, but I digress.
At least in learning about the darkest times in our history, like slavery, the Civil War, the push for civil rights in the 1960s, and so on, we weren't shown footage of suicides on repeat, or hear anecdotes describing piles of smoldering human remains mixed with rubble. But try to stop or limit the types of content about 9/11 taught in schools, cite it "inappropriate"—the GOP would have a meltdown.
That's an excellent point! I think our legislators should seriously bring that up. Same with men never having their bodies be the target of legislation nor the push for their children to be in straight relationships being considered "grooming".
In the view of self-appointed guardians of morality, extreme violence, bloodshed, murder are acceptable for children to view. Only the human body, especially women’s bodies, are pornographic and obscene.
There are dozens and dozens of books depicting the truth about slavery that are now banned in Florida and Texas, along with books with LGBTQ characters (and authors).
Sorry, but your second paragraph comes across as trivializing a crucial First Amendment issue. We see illustrations of nude people in books being labeled as obscene, even those of little kids, which makes you wonder how many closet pedophiles are choosing which books are "pornographic." The very idea of books in school libraries being "pornographic" is not only ridiculous, but rather sick. Let's try to think more deeply about this issue, OK?
Why aren't they banning the Bible??? It has everything in it :incest , murder , beastiality, the works ! Why isn't this banned !! What about National Geographic and the porn in that showing women's breasts in African communities!!! Oh the horror !! These people who ban books for any reason should be the ones banned !
Why aren't they banning the bible? Because they're using Christianity to justify censorship such as banning books. Come on, do you really think religious ideology is the driving force behind these book bans? It's just an excuse, a smoke screen behind which fascism operates in its formative stages.
Many of the banned books feature Black history, Black children, and LGBTQ kids and adults. There is nothing pornographic or sexual in them. It's not about sex, it is about oppression.
I've been going back and forth with, she says, a teacher from Duval County on tiktok. I asked her why the Bible wasn't banned, since they banned a Berenstain Bears book that she claimed was teaching religion. She told me the Bible was a historical book. She said she taught it. I asked about separation of church and state. I also asked if she taught the Quran and the Torah. She claimed she did. I asked if her Muslim students were allowed praying on their mats. She claimed they were too embarrassed. I then asked if they were frightened or embarrassed? I find it very hard to believe that a Muslim world be embarrassed to pray. Frightened of repercussions because of their religion, yes. I haven't gone back to see her answer because frankly, I think she's lying.
GOP is turning us towards fascism with Florida being the "experimental state" to see how far Americans will allow it to go. Other red states are starting to do the same thing. GOP is using Victor Orban's playbook (who has become one of the heroes) and will do the same to the whole country if they control all 3 branches of the government. They need to be stopped before it is too late.
By making more people aware of what is going on. Ask your friends "Who is Victor Orban"? See how many even know who he is. Read yourself what he has done and view the comparisons to what the GOP has already done in some states and is trying to do on a national level. Information is key. The media only tells you what gives them ratings. Once people know what is happening and how it affects them, they become engaged. But the corporations running media don't want that. So we must do it. Get everyone you know out to vote and explain why they must vote BLUE.
I wonder about the last time DeStupid visited one of his public beaches. Now, by his standards if banning books from the sight of children, every beach in the state would be closed. The nudity on the Florida beaches is far more explicit than any of these books on this list.
No, what DeStupid, and his minion legislative body are trying to do is turn Florida into an authoritarian state. One step away from full communism. Sad thing about this is the people in Florida are allowing it to happen. They seem to not care.
DeStupid is now touting that Florida is the “Blueprint for the United States”. People, I say to you right now. If we allow this character anywhere near the White House, this is exactly what he will be doing with the country.
Daniel C What a great observation about what people wear or do not wear on the beaches in FL. Maybe those “porn” spots should be shut down…no more pesky tourists or money.
I’m just saying. If DeStupid says that buttocks exposed is pornography, he needs to close his beaches down. There’s plenty of buttocks exposed there, plus a whole lot more. Public pools included.
The problem is, he’s trying to stop the children from being taught anything about history, if you truly think about it. What an idiot.
Precisely and what a hell of an observation! Right there in plain sight, all the porno that twisted chump De Santis could desire, crowding the beaches of "his" state. All ages, something for everyone.
Being born and raised in Florida (Palm Beach County) I frequented the beaches quite often. Over the decades, the beach attire has become rather “skimpy” you might say. I don’t see why they just don’t go totally nudist. They might as well because they are so close to being totally nude now it’s nit funny. But, DeStupid bans books because of a Tribes normal attire!
I read the Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi long ago. My favorite tactic is the one called "To Move the Shade." De Santis appears to be attempting a variation on this tactic with no little success in the short term!
PS: I lived in Miami for a bit, then Key West in a pink stucco house when I was a child. At 15, I was sent "down south" for a change of pace. Lived in Tallahassee for a bit, then a tiny town name of Attapulgas by way of Bainbridge Ga which was about 75 miles from Savanaugh.
Ahhh, as a young man, yiu too experienced the views of the Florida beaches. Quite a view, isn’t it?
I haven’t read this book you refer to, but I’ll see about locating it and reading it. I was born, raised in Florida. Moved from Palm Beach County (Boynton Beach) to Edisto Island, South Carolina, in 1970. Edisto Island was totally a farming area back then. The “big boom” didn’t happen there until some years later. But, it still was a hot spot for sun bathers on the weekends.
I loved back to Florida in 1979, elwhere I continued my law enforcement, firefighting, and paramedic career until I was medically forced to retire in 1995.
DeSantis is an idiot. All he’s accomplishing is depriving the children, young adults, the opportunity for a good, well rounded, education. All of the books he’s banned from classrooms, libraries, colleges, universities, across the state. He hasn’t read one-tenth of them I would venture a guess. Hell, he banned one book because one parent complained she didn’t want her child learning what that book had in it! But then, thus shows the mentality of the parents in Florida. They, too, ate well uneducated.
I’m glad I moved from that racist, authoritative , state.
How much of a disgusting perv do you have to be to look at any of those pictures and think "pornography"? Sure seems like the dangerous ones are the people who look at those and think they're sexual. Maybe Ron has a problem and he's telling on himself.
The Grundys have been around my whole life, and though I am a retired librarian, I have never been able to understand these censors and what motivates them: meanness? control freak? fear? bad religion? over-weaning hang up with “innocence”? I was a curious toddler with intelligent parents who encouraged reading. I pity those who don't have such guides.
Wow. This list of "banned" books is going to become the books most sought by high school kids. DeSantis, of course, has no idea that he has created in students a deep desire to find out what's so hot about these books. It comes back to bite you, Ronny!
I agree with you, Lynn, the curious kids will seek out the banned material. Overall, though, education in Florida will be devoid of any content that celebrates the diversity of the human experience or that gives a truthful telling of our country’s brutal history regarding race and ethnicity. It’s so sad, and it’s not just DeSantis - the love of authoritarianism among republicans is at the heart of this. We are in a very dangerous place.
So people are mass murdered and they pass open carry laws, but the Queen's buttocks viewed from afar are banned in a book. The resident at Mar-A-Lago grabs women by the p*ssy, but they want to make him president again. Anti abortion laws are rampantly threatening the well being of Floridian women, but they can bus immigrants up north because they care so much about the born. Disney has brought fistfuls of money into the state over 50 years, but the Gov wants to bring Mickey down because "don't say gay." I could continue to paint the accurate picture of conservative Florida or the rest of Red GOP US, but you already know what it looks like.
As a former high school librarian and longtime lover of all things books and libraries, I feel devastated and angry that politicians think they have a right to decide what books are placed on the shelves of libraries, or what is "appropriate" for kids.
I believe DeSantis knows exactly what he's doing here, he's not as stupid as he sounds, but I'm not sure why he and other Republican politicians are focusing so hard on the fringe extremists of their conservative voting base, when they should really be focusing on becoming more moderate to appeal to young voters—a generation, which I am on the elder cusp of, that is largely tolerant of marginalized populations of all kinds, and more of us are part of those populations than any other generation.
They are increasingly socially liberal but dislike how pervasive our government as a whole is in every aspect of our lives. But Republicans like DeSantis would rather focus on blaming things like teachers, books, and drag queens for Gen Z's tolerance, queerness, and tendency to vote left, as though these are traits that are pathological.
I'd much rather DeSantis read over the CDC's Youth Risk Behavioral Survey for the years 2011-2021. In 2021, 22% of high school students seriously considered attempting suicide, and 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless for 2 weeks or more that they stopped doing their usual activities. He should talk to adolescents and young voters and actually ask them why.
Part of the reason is the hopelessness we feel for the future when politicians like DeSantis condemn human rights, or deny science and facts that which we know to be true.
It's cold of DeSantis, aware of kids' poor mental health, to knowingly pointing fingers at the wrong things—books and democrats—when he should really just be pointing at himself and the rest of the GOP. But the GOP is too proud and cowardly: they would never admit to being wrong, or democrats being right.
So mark my words, young people will vote as many out of office as we can, and they can point and kick and scream all they like or cry election fraud, but their downfall will have been caused by ignoring what young adults and kids have to say in favor of never admitting they were wrong.
Kaylee, your comment is thoughtful and beautifully expressed. Like you, my local and school libraries were beloved sanctuaries. There was so much I checked out and enjoyed, from childhood on into adulthood, from children's books to Steven King, Ray Bradbury and others as I got older and closer to attending college. The breadth of books available to me then was a boon I took for granted, especially considering the times we are in now. The love of books continues although I find I am running out of the time I would like to read more of them than I do.
I agree that RDS would be enriched and enlightened by reading the materials you referenced and that his party could broaden its appeal by moderating. Unfortunately, the Republican party is currently constructed to appeal to and corral its most extreme members, first and foremost. Afterwards, most of the moderates are willing hostages going along for the ride, because they have been told that their life, values and very existence are under attack by the opposing party. In response, the moderates are terrified into voting for someone claiming to share their values over an opponent who has been demonized as a socialist libertine, looking to change or upend their lives into an unstable nightmare.
Robert Reich and Heather Cox Richardson have succinctly pointed out in many of their Substack posts that the actual policy proposals the Republican party continues to cling to are unpopular, even with many of their own registered party members. How do you keep your voters if your policies have no appeal? Frighten them and make bogeymen of anything or anyone that is, unfamiliar, unknown, misunderstood or just different. Rile them into a frenzy with animated, histrionic speeches at rallies and spit out labels in a venomous and hateful tone when describing others with opposing views and practices, all while claiming that those differences threaten the very existence of your longtime party members. Once they're terrified of the monster you've created out of your opponent, they run into the booth and cast votes to elect you, not because your policy positions help them but because they've been conditioned to believe a vote otherwise is a vote for destruction of their families, livelihood and the nation itself. It is this brainwashing, this conditioning of people to look to you as their protector and savior, that drives blaming of people and forces that pose no actual threat to your voters. It inspires the active demonization of "the other" to propel voters to cast votes for them over Democrats or Progressives.
All the books banned by De Santis and crew contain potentially weighty subject matter intended to engage the mind and stimulate reflection and introspection, not to mention empathy and passion for reading.
The books are for people not robots. So what is the end game for De Santis and his Hateful Crew?
This book-banning crusade is one of the most simplistic exercises going. Create a list of buzzwords, and body part references that are forbidden in word or picture form. Then arbitrarily and without context, look for those things. Wherever you find them scream out PORNOGRAPHY! Then label it for library removal.
It's like some kind of twisted, Puritanical game of Bingo where the winner removes the largest number of creative works from circulation by accusing them of harboring something malevolent. If anything, more people on the right would do well to read more broadly and have more available to read than they do, not less.
Just funning with ya CJ. I'm in a mood. Its been a damn good day. Nothing special happened but nothing bad neither. Just a steady state kinda flow, ya know?
And yes, I anticipate exchanging agreement greetings with you on more than a few occasions yet to come. That's a good thing, no?
I'm 58 years old. When I was in elementary school (K-8), one of my friends brought Forever to school and read it out loud to us at the lunch table. A teacher came by and took it away! I don't remember if my friend got the book back, but I do remember going to the local bookstore not long afterwards, with my own money, to buy my own copy!
The number of parents who want their children to have less 'freedom' than they did is astounding to me. Between the parents who track their kids on Life 360 to being ';scared' of Big Cities to saying 'I am afraid of what you might learn that is the opposite of what I am telling you', it's sad for these kids, who have access to the Internet and will eventually figure out what is going on.
Unfortunately, this is linked to the toxic politics of DeSantis and his quest to be king of the MAGAs. Why is there no mention of what is online or in the movies? Why only the books. Based on what I notice with my own grandchildren, they are online or watching the TV more than they are reading.
There are critical shortages of teachers across the Country in States that don’t have such “laws”. Where I live, teachers would be welcome.
Just read through everyone's comments.... Maybe it's time to question, just what is CIVILization. I think that when extreme rules govern nations, many people suffer, and ending the suffering is an extraordinarily difficult challenge (seemingly impossible). Examples: Wahhabism in the Middle East, Orthodox Judaism in Israel, the Roman Catholic Church--all of these distort people's inner moral compass in favor of obeying external doctrine and strict rules. Then, we have Stalin's Soviet Empire of totalitarianism via intense police terrorizing, and other offshoots such as the Xi Jinping total and arbitrary rule over one billion and a half human beings.
Our amazing nation emulated the cultures of Europe in its high degree of development in the arts and literature--but, reading has grown less popular, and digital art invites a new style of artistry. The totalitarian rulers seem to have very little appreciation of any of the arts or of literature. Artists recognize the truth of this lack.
What to do? First, describe and point out exactly what is going on to threaten and depreciate what has made our civilization so appealing to so many all over the world. Judd and his team are doing just this! Thank you!
Is Duval County the one with a 3 person committee that meets in secret to decide which books their school district can have? And one person, a man with no school children who moved there 2yrs ago, has made a list of over 3000 books for the secret committee to ban? This man confessed he had read very few books on his list.
I would love to simply call out DeSantis as an idiot chasing the vote of people who do not or refuse to know better. But of course it’s worse than that: HE does know better and has sold his soul to the lowest denominator for the votes and amplified ignorance as a badge of honor. Hope like crazy his skulduggery catches up with him and bites him all over. Until then, all believers in the power of books to educate, comfort and make aware need to vote and to show up at the crazy meetings where the book banners behave badly.
Katherine, DeSantis is done. And there is no way in hell he would EVER get traction in a national campaign. Trump is over. He knows it. Unfortunately, news channels keep him on the news. That’s a disgrace. On the bright side, republicans are eating their own.
"Jalani and the Lock" is "pornography" because it recognizes the role slavery played in the building of America? Guess anything you don't like is considered obscene or pornographic.
Brussels sprouts? Pornographic. Turtleneck sweaters? Pornographic. Waiting in line at checkout? You better believe that's pornographic.
Younger millennials and older Gen Z sometimes brings up 9/11 as some of the only content we learned in school as "too much" or excessively grotesque and unnecessarily thorough.
The detail in which 9/11 is described to students of all ages is actually horrific and excessive; I saw people jump to their deaths every year from around 2007 and onward. Propaganda, in my opinion, to fuel the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, or wherever else the US shoved their business and tax dollars, but I digress.
At least in learning about the darkest times in our history, like slavery, the Civil War, the push for civil rights in the 1960s, and so on, we weren't shown footage of suicides on repeat, or hear anecdotes describing piles of smoldering human remains mixed with rubble. But try to stop or limit the types of content about 9/11 taught in schools, cite it "inappropriate"—the GOP would have a meltdown.
That's an excellent point! I think our legislators should seriously bring that up. Same with men never having their bodies be the target of legislation nor the push for their children to be in straight relationships being considered "grooming".
In the view of self-appointed guardians of morality, extreme violence, bloodshed, murder are acceptable for children to view. Only the human body, especially women’s bodies, are pornographic and obscene.
Good point Kaylee. Just as they would have had WWIII if their candidates won the popular vote but didn’t get the White House for 30 years!
I don't like YOUR comment and have deemed it to be pornographic in nature. You Magano are a New Pornographer!!!
Wait. Isn't that a band?
There are dozens and dozens of books depicting the truth about slavery that are now banned in Florida and Texas, along with books with LGBTQ characters (and authors).
Sorry, but your second paragraph comes across as trivializing a crucial First Amendment issue. We see illustrations of nude people in books being labeled as obscene, even those of little kids, which makes you wonder how many closet pedophiles are choosing which books are "pornographic." The very idea of books in school libraries being "pornographic" is not only ridiculous, but rather sick. Let's try to think more deeply about this issue, OK?
Why aren't they banning the Bible??? It has everything in it :incest , murder , beastiality, the works ! Why isn't this banned !! What about National Geographic and the porn in that showing women's breasts in African communities!!! Oh the horror !! These people who ban books for any reason should be the ones banned !
Why aren't they banning the bible? Because they're using Christianity to justify censorship such as banning books. Come on, do you really think religious ideology is the driving force behind these book bans? It's just an excuse, a smoke screen behind which fascism operates in its formative stages.
Many of the banned books feature Black history, Black children, and LGBTQ kids and adults. There is nothing pornographic or sexual in them. It's not about sex, it is about oppression.
I've been going back and forth with, she says, a teacher from Duval County on tiktok. I asked her why the Bible wasn't banned, since they banned a Berenstain Bears book that she claimed was teaching religion. She told me the Bible was a historical book. She said she taught it. I asked about separation of church and state. I also asked if she taught the Quran and the Torah. She claimed she did. I asked if her Muslim students were allowed praying on their mats. She claimed they were too embarrassed. I then asked if they were frightened or embarrassed? I find it very hard to believe that a Muslim world be embarrassed to pray. Frightened of repercussions because of their religion, yes. I haven't gone back to see her answer because frankly, I think she's lying.
To see a great book like The Kite Runner on the list tells me everything I need to know about DeSantis. He’s dangerous.
This book banning brings these words to my mind: zealotry, fascism, danger.
GOP is turning us towards fascism with Florida being the "experimental state" to see how far Americans will allow it to go. Other red states are starting to do the same thing. GOP is using Victor Orban's playbook (who has become one of the heroes) and will do the same to the whole country if they control all 3 branches of the government. They need to be stopped before it is too late.
How do we ban Victor Orban's playbook?....
By making more people aware of what is going on. Ask your friends "Who is Victor Orban"? See how many even know who he is. Read yourself what he has done and view the comparisons to what the GOP has already done in some states and is trying to do on a national level. Information is key. The media only tells you what gives them ratings. Once people know what is happening and how it affects them, they become engaged. But the corporations running media don't want that. So we must do it. Get everyone you know out to vote and explain why they must vote BLUE.
There’s no excuse not to have an 80-90% turnout for Dems
I wonder about the last time DeStupid visited one of his public beaches. Now, by his standards if banning books from the sight of children, every beach in the state would be closed. The nudity on the Florida beaches is far more explicit than any of these books on this list.
No, what DeStupid, and his minion legislative body are trying to do is turn Florida into an authoritarian state. One step away from full communism. Sad thing about this is the people in Florida are allowing it to happen. They seem to not care.
DeStupid is now touting that Florida is the “Blueprint for the United States”. People, I say to you right now. If we allow this character anywhere near the White House, this is exactly what he will be doing with the country.
Daniel C What a great observation about what people wear or do not wear on the beaches in FL. Maybe those “porn” spots should be shut down…no more pesky tourists or money.
I’m just saying. If DeStupid says that buttocks exposed is pornography, he needs to close his beaches down. There’s plenty of buttocks exposed there, plus a whole lot more. Public pools included.
The problem is, he’s trying to stop the children from being taught anything about history, if you truly think about it. What an idiot.
Precisely and what a hell of an observation! Right there in plain sight, all the porno that twisted chump De Santis could desire, crowding the beaches of "his" state. All ages, something for everyone.
Being born and raised in Florida (Palm Beach County) I frequented the beaches quite often. Over the decades, the beach attire has become rather “skimpy” you might say. I don’t see why they just don’t go totally nudist. They might as well because they are so close to being totally nude now it’s nit funny. But, DeStupid bans books because of a Tribes normal attire!
Seriously???
I read the Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi long ago. My favorite tactic is the one called "To Move the Shade." De Santis appears to be attempting a variation on this tactic with no little success in the short term!
PS: I lived in Miami for a bit, then Key West in a pink stucco house when I was a child. At 15, I was sent "down south" for a change of pace. Lived in Tallahassee for a bit, then a tiny town name of Attapulgas by way of Bainbridge Ga which was about 75 miles from Savanaugh.
Ahhh, as a young man, yiu too experienced the views of the Florida beaches. Quite a view, isn’t it?
I haven’t read this book you refer to, but I’ll see about locating it and reading it. I was born, raised in Florida. Moved from Palm Beach County (Boynton Beach) to Edisto Island, South Carolina, in 1970. Edisto Island was totally a farming area back then. The “big boom” didn’t happen there until some years later. But, it still was a hot spot for sun bathers on the weekends.
I loved back to Florida in 1979, elwhere I continued my law enforcement, firefighting, and paramedic career until I was medically forced to retire in 1995.
DeSantis is an idiot. All he’s accomplishing is depriving the children, young adults, the opportunity for a good, well rounded, education. All of the books he’s banned from classrooms, libraries, colleges, universities, across the state. He hasn’t read one-tenth of them I would venture a guess. Hell, he banned one book because one parent complained she didn’t want her child learning what that book had in it! But then, thus shows the mentality of the parents in Florida. They, too, ate well uneducated.
I’m glad I moved from that racist, authoritative , state.
Totally agree !
So, to be clear, books that show buttocks are NOT okay; but let's make sure that no one is ever prevented from having an assault rifle. EVER.
Our country is just so broken.
Another great comment!
How much of a disgusting perv do you have to be to look at any of those pictures and think "pornography"? Sure seems like the dangerous ones are the people who look at those and think they're sexual. Maybe Ron has a problem and he's telling on himself.
Look at all the repugnants who have been arrested for child porn and assault on minors !! They don't talk about that do they ????
The Grundys have been around my whole life, and though I am a retired librarian, I have never been able to understand these censors and what motivates them: meanness? control freak? fear? bad religion? over-weaning hang up with “innocence”? I was a curious toddler with intelligent parents who encouraged reading. I pity those who don't have such guides.
Wow. This list of "banned" books is going to become the books most sought by high school kids. DeSantis, of course, has no idea that he has created in students a deep desire to find out what's so hot about these books. It comes back to bite you, Ronny!
Margaret Atwood welcomed the banning of The Handmaid’s Tale. She says it will increase readership.
Margaret even commissioned a flame proof edition of the handmaid's tale, so it would survive being burned. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpsMsAMY4eM
😄👍🏼
I agree with you, Lynn, the curious kids will seek out the banned material. Overall, though, education in Florida will be devoid of any content that celebrates the diversity of the human experience or that gives a truthful telling of our country’s brutal history regarding race and ethnicity. It’s so sad, and it’s not just DeSantis - the love of authoritarianism among republicans is at the heart of this. We are in a very dangerous place.
So people are mass murdered and they pass open carry laws, but the Queen's buttocks viewed from afar are banned in a book. The resident at Mar-A-Lago grabs women by the p*ssy, but they want to make him president again. Anti abortion laws are rampantly threatening the well being of Floridian women, but they can bus immigrants up north because they care so much about the born. Disney has brought fistfuls of money into the state over 50 years, but the Gov wants to bring Mickey down because "don't say gay." I could continue to paint the accurate picture of conservative Florida or the rest of Red GOP US, but you already know what it looks like.
Yep. And Cathy b, there’s just not enough space here to list it all, but good to see.
As a former high school librarian and longtime lover of all things books and libraries, I feel devastated and angry that politicians think they have a right to decide what books are placed on the shelves of libraries, or what is "appropriate" for kids.
I believe DeSantis knows exactly what he's doing here, he's not as stupid as he sounds, but I'm not sure why he and other Republican politicians are focusing so hard on the fringe extremists of their conservative voting base, when they should really be focusing on becoming more moderate to appeal to young voters—a generation, which I am on the elder cusp of, that is largely tolerant of marginalized populations of all kinds, and more of us are part of those populations than any other generation.
They are increasingly socially liberal but dislike how pervasive our government as a whole is in every aspect of our lives. But Republicans like DeSantis would rather focus on blaming things like teachers, books, and drag queens for Gen Z's tolerance, queerness, and tendency to vote left, as though these are traits that are pathological.
I'd much rather DeSantis read over the CDC's Youth Risk Behavioral Survey for the years 2011-2021. In 2021, 22% of high school students seriously considered attempting suicide, and 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless for 2 weeks or more that they stopped doing their usual activities. He should talk to adolescents and young voters and actually ask them why.
Part of the reason is the hopelessness we feel for the future when politicians like DeSantis condemn human rights, or deny science and facts that which we know to be true.
It's cold of DeSantis, aware of kids' poor mental health, to knowingly pointing fingers at the wrong things—books and democrats—when he should really just be pointing at himself and the rest of the GOP. But the GOP is too proud and cowardly: they would never admit to being wrong, or democrats being right.
So mark my words, young people will vote as many out of office as we can, and they can point and kick and scream all they like or cry election fraud, but their downfall will have been caused by ignoring what young adults and kids have to say in favor of never admitting they were wrong.
From your lips to the ears of the populace!
Kaylee, your comment is thoughtful and beautifully expressed. Like you, my local and school libraries were beloved sanctuaries. There was so much I checked out and enjoyed, from childhood on into adulthood, from children's books to Steven King, Ray Bradbury and others as I got older and closer to attending college. The breadth of books available to me then was a boon I took for granted, especially considering the times we are in now. The love of books continues although I find I am running out of the time I would like to read more of them than I do.
I agree that RDS would be enriched and enlightened by reading the materials you referenced and that his party could broaden its appeal by moderating. Unfortunately, the Republican party is currently constructed to appeal to and corral its most extreme members, first and foremost. Afterwards, most of the moderates are willing hostages going along for the ride, because they have been told that their life, values and very existence are under attack by the opposing party. In response, the moderates are terrified into voting for someone claiming to share their values over an opponent who has been demonized as a socialist libertine, looking to change or upend their lives into an unstable nightmare.
Robert Reich and Heather Cox Richardson have succinctly pointed out in many of their Substack posts that the actual policy proposals the Republican party continues to cling to are unpopular, even with many of their own registered party members. How do you keep your voters if your policies have no appeal? Frighten them and make bogeymen of anything or anyone that is, unfamiliar, unknown, misunderstood or just different. Rile them into a frenzy with animated, histrionic speeches at rallies and spit out labels in a venomous and hateful tone when describing others with opposing views and practices, all while claiming that those differences threaten the very existence of your longtime party members. Once they're terrified of the monster you've created out of your opponent, they run into the booth and cast votes to elect you, not because your policy positions help them but because they've been conditioned to believe a vote otherwise is a vote for destruction of their families, livelihood and the nation itself. It is this brainwashing, this conditioning of people to look to you as their protector and savior, that drives blaming of people and forces that pose no actual threat to your voters. It inspires the active demonization of "the other" to propel voters to cast votes for them over Democrats or Progressives.
All the books banned by De Santis and crew contain potentially weighty subject matter intended to engage the mind and stimulate reflection and introspection, not to mention empathy and passion for reading.
The books are for people not robots. So what is the end game for De Santis and his Hateful Crew?
(rhetorical question)
This book-banning crusade is one of the most simplistic exercises going. Create a list of buzzwords, and body part references that are forbidden in word or picture form. Then arbitrarily and without context, look for those things. Wherever you find them scream out PORNOGRAPHY! Then label it for library removal.
It's like some kind of twisted, Puritanical game of Bingo where the winner removes the largest number of creative works from circulation by accusing them of harboring something malevolent. If anything, more people on the right would do well to read more broadly and have more available to read than they do, not less.
All true and if this were a movie, it would be deemed too fantstic to be believed.
But here we are with misguided folken claiming that dems are the ones "banning books."
I'm independent but I'll not let a stupid smear like that go unchallenged.
Dems got their issues for sure but the constant criminality from the constant party of criminals formerly known as the GQP is on a whole nother level.
Whaddya know, Adam? We agree here...again.
What? Who is this? Why are you on my TV? Wait...
Just funning with ya CJ. I'm in a mood. Its been a damn good day. Nothing special happened but nothing bad neither. Just a steady state kinda flow, ya know?
And yes, I anticipate exchanging agreement greetings with you on more than a few occasions yet to come. That's a good thing, no?
Nothing special happened?
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3996746-federal-prosecutors-file-criminal-charges-against-george-santos/
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/jury-reaches-verdict-e-jean-carroll-rape-defamation-case-trump-rcna82778
The above links made my day today.
Yes, I'm definitely looking forward to finding more common ground in the future.
I meant nothing special in my life. The Jean Carroll verdict is one I've anticipated. I waited with baited breath for that one.
But George Santos being charged? No! Say it ain't so! Hahaha. What a deserving miscreant. You have made my day with that one.
Say! Izzat some o that common ground you was talking up?
I'm 58 years old. When I was in elementary school (K-8), one of my friends brought Forever to school and read it out loud to us at the lunch table. A teacher came by and took it away! I don't remember if my friend got the book back, but I do remember going to the local bookstore not long afterwards, with my own money, to buy my own copy!
The number of parents who want their children to have less 'freedom' than they did is astounding to me. Between the parents who track their kids on Life 360 to being ';scared' of Big Cities to saying 'I am afraid of what you might learn that is the opposite of what I am telling you', it's sad for these kids, who have access to the Internet and will eventually figure out what is going on.
Unfortunately, this is linked to the toxic politics of DeSantis and his quest to be king of the MAGAs. Why is there no mention of what is online or in the movies? Why only the books. Based on what I notice with my own grandchildren, they are online or watching the TV more than they are reading.
There are critical shortages of teachers across the Country in States that don’t have such “laws”. Where I live, teachers would be welcome.
Just read through everyone's comments.... Maybe it's time to question, just what is CIVILization. I think that when extreme rules govern nations, many people suffer, and ending the suffering is an extraordinarily difficult challenge (seemingly impossible). Examples: Wahhabism in the Middle East, Orthodox Judaism in Israel, the Roman Catholic Church--all of these distort people's inner moral compass in favor of obeying external doctrine and strict rules. Then, we have Stalin's Soviet Empire of totalitarianism via intense police terrorizing, and other offshoots such as the Xi Jinping total and arbitrary rule over one billion and a half human beings.
Our amazing nation emulated the cultures of Europe in its high degree of development in the arts and literature--but, reading has grown less popular, and digital art invites a new style of artistry. The totalitarian rulers seem to have very little appreciation of any of the arts or of literature. Artists recognize the truth of this lack.
What to do? First, describe and point out exactly what is going on to threaten and depreciate what has made our civilization so appealing to so many all over the world. Judd and his team are doing just this! Thank you!
Is Duval County the one with a 3 person committee that meets in secret to decide which books their school district can have? And one person, a man with no school children who moved there 2yrs ago, has made a list of over 3000 books for the secret committee to ban? This man confessed he had read very few books on his list.