With so many states, local libraries, and schools banning book one state after another passing laws banning book banning. This law makes it harder to ban books.
AP NewsBy Clarire SavageJune 12, 2023Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday signed into law a bill that he says will make Illinois the first state in the nation to outlaw book bans.Illinois public libraries that restrict or ban materials because of “partisan or doctrinal” disapproval will be ineligible for state funding as of Jan. 1, 2024, when the new law goes into effect.“We are not saying that every book should be in every single library,” said Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who is also the state librarian and was the driving force behind the legislation. “What this law does is it says, let’s trust our experience and education of our librarians to decide what books should be in circulation.”
Heaven’s no! Trust a liberal! The Republicans are rolling over in their graves, you can only trust Trump and his gang of “Moms for Liberty!”
The new law comes into play as states across the U.S. push to remove certain books in schools and libraries, especially those about LGBTQ+ themes and by people of color. The American Library Association in March announced that attempts to censor books in schools and public libraries reached a 20-year high in 2022 — twice as many as 2021, the previous record.“Illinois legislation responds to disturbing circumstances of censorship and an environment of suspicion,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation.
Meanwhile those that talk out of both sides of their mouths,
“I support local control,” said House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, a Republican who voted against the measure, in an emailed statement. “Our caucus does not believe in banning books, but we do believe that the content of books should be considered in their placement on the shelves.”
As they ban dozens of books from library shelves, cut funds to libraries, and force out librarians who don’t follow the Republican ideology. The New York Times wrote in an article about the new law,
Taking a new tack in the ideological battle over what books children should be able to read, Illinois will prohibit book bans in its public schools and libraries, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker calling the bill that he signed on Monday the first of its kind.[…]Governor DeSantis supported state laws aimed, at least in part, at limiting access to some reading materials in public schools. Books targeted to be removed have dealt primarily with L.G.B.T.Q. and social justice themes, with some groups objecting to materials on gender and sexuality in books that schoolchildren could read.
We only want librarians who kowtow to our agenda!
Meanwhile the Advocate wrote about the new law…
“While it’s true that kids need guidance, and that some ideas can be objectionable, trying to weaponize local government to force one-size-fits-all standards onto the entire community for reasons of bigotry or as a substitute for active and involved parenting is wrong,” the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Anna Stava-Murray, said at the signing ceremony at a children’s library in Chicago, the AP reports.
“Onward Christian soldiers” is the rallying cry of the far-right, they believe they are on a mission from god to stamp out all these liberal ideas like the parents should chose what their children read and not the state.
So what has been the response from the Republicans? Believe me, it is a doozy!
The Center SquareBy Kevin BesslerJuly 24, 2023Some Illinois Republicans want public libraries in the state to withdraw from the American Library Association.Public libraries have been a hotly debated topic in recent months. Illinois became the first state to essentially ban book bans after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law limiting taxpayer-funded grants to libraries that don't follow the ALA's policies on prohibited materials.“We refuse to let a vitriolic strain of white nationalism coursing through our country determine whose histories are told,” Pritzker said. “Not in Illinois.”State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, said the governor's comment is a false narrative of the left because there was never any talk of banning books.
Umm… “because there was never any talk of banning books.” Umm… How can you even respond to that with books being yanked off selves all over the country.
Wilhour is part of the Illinois Freedom Caucus, which is calling on public libraries in the state to withdraw from the Chicago-based ALA after their new president proclaimed herself to be a Marxist.
Hun? What are they talking about? A Marxist?
So I turned to Google. It turns out when Emily Debranski was elected to run the American Library Association according to Fox News she wrote…
According to The Center Square, the Freedom Caucus reported in April 2022 that Emily Debranski, the head of the ALA, wrote on Twitter: “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD I love you mom.”
And the conservatives grabbed hold of it like a rabid dog and ran with it. I don’t think that there are anything wrong with being a Marxist, or a Republican, or a Democrat it all depends on your actions and not your party, actions speak louder that words.
NBC reported in Montana that;
The Montana State Library Commission voted Tuesday to leave the American Library Association, the oldest and largest library association in the world, because the ALA’s president described herself as a “Marxist lesbian” in a social media post last year.[…]During a meeting Tuesday, Tom Burnett, a member of the Montana State Library Commission, made a motion to “immediately withdraw” the state library from the ALA and send the association a letter to explain that “our oath of office and resulting duty to the Constitution forbids association with an organization led by a Marxist,” according to the Montana Free Press.
So now the focus is not on all the books being banned, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" the Republicans are trying to shift the focus from the books being banned to a comment made by the president of the ALA so now they say anything the ALA does is tainted.
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I have been dropping hints that maybe Connecticut should pass a law like this as a result of conservative towns in Connecticut trying to ban books here.
The kids get it. It is the eighteen to thirty year old's who are the new voting block who get climate change and LGBTQ+ rights. And they vote!
Washington PostBy Greg Sargent ColumnistJuly 25, 2023Something is happening among young voters in America — even if, to paraphrase the old Bob Dylan song, we don’t know what it is.Consider: Youth turnout exploded during the 2018 midterm elections under President Donald Trump. Then in 2020, energized opposition to Trump among young voters was critical to his defeat. And in the 2022 midterms, surging youth participation helped fend off the widely predicted “red wave.” Even some Republicans fear that expanding youth populations in swing states pose a long-term threat to the GOP.New data supplied to me by the Harvard Youth Poll sheds light on the powerful undercurrents driving these developments. Young voters have shifted in a markedly progressive direction on multiple issues that are deeply important to them: Climate change, gun violence, economic inequality and LGBTQ+ rights.John Della Volpe, director of the poll, refers to those issues as the “big four.” They all speak to the sense of precarity that young voters feel about their physical safety, their economic future, their basic rights and even the ecological stability of the planet.
You remember our generation out there protesting the Vietnam War, racism, poverty, civil rights, abortion rights, and women rights. But something funny happened, they grew up had children and all of sudden they became conservatives. It is the new generation that is out there protesting again… for the same things again.
Many of today’s 18-to-29-year-olds, who are mostly older Gen Z Americans plus the tail end of the Millennial generation, lived their formative years during the Great Recession and the election of Trump. What’s more, these new voters are politically coming of age during a remarkable confluence of events that appear to be conspiring in an improbable way to push them to the left.
Gee, just like we did in the sixties.
Meanwhile, the pandemic likely drove home the vulnerability of millions to economic shocks as well as the woefully patchy social safety net in the United States. And red states are escalating their assault on LGBTQ+ rights, a national movement that appears to threaten big gains in this area that for these voters are likely typified by the Supreme Court’s finding of a right to marriage equality in 2015.
Just like we did again Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon… a Republican. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" it seems like we are going around and around with Fascism and authoritarianism. In times of turmoil people look for a simpler way, looking for someone to lead them, but it is the children that throw off the yoke of authoritarianism and want freedom. It was the kids in the streets in the 60s that threw off the yoke that brought about abortion rights, Stonewall, civil rights, and the EPA. Now once again the Republicans are the one who took away a women’s right to chose, and are taking away LGBTQ+ rights.
We paid the price… “Four dead in Ohio” “Blood on the streets of New Haven.”
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