Ban Books Certain Speech and Rights: What’s Next American GOP Style Gestapo then Stasi

Book Banning Gathers Steam in RED States

(What’s next: “Book Burning”)

GOP Takes on Public Education

(Gimmick bill lacks productive purpose) 

The below LA TIMES article is both timely and worth reading with this headline:

“Book bans are soaring in U.S. schools, fueled largely by new laws in Republican-led states”

Highlights from the article:

Fearing criminal penalties, public schools throughout MO have removed hundreds of books from their libraries after GOP lawmakers last year made it illegal to provide students with sexually explicit material — the law carries punishment of up to a year in prison.

The dangers are playing out in public school districts and campus libraries across the United States, First Amendment advocates warn: “Book bans, gassed up by state legislation pushed by conservative officials and groups, are stacking up at an alarming rate.”

In a report published by PEN America (the nonprofit free speech organization) found 1,477 instances of books being prohibited during the first half of the 2022-23 academic year, up 28.5% from 1,149 cases in the previous semester. 

Overall, the organization has recorded more than 4,000 instances of banned books since it started tracking cases in July 2021.

Kasey Meehan, the Freedom to Read program director at PEN America and author of the report says: “At issue is more than a single book being removed in a single district. It’s a set of ideas, it’s themes, it's identities, it’s knowledge on the history of our country — these are the kind of bigger buckets of what is being removed, restricted, suppressed in public schools and public school libraries.”

Forbidden books are largely by or about people of color and LGBTQ individuals. Some 30% of the books removed are about race, racism, or characters of color; 26% have LGBTQ themes. All of this at a time when library stacks are becoming more representative and inclusive.

Watch this short video of a recent GOP bill passed in the House, but no likely to pass the senate – quite simply the House bill is nothing but a showboat ploy… in fact 5 Republicans joined Democrats in voting “no” but it still barely passed.

My 2 Cents: Hard to describe this “new” GOP counter-culture or anti-culture movement. It’s growing across all line of our society and it seems there’s not much to do about – that is anything positive and forward looking for the country.

Now this set of wild, crazy ideas and actions like: Book banning; “Don’t Say Gay bill;” Controlling certain speech that is not GOP approved; or even controlling birth control medication, and other time-tested and approved medicines. 

It seems that anti-everything is in vogue ala this GOP, and yet, all the while they blame everyone except their own actions.

As outlined above in education that spreads into anything good in government is anti-GOP. I wonder what's next: Book burning and symbols on people forearms to show they are not GOP-friendly? Sure seems like it, right now with Gov. DeSantis and Donald J. Trump, and all of their mind-warped narrow-minded followers. 

In closing, this historical quote is worth remembering from this prophetic observation by 19th century German writer Heinrich Heine: “Where one burns books, one will soon burn people.”

Thanks for stopping by.