Good news! The legislature in Illinois has passed a law to withhold state funds from institutions that ban books. Governor J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign it.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) is expected to sign a bill that would withhold state funds from institutions that ban books amid nationwide efforts to pull some titles from shelves.
“Illinois is one step closer to preventing book banning in Illinois libraries,” said Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
“Under this bill, we can support our state’s libraries and librarians and protect them against attempts to ban, remove or restrict access to books and resources,” he said.
The state’s H.B. 2789 would require libraries to adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights — which “indicates materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval,” according to the proposed text — or develop their own such statement against book banning in order to be eligible for state grants.
The bill has cleared the state legislature and now heads to the governor’s desk. Pritzker has previously said he supports the bill, according to the secretary of State’s office.
“Banning books is a devastating attempt to erase our history and the authentic stories of many. Students across this state deserve to see themselves reflected in the pages of stories that teach and entertain. I’m proud to support House Bill 2789 and ensure that Illinois’ libraries remain sources of knowledge, creativity, and fact,” Pritzker said in a March release….
“Our nation’s libraries have been under attack for too long—they are bastions of knowledge and proliferate the spread of ideas. That is why I am so proud that my measure to prevent the banning of books passed in the senate today,” said Illinois state Sen. Laura Murphy, one of the bill’s sponsors.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t know if any political scientist or historian has ever done a study of how local, state, and federal government constituencies interact with each other legally. The history of American law is replete with examples of how this has happened; how some laws are enforced selectively, actively resisted, or consciously defied. It can’t be summed up in a Schoolhouse Rocks video. And more often than not it has to do with race, which is of course the core reason for wanting to ban books. Banning LGBT-themed or -mentioned books is late to the game. It’s been done since before the nation’s founding with Blacks. Another of the “anti-CRT” fake gripes.
Consider how enslaved persons were subject to property law; how resistance to Reconstruction made laws separate and unequal by state, not just race; how Jim Crow used a legal structure to claim legitimacy; how Southern states actively engaged in rendition of dubiously accused Blacks who made their way North in the era before to after the World Wars; how the New Deal and GI Bill were basically for whites only; how Fair Housing Act laws were manipulated and violated to maintain unfair housing practices; to how some states prosecute hate crimes.
Red states want to preserve existing injustices by making learning about social injustice taboo. They are threatened by CRT, history and a more equitable society.
The power for Republicans relied on the formation of an axis of Koch, the Catholic Church and evangelical protestants. The means for media messaging was Fox.
Book banning, anti-abortion and anti-trans campaigns keep the base agitated and voting GOP.
A study found about 50% of
Catholic bishops prefer Fox as their news source.
Four percent prefer MSNBC.
Linda
As Greg points out this goes back way before Koch. The ethos the Koch’s built on were established long before they became powerhouses on the right. The connections between the Church (all) and the economic “power elite” also carefully crafted over many decades even centuries.
The best means of indoctrination are barely identifiable by those subject to the propaganda.
So as an example why would the vast majority of Americans associate Socialism with Authoritarianism and Capitalism with Freedom. To the point that a certain portion of the Religious Right sees criticism of Capitalism as a Socialist attack on freedom of Religion. Not withstanding that Denmark is a capitalist Democracy with freedom of religion. Every attempt to emulate some of their Social Programs is portrayed as ” The Road to Serfdom ” and an authoritarian hell and has been since the 1920s. While death squads in Capitalist South American Countries have killed 100s of thousands including Clergy .
Ryan Girdusky’s interview with Pat Buchanan posted at Buchanan’s site (written in 2014) explains the inception of the right wing’s power. In the US, when the social gospel movement (FDR’s time), drove political priorities, the nation advanced.
The obsession with making the enemy so indefinable e.g. Christian nationalism, that the opponent has no location, is popular because it doesn’t ruffle feathers. It is also the strategy of failure.
Only 4% of Catholic bishops identified MSNBC as their preferred source of news. About 50% chose Fox. The bishops control the state Catholic Conferences which is the political arm of the church. The executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference was formerly in the Koch network. Georgetown Law school hired Ilya Shapiro from the Koch network for a top administrative position- Constitutional law.
Read Guardian’s recent article about EPPC’s Stanley Kurtz. Robert P George and Leonard Leo are on the EPPC board.
Don’t equate a small number of nuns and priests giving their lives for the downtrodden to the well-funded, political behemoth that is the American right wing Catholic church.
Joel,
You and I will never agree that ignoring the politicking of the Catholic Church is in the best interest of American democracy. Its operatives have not taken away your rights via government, unlike those of women and people who are gay.
You won’t be the victim when the 3rd largest US employer is allowed to discriminate in hiring and promotions because religious organizations are exempted from civil rights employment law.
Obviously, you have the right to comment in any way you want but, I’d prefer if you didn’t address me and then, feed me tripe that defends my enemy. Believe what you want to make yourself comfortable but don’t drag me into it.
That will hopefully, teach the public funded facilities, that diversity is, important, if they want the funding of the libraries to keep going, they better have an open mind. Besides, the libraries are places you should be able to find resources on just about everything.
“But Republican Illinois state Sen. Jason Plummer, according to the state Senate’s GOP, said “it’s offensive to the principles of good government to threaten to take away public funds from the very people whose taxes pay for these grants just because certain politicians may not agree with their beliefs.” Now that’s some clear cut hypocrisy. It’s offensive to the principles of good government to threaten to take away books from the very people whose taxes pay for these books just because certain politicians may not agree with their beliefs.
Good news
The attack against libraries is about class. An op-ed outlined the point. Libraries are funded by the people for the people. America’s ruling class doesn’t want any common goods because they erode the power of the 1% (or tenth of the 1%).
Conservative religious leaders drive the messaging to gut the common good in order to keep a fraction of the plutocrats’ power for themselves.
Three right wing members of the Regier family, who are Montana Republican legislators, were profiled in a NYT story two days ago. They get the support of the Montana Family Foundation and the Montana Catholic Conference for their conservative religious bills. In support of one of the bills written about human pregnancy, Keith Regier displayed the photo of a pregnant cow to illustrate its increased monetary value when potentially, there is a cow and a calf.
Today, there is a story about Montana’s legislature. A Rabbi was removed from the statehouse prayer schedule.
Reblogged this on What's Gneiss for Education.