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Christian Nationalists Plan to Infuse Their Ideas in a Second Trump Term

By dianeravitch
February 23, 2024 //
17

Christian Nationalists are already preparing for their roles in a second Trump administration. It is ironic that the religious zealots cluster around one of the most non religious figures in American life. I recall an anecdote from the book by Trump’s “fixer”Michael Cohen, when a group of evangelical Christians meets with Trump and lay their hands on him, all together. When the earnest group leaves, Trump laughs with Cohen. They both know that he’s a master con man, and he conned them.

Politico writes:

An influential think tank close to Donald Trump is developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

Spearheading the effort is Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term and has remained close to him. Vought, who is frequently cited as a potential chief of staff in a second Trump White House, is president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, a leading group in a conservative consortium preparing for a second Trump term.

Christian nationalists in America believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life. As the country has become less religious and more diverse, Vought has embraced the idea that Christians are under assault and has spoken of policies he might pursue in response.

One document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term. “Christian nationalism” is one of the bullet points. Others include invoking the Insurrection Act on Day One to quash protests and refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects, a practice banned by lawmakers in the Nixon era.

CRA’s work fits into a broader effort by conservative, MAGA-leaning organizations to influence a future Trump White House. Two people familiar with the plans, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal matters, said that Vought hopes his proximity and regular contact with the former president — he and Trump speak at least once a month, according to one of the people — will elevate Christian nationalism as a focal point in a second Trump term.

The documents obtained by POLITICO do not outline specific Christian nationalist policies. But Vought has promoted a restrictionist immigration agenda, saying a person’s background doesn’t define who can enter the U.S., but rather, citing Biblical teachings, whether that person “accept[ed] Israel’s God, laws and understanding of history.”

Vought has a close affiliation with Christian nationalist William Wolfe, a former Trump administration official who has advocated for overturning same-sex marriage, ending abortion and reducing access to contraceptives.

Vought, who declined to comment, is advising Project 2025, a governing agenda that would usher in one of the most conservative executive branches in modern American history. The effort is made up of a constellation of conservative groups run by Trump allies who’ve constructed a detailed plan to dismantle or overhaul key agencies in a second term. Among other principles, the project’s “Mandate for Leadership” states that “freedom is defined by God, not man.”

Categories Bigotry, Elections, Extremism, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to Read, Religion, Separation of church and state, Trump

Navalny’s Death Must Signal the Beginning of the End of Putin’s Evil Empire

By dianeravitch
February 18, 2024 //
4

In today’s Washington Post, Natan Sharansky (a prominent Soviet dissident) and Carl Gershman (former president of the National Endowment for Democracy) write that the death (murder) of Alexei Navalny should encourage those who love freedom and democracy to redouble their efforts. What kind of a country imprisons people for merely acknowledging that Russia is at war with Ukraine? What kind of a country murders journalists, dissidents, and shuts down every independent form of media?

They wrote:

In the long line of people who have been victims of Soviet and Russian dictators, Alexei Navalny was extraordinary. He dedicated himself to unmasking the cynical, corrupt nature of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship. And he succeeded, revealing the truth to the world.
He was so dedicated to exposing the nature of Putin’s regime that he chose to return to Russia to force his would-be murderers to make their villainy public. In going back, he showed the people of Russia and the world that he was not afraid — and that neither should they be afraid to act.


In a letter he wrote to one of us from prison, Navalny stated that the “virus” of freedom will never be killed and that hundreds of thousands of people will continue to fight for freedom and against the war in Ukraine.


This was also the message that Vladimir Kara-Murza sent earlier this week from his solitary cell in a “special regime” prison colony in Omsk, Russia. Kara-Murza, a Post contributing columnist, suffers from polyneuropathy, a disease affecting peripheral nerves that has resulted from two near-fatal attempts by the Russian regime to poison him, in 2015 and again in 2017. He, too, is fighting on with astonishing courage.


In so doing, Navalny and Kara-Murza, as well as hundreds of other dissenters, activists and protesters, have followed in the footsteps of Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet dissidents who showed that, with courage and moral clarity, it is possible to change the world.

Kara-Murza said after his sentencing that while he had initially expected that his imprisonment and trial would resemble what the Soviet dissidents experienced in the 1960s and ’70s, he now saw parallels with the Stalin period. There is no question that the Kremlin’s campaign of political repression is intensifying. According to Memorial, a human rights organization that continues to monitor the arrest of dissidents despite it being muzzled by courts, Russia now holds 676 political prisoners, nearly four times the number in 2018 and more than in the waning years of the Soviet Union. Nearly all independent political figures from the Russian opposition who have not fled the country are now behind bars or under house arrest, including Kara-Murza’s friend and political ally Ilya Yashin, who is serving an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence for “spreading false information” about Russian massacres of civilians in the city of Bucha, near Kyiv.


The scope of political repression extends far beyond the vocal democratic opposition. According to OVD-Info, a Russian nongovernmental organization that tracks detentions, more than 8,500 administrative cases have been initiated under Article 20.3.3 on “discrediting the armed forces.” This includes Alexei Moskalyov, a single father who was sentenced to two years in jail for discrediting the Russian army after his then 13-year-old daughter drew an antiwar picture in school.


They are not the only victims. Their families, many with young children, have been left to survive on their own, often with no source of income or other support. To help them, Kara-Murza announced from prison, before he was sent to Omsk, that he will donate the funds he received from three human rights prizes — some 110,000 euros — to provide direct financial support to the families of Russian political prisoners. To do this, he and his wife, Evgenia, have founded the 30 October Foundation, named after the Day of Political Prisoners that was established by Soviet dissidents in 1974. The foundation continues in the tradition of Yelena Bonner’s fund to help children of political prisoners and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Russian Social Fund to aid political prisoners and their families, both established in the 1970s.

The political prisoners in Russia, along with thousands of antiwar protesters across the country who have risked arrest, are the cutting edge of a larger movement of political opposition. People are mounting a collective response to the growing number of political prisoners. Networks inside and outside Russia continue to organize letter-writing campaigns to these captives, providing them with independent news and information to counteract the propaganda that is prevalent in Russian jails. In addition, crowdfunding campaigns have collected significant donations. A telethon organized by several independent media outlets last June raised 34.5 million rubles ($415,000) to defend people facing criminal prosecution for demonstrating against the war.

It would be profoundly wrong to assume that there is no possibility for a democratic opening in Russia, especially considering the devastating consequences of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Navalny and Kara-Murza have said repeatedly that a reckoning will come — that there will be another window of opportunity, not unlike the 1990s following the collapse of Communist rule. But this time, Russians must not repeat the terrible mistake of failing to break with the evils of the past — the brutal dictatorship and repression, the foreign aggressions, the Orwellian system of lies and subverting not just the truth but normal human values.


If these evils are to be vanquished, they must be fully understood — and condemned. There must be a moral awakening. That can’t happen without the leadership of the prisoners of conscience, who — like Navalny and Kara-Murza and the countless others imprisoned alongside them — have the moral courage, democratic vision and political fearlessness to chart a new path for Russia. They deserve our full solidarity since the fate of freedom far beyond the borders of Russia rests heavily on the success of their struggle.

Categories Accountability, Courage, Democracy, Evil, Extremism, Fascism, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to Read, History, International

CNN: “Moms for Liberty” Is Encountering Stiff Resistance

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2024 //
69

When an education story is featured by a major media outlet like CNN, you can bet it’s captured mainstream attention.

Many educators have worried about the pernicious agenda of “Moms for Liberty,” which arrived on the scene in 2021 with a sizable war chest.

What is that agenda? Defaming public schools and their teachers. Accusing them of being “woke “ and indoctrinating students to accept left wing ideas about race and gender. Banning books they don’t like. Talking about “parental rights,” but only for straight white parents who share their values.

M4L got started in Florida, as do many wacky and bigoted rightwing campaigns, but it has been shamed recently by the sex scandal involving one of its co-founders, Brigitte Ziegler. The two other co-founders dropped her name from their website, but the stain persists.

CNN reports that this rightwing group is encountering stiff opposition from parents who don’t share their agenda and who don’t approve of book banning.

The story begins:

Viera, FloridaCNN —

In Florida, where the right-wing Moms for Liberty group was born in response to Covid-19 school closures and mask mandates, the first Brevard County School Board meeting of the new year considered whether two bestselling novels – “The Kite Runner” and “Slaughterhouse-Five” – should be banned from schools.

A lone Moms for Liberty supporter sat by herself at the January 23 meeting, where opponents of the book ban outnumbered her.

Nearly 20 speakers voiced opposition to removing the novels from school libraries. One compared the book-banning effort to Nazi Germany. Another accused Moms for Liberty of waging war on teachers. No one spoke in favor of the ban. About three hours into the meeting, the board voted quickly to keep the two books on the shelves of high schools.

RELATED ARTICLEOusted Florida GOP leader Christian Ziegler won’t be charged with sexual battery

“Why are we banning books?” asked Mindy McKenzie, a mom and nurse who is a member of Stop Moms for Liberty, which was formed to counter what it calls a far-right extremist group “pushing for book banning and destroying public education.”

“Why are we letting Moms for Liberty infiltrate our school system?”

Categories Accountability, Bigotry, Censorship, Corruption, Curriculum, Democracy, DeSantis, Disruption, Elections, Extremism, Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Read, Gender, Hypocrisy, Injustice, Libraries, Literacy, Literature, Media, Parent Groups, Privatization, Racism

Texas: Federal Court Overturns Law Forcing Bookstores to Review Books They Sell to Schools

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2024 //
7

Last May, I wrote about a punitive law in Texas that terrified the state’s 300 or so independent bookstores. The law, House Bill 900, required bookstores to rate every book they sold—now and in the past— to school libraries.

The bookstores sued to overturn to the law, arguing that the administrative burden of complying would put most of them out of business.

Their suit succeeded at the District Court level. Then it advanced to the very conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the plaintiffs were fearful. [A sign of the times: Back in the 1960s and 1970s, when the federal courts were constantly challenged to enforce the Brown decision of 1954, the Fifth Circuit was considered highly liberal in facing down segregationists.]

But to the delight of the booksellers, the Fifth Circuit sided with them.

The Texas Monthly reported:

The lawsuit, which was filed by Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop and Austin-based BookPeople, along with a group of free speech organizations, argued that HB 900’s requirement essentially compelled the private businesses to engage in speech by requiring them to create a rating system for the materials they sold.

…the Fifth Circuit issued an uncommon ruling against the state, rejecting arguments from the Texas Education Agency—the suit’s lead defendant—that claimed that requiring booksellers to rate books was a mere administrative task. “This process is highly discretionary and is neither precise nor certain,” the court’s opinion read. “The statute requires vendors to undertake contextual analyses, weighing and balancing many factors to determine a rating for each book,” a process the opinion said was “anything but the mere disclosure of factual information.”

The plaintiffs had several issues with the law—tasking short-staffed booksellers with reading every single book any customer wanted to order would be an impossible task, for instance—but, according to Blue Willow owner Valerie Koehler, the real sticking point was being required by law to offer opinions on the contents of the books she sold. “I think common sense has prevailed,” she told Texas Monthly. “It’s not really up to the vendor to rate these books, where they’re compelling us to rate a book that they could then say, ‘No, that’s not a good rating.’ They were making us take a stand, and then were still in charge of whether our standards were right or not.”

The future of the law is still undecided—representatives from the office of the attorney general and the Texas Education Agency did not return requests for interviews—but the state would face an uphill battle with the Supreme Court after losing at the typically reliable Fifth Circuit. Koehler is accordingly optimistic—and reflective—about the struggle.

“We’ve never said, ‘We’re not going to carry that book because we don’t believe in it.’ We’ll carry it on our shelves if we think someone is going to come in and ask for it. That’s what we do as a business,” she said. “I didn’t take a stand against Greg Abbott; I took a stand as a business, for common sense, and my First Amendment rights as a bookseller.”

Categories Censorship, Cruelty, Democracy, Extremism, Freedom to Read, Ignorance, Literacy, Literature, Texas

Thom Hartmann: What Did the Founders Say About Separation of Church and State?

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2024 //
53

Thom Hartmann is at his best in this column. He writes about the current GOP obsession with a “Christian America” and compares it to what the Founding Fathers wrote about the role of religion in their new nation. Added to the current pandering is the fact that we now have a Supreme Court majority of six-three that elevates “religious freedom” above the Constitutional prohibition of “establishment” of religion. That means trouble for those of us who do not want to live in a theocracy.

He writes:

Monday, in addition to being Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, was National Religious Freedom Day. But what does that mean, and for whom? What would the “Christian America” that Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson are calling for look like?

When I was a kid, my parents and our pastor taught me that Jesus specifically, and religion more generally, was all about peace, love, and people caring for each other. That’s what’s explicitly at the core of Jesus’ most famous and clear teachings at the Sermon On The Mount and in the Parable of the Goats and Sheep.

But the Republican Party, thirsting for more voters in the 1980 Reagan vs Carter election, realized that Southern Baptists had helped give the White House to Carter in 1976 (he’s a Southern Baptist). If they could just peel those voters away from Carter and the Democratic Party, they believed they could win big.

The issue the Reagan campaign decided to use to bring religious voters to Republicans in that election was abortion, a topic Jesus never discussed.

Up until that election, both former Governor Reagan and former CIA Director Bush had been open supporters of a woman’s right to choose; in the run-up to the primaries Reagan became an unabashed foe of abortion, and George H.W. Bush changed his position on the issue when he joined the ticket in 1980.The legacy of those decisions has brought us Trump, Qanon, and badly damaged large parts of what’s left of Christianity in America (church attendance is collapsing). It’s turned both religion and politics into armed camps. At the founding of our Republic, if there was any one topic that the Framers of the Constitution were mostly in agreement about, it was the importance of keeping religion separate from government.

More recently, even uber-Catholic Antonin Scalia wrote, in the 1990 Employment v Smith case rejecting Native Americans’ petition to overrule federal regulations and legally use peyote (an outlawed substance) for religious purposes:

“The rule respondents favor would open the prospect of constitutionally required religious exemptions from civic obligations of almost every conceivable kind ranging from compulsory military service to the payment of taxes; to health and safety regulation such as manslaughter and child neglect laws, compulsory vaccination laws, drug laws, and traffic laws; to social welfare legislation such as minimum wage laws, child labor laws, animal cruelty laws, environmental protection laws, and laws providing for equality of opportunity for the races. The First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty does not require this. …

“To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.”

Don’t tell today’s Republicans that’s a bad thing, though: Scalia’s list is a good summary of many of the realms they’re currently targeting. The six Catholic extremist Republicans on the Court appear anxious to overturn any final semblance of secular primacy in law, using religion as their excuse.

It’s gotten so absurd and frankly obscene that a reporter recently spoke with a woman at a Trump rally sporting a crucifix and a tee-shirt that said “Hang Joe Biden For Treason”; she was essentially arguing that Jesus would be all in favor of watching Biden’s execution.

Monday was Religious Freedom Day because it commemorated the publication of Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. That early publication (he was 33) not only asserted that all citizens should be free to practice whatever religion they wanted but, more importantly, that nobody should be persecuted for holding either a religious belief or no religious belief.

Jefferson thought it was more important than his having been a two-term president: when he wrote his own epitaph, he only included his authorship of the Declaration of Independence, his founding America’s first free university (University of Virginia), and his Statute for Religious Freedom.

Jefferson and Madison had a philosophical debate over which would be more dangerous: a religious individual who wants to bring religion into government like Christian nationalist Mike Johnson, or the government endorsing or subsidizing any particular religious group or belief like Trump is promising.

Jefferson (a Deist) was worried about religious leaders (a letter of his is *footnoted below) corrupting government; Madison (a Christian) was more worried about government corrupting his beloved religion.

For example, on February 21, 1811, President Madison vetoed a bill passed by Congress that authorized government payments to a church in Washington, DC to help the poor. Faith-based initiatives were a clear violation, Madison believed, of the doctrine of separation of church and state, and could lead to a dangerous transfer of both money and political power to religious leaders.

In Madison’s mind, caring for the poor was a public and civic duty — a function of government — and must not be allowed to become a hole through which churches could reach and seize political power or the taxpayer’s purse.

Funding a church to provide for the poor would establish a “legal agency” — a legal precedent — that would break down the walls of separation the Founders had put between church and state to protect Americans from religious zealots gaining political power.

Thus, Madison said in his veto message to Congress, he was striking down the proposed law:

“Because the bill vests and said incorporated church an also authority to provide for the support of the poor, and the education of poor children of the same;…” which, Madison said, “would be a precedent for giving to religious societies, as such, a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.”

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, flatly rejected government supporting religion in any way whatsoever, noting in a July 10, 1822 letter to Edward Livingston:

“We are teaching the world the great truth, that Governments do better without kings and nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson: the Religion flourishes in greater purity without, than with the aid of Government.”

He added in that same letter:

“I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.”

Now we see that both were right, although Madison probably had the edge: when the GOP offered evangelicals political power and big money in 1980, it so corrupted many conservative Christian churches that they’ve today put Trump above Jesus.

It’s gotten so bad that fully a third of evangelicals polled said they supported violence to advance political goals, which is quite literally the opposite of Jesus’ telling the Pharisees:

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Not to mention his extensive preaching about nonviolence. He was MLK’s role model, for G-d’s sake.

Instead, Trump’s followers are busily sharing memes of him as their savior, while Speaker Johnson and his fellow travelers on the Supreme Court are working as hard as they can to open the doors (and money) of government to religious leaders.

Religion has a lot to offer people and often fulfills a basic need to stand in awe of creation, to feel at one with everything and everyone. Every culture all the way back to the Neanderthals have engaged in religious rituals, particularly around funerals: no tribe or group has ever been found that entirely lacked what could be described as religious rituals.

But, as our founders pointed out, religion should be separated from government as far as possible. Jefferson’s Virginia Statute says it explicitly:

“No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

Instead, Republicans are exploiting that religious urge built into us humans to cynically pander for the votes of those people who’ve put religion at the center of their lives.

They’re reinventing America as a country where religion dictates women’s healthcare, specifies who can marry whom, and destroys the lives of people who weren’t born heterosexual.

They’re promoting movies/vids portraying Trump as the incarnation of Jesus, a bizarre sort of Second Coming worthy of North Korean propaganda.

They’re using religion as an excuse for bigotry, a rationale for government tax subsidies of churches that promote Republicans from the pulpit, and a weapon to wield against those they condemn as being insufficiently pious.

In the process, they’re harming both religion and our government.

Categories Bigotry, Civil Rights, Cruelty, Elections, Extremism, Fascism, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to Read, Hoax, Propaganda, Religion, Republicans, Separation of church and state, Trump

Oklahoma: Leader of “Libs of TikTok” Named as Library Advisor by State Education Department

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2024 //
5

Ryan Walters, State Superintendent of Oklahoma, decided that he needed some out-of-state assistance in banning books from school libraries, so he appointed Chaya Raichik, who runs a far-right social media group, to help him.

NBC News reported:

A far-right influencer who was accused of instigating bomb threats against a school library in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last year has been named an adviser to a state library committee, the head of the state Education Department announced Tuesday.

Chaya Raichik, who runs the incendiary Libs of TikTok social media accounts and is not an Oklahoma resident, was appointed to the Education Department’s Library Media Advisory Committee.

“Chaya is on the front lines showing the world exactly what the radical left is all about — lowering standards, porn in schools, and pushing woke indoctrination on our kids,” state Superintendent Ryan Walters said in a statement. “Because of her work, families across the country know just what is going on in schools around the country.”

Raichik’s Libs of TikTok accounts have more than 3 million combined followers on X and Instagram. Its content — which is often laced with bigoted rhetoric — generally singles out LGBTQ people, drag queens and their employers, and it criticizes them for promoting diversity, inclusion and equity efforts.

In addition to last year’s scare in Tulsa, posts by the account have preceded several bomb threats to schools, libraries and hospitalsacross the country in recent years.

Raichik did not respond to a set of questions. The Libs of TikTok account replied to a request for comment on X with a compilation of drawings seemingly from young adult novels that depict sexual encounters and asked: “Do you think this is appropriate for kids in school?”

Walters said in a statement, “Chaya Raichik and I have developed a strong working relationship to rid schools of liberal, woke values.”

In August, Union Public Schools, a school district that covers parts of Tulsa and some of its suburbs, said it received bomb threats for six consecutive days. The threats came after Raichik shared a critical video about one of its school librarians.

The video Raichik posted showed a school librarian walking next to a bookshelf, and it was captioned: “POV: teachers in your state are dropping like flies but you are still just not quite finished pushing your woke agenda at the public school.” The video replaced the librarian’s original caption, which read: “My radical liberal agenda is teaching kids to love books and be kind — hbu??”

Categories Bigotry, Censorship, Disruption, Extremism, Freedom to Read, Librarians, Libraries, Lies, Oklahoma

Beware Deep Fake Videos! Protect Our Democracy!

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2024 //
18

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed (or not) that I never mention artificial intelligence. I think it’s ominous. I don’t like simulations of real people. I don’t like technology that can write even better than most humans. I prefer to deal directly with humans, not fakes.

Artifial intelligence may be deployed as a deceptive weapon in the upcoming elections.

2024 is a crucial year in our politics. On the ballot in the primaries and in the general election will be candidates who are offering theocracy, dictatorship, or democracy. They will use AI to woo and confuse voters.

New Hampshire blogger and former state senator Jeanne Dietsch has posted a warning about deep fake videos. The video she posts is titled “This Is Not Morgan Freeman.” The face is Morgan Freeman, the voice is Morgan Freeman. But it is not Morgan Freeman.

She also offers a warning about the three factions that are competing in New Hampshire.

She writes:

Elected officials no longer act as individuals. They vote as teams. In NH we have three types of teams:

  • “LIBERTY” CANDIDATES who do not believe in majority rule or public services. They want to privatize education, public lands and government services. They believe the only behaviors that should be illegal are theft and bodily harm. People may make fentanyl, pollute the water supply, sell body parts, or do anything else on their private property. That includes corporations that want to buy up state forests to lumber or entire swaths of housing to rent.
  • FASCIST & THEOCRATIC CANDIDATES also want to replace democracy with minority rule. Unlike liberty candidates, they want stricter laws set by a dictator or by religious leaders. Their goal is to control society, as in Putin’s Russia or a Christian version of Iran.
  • PRO-DEMOCRACY CANDIDATES may disagree on how large government should be and many other issues. However, they will stand up against those who support lawlessness or dictatorship. They will ensure we regularly hold fair elections. They believe in the rule of law.

Political parties no longer define the teams in this state. Undeclared voters outnumber either party by a third. In 2020, the “liberty” team temporarily took over the NH House Republican Caucus. Even though they were a minority of the 400 House members, they controlled the agenda. Pro-democracy legislators in both parties were powerless.

The story in DC is similar. The functions of the American republic are being held hostage by a small minority.

Will we fall for the deep fakes? Will we be deceived by AI? Or will we protect our democracy?

Categories Accountability, Bigotry, Censorship, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Courage, Democracy, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, Fascism, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to Read

PEN America: Escambia County, Florida, Banned More than 1,600 Books,Including 5 Dictionaries!

By dianeravitch
January 10, 2024 //
38

Governor Ron DeSantis claims that Florida isn’t banning books, which may be technically true, yet demonstrably false. Librarians and school district officials are removing books from school and classroom libraries to comply with state law, until the books have been screened for any offensive sexual or racial language.

PEN America reported that more than 1,600 books have been removed from circulation until they have received approval from school officials. The big joke in Escambia County is that a dictionary is in the Escambia list of books that possibly violate the law. Actually, five dictionaries!

But many other books are on Escambia’s list that have been read by generations of students.

Is it fair to say that such lists are censorship or banning? I say yes. What do you think?

PEN America posted this statement:

It has come to this: Escambia County, Florida, schools have banned the dictionary.

Five dictionaries are on the district’s list of more than 1,600 books banned pending investigation in December 2023, along with eight different encyclopedias, The Guinness Book of World Records, and Ripley’s Believe it or Not – all due to fears they violate the state’s new laws banning materials with “sexual conduct” from schools.

Biographies of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Nicki Minaj, and Thurgood Marshallare on the list, alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Black Panther comics by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Feminism Book was banned along with The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider’s Guide to Careers in Fashion.

The list obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project also includes Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. The Princess Diaries and 14 other books by Meg Cabot have been taken from libraries, alongside books by David Baldacci, Lee Child, Michael Crichton, Carl Hiassen, Jonathan Franzen, John Green, John Grisham, Stephen King (23 of them), Dean Koontz, Cormac McCarthy, Celeste Ng, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult,and Nicholas Sparks. Conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly’s two books, Killing Jesus and Killing Reagan, were also banned pending investigation.

PEN America, Penguin Random House, and a diverse group of authors joined with parents and students in Escambia County for a first of its kind federal lawsuit alleging that an earlier set of book bans and restrictions violate their rights to free speech and equal protection under the law. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 10.

If you open the link, you can see the list of banned books in Escambia County.

Here are a few that caught my eye:

Books of Greek and Roman myths

Baroque and Rococo Art

Five books by Maya Angelou

James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Sixteen books by Meg Cabot

Albert Camus, The Stranger

Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile

Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street

Multiple books about sexually transmitted diseases

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield -Adapted for Young Readers

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Five novels by William Faulkner

Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude

William Golding, Lord of the Flies

I’m stopping here. You get the drift. Scan the rest of the list and see what you think.

Categories Accountability, Censorship, Democracy, DeSantis, Ethics, Extremism, Freedom to Read, Librarians, Literacy, Literature

Here Are the Books Removed from Classroom Shelves in Orange County, Florida

By dianeravitch
December 28, 2023 //
49

Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel reported the list of banned books.

Please scan the list and let me know which you think should never be banned. Are there any on the list that you think should not be in any 3-8 classroom? Any that should not be available in high school?

Here is a list of the 673 books removed from teachers’ classroom shelves in Orange County for fear they might violate state law and rules on “sexual conduct:” Some might be returned to shelves after further review.

“In the Belly of the Beast,” Jack Henry Abbott
“The Pool Was Empty,” Gilles Abier
“The Poet X,” Elizabeth Acevedo
“With the Fire on High,” Elizabeth Acevedo
“Call Me By Your Name,” Andre Aciman
“Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight,” Peter Ackerman
“Half of a Yellow Sun,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Changes,” Ama Ata Aidoo
“River of Darkness,” Rennie Airth
“Say You’re One of Them,” Uwem Akpan
“Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda,” Becky Albertalli
“The Upside of Unrequited,” Becky Albertalli
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Sherman Alexie
“The House of the Spirits,” Isabel Allende
“In the Midst of Winter,” Isabel Allende
“The Blood of Flowers,” Anita Amirrezvani
“Wintergirls,” Laurie Halse Anderson
“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” Jesse Andrews
“The Haters,” Jesse Andrews
“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou
“Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas,” Maya Angelou
“Lucy in the Sky,” Anonymous
“And Eternity,” Piers Anthony
“On a Pale Horse,” Piers Anthony
“Four Plays,” Aristophanes
“From Blood and Ash,” Jennifer L. Armentrout
“Storm and Fury,” Jennifer L. Armentrout
“City of the Lost,” Kelley Armstrong
“Mosquitoland,” David Arnold
“Damsel,” Elana K. Arnold
“Infandous,” Elana K. Arnold
“Red Hood,” Elana K. Arnold
“What Girls Are Made Of,” Elana K. Arnold
“Oryx and Crake,” Margaret Atwood
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” Margaret Atwood
“The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel,” Margaret Atwood
“The Testaments,” Margaret Atwood
“Alias Grace,” Margaret Atwood
“Hag-Seed,” Margaret Atwood
“Madd Addam Trilogy,” Margaret Atwood
“The Blind Assassin,” Margaret Atwood
“The Clan of the Cave Bear,” Jean M. Auel
“The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters
(Earth’s Children, #1-3),” Jean M. Auel
“The Tale of John Barleycorn: From Barley to Beer,” Mary Azarian
“My Friend Dahmer,” John “Derf” Backderf
“Six of Crows,” Leigh Bardugo
“Dance Nation,” Clare Barron
“Wise Young Fool,” Sean Beaudoin
“Herzog,” Saul Bellow
“The Color Master,” Aimee Bender
“The Seven Rays,” Jessica Bendinger
“Glimpse,” Stacey Wallace Benefiel
“The History Boys,” Alan Bennett
“Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife,” Linda Berdoll

“Best in Show,” Laurien Berenson
“Dark Eye,” William Bernhardt
“Friday Night Lights: A Town A Team And A Dream,” H.G. Bissinger
“Geektastic,” Holly Black
“Red Glove,” Holly Black
“I Was a Teenage Fairy,” Francesca Lia Block
“Sex on the Brain,” Deborah Blum
“Forever…,” Judy Blume
“Midwives: A Novel,” Chris Bohjalian
“Bronxwood,” Coe Booth
“The Best American Short Stories 2015,” T.C. Boyle
“The Road to Wellville,” T.C. Boyle
“The Darkest Minds,” Alexandra Bracken
“The Dark Garden,” Eden Bradley
“The Mists of Avalon,” Marion Zimmer Bradley
“Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood,” Ann Brashares
“The Last Summer of You and Me,” Ann Brashares
“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” Ann Brashares
“Electric Girl,” Michael Brennan
“The Demon’s Surrender,” Sarah Rees Brennan
“Monkey Man,” Steve Brewer
“Over the Edge,” Suzanne Brockmann
“Candy,” Kevin Brooks
“Angels & Demons,” Dan Brown
“The Bridges of Madison County (musical),” Jason Robert Brown
“A Secret Splendor,” Sandra Brown
“Above and Beyond,” Sandra Brown
“In a Class by Itself,” Sandra Brown
“Lethal,” Sandra Brown
“Seduction by Design,” Sandra Brown
“Send No Flowers,” Sandra Brown
“Unspeakable,” Sandra Brown
“Doing It,” Melvin Burgess
“The Neon Rain,” James Lee Burke
“The Glister,” John Burnside
“Running with Scissors,” Augusten Burroughs
“Summer and the City,” Candace Bushnell
“The Carrie Diaries,” Candace Bushnell
“Kindred,” Octavia E. Butler
“Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation,” Octavia E. Butler
“El Gigante Solitario,” Mary Cappellini
“Xenocide,” Orson Scott Card
“How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity,” Michael Cart
“The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories,” Angela Carter
“Kisses From Hell,” Kristin Cast
“Chosen,” P.C. Cast
“Marked,” P.C. Cast
“The Big Sleep,” Raymond Chandler
“The Big Sleep; The High Window; The Lady in the Lake; The Long
Goodbye; Playback; Farewell, My Lovely,” Raymond Chandler
“Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell My
Lovely / The High Window,” Raymond Chandler
“The Year of Living Awkwardly,” Emma Chastain
“Pieces,” Stephen Chbosky
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” Stephen Chbosky
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower YA edition,” Stephen Chbosky
“The Lady and the Unicorn,” Tracy Chevalier
“My Wicked Wicked Ways,” Sandra Cisneros
“The Tesla Testament,” Eugene Ciurana
“Chain Of Iron,” Cassandra Clare
“Chain Of Thorns,” Cassandra Clare
“Queen of Air and Darkness,” Cassandra Clare
“The Red Scrolls Of Magic,” Cassandra Clare
“Little Bee,” Chris Cleave
“The Girls,” Emma Cline
“Ready Player One,” Ernest Cline
“Scooter Girl,” Chynna Clugston-Flores
“Disgrace,” J.M. Coetzee
“Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List,” Rachel Cohn
“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” Rachel Cohn
“Finding Yvonne,” Brandy Colbert
“The Goats,” Brock Cole
“American Gangster,” Max Allan Collins
“Brules: A Novel,” Harry Combs
“The Lords of Discipline,” Pat Conroy
“Captain Marvel,” Gerry Conway
“Coma: A Novel,” Robin Cook
“Leviathan Wakes,” James S.A. Corey
“Heroes,” Robert Cormier
“Scarpetta,” Patricia Cornwell
“Three Complete Novels: Postmortem, Body Of Evidence, All That
Remains,” Patricia Cornwell
“Postmortem,” Patricia Cornwell
“Nearly Gone,” Elle Cosimano
“A Veil Removed,” Michelle Cox
“The Bondwoman’s Narrative,” Hannah Crafts
“First Semester,” Cecil R. Cross II
“Running Loose,” Chris Crutcher
“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,” Sijie Dai
“Esperanza Rising,” Julie Danneberg
“Cendrillon,” Luc Darbois
“Sir Apropos of Nothing,” Peter David
“The Westing Game,” Beatrice G. Davis
“Never Cry Werewolf,” Heather Davis
“Corelli’s Mandolin,” Louis de Bernieres
“Gates of Paradise,” Melissa de la Cruz
“Sunset Boulevard,” Zoey Dean
“Tall Cool One,” Zoey Dean
“American Beauty,” Zoey Dean
“The Feeling of Falling in Love,” Mason Deaver
“The Girl Before,” J.P. Delaney
“The Inheritance Of Loss,” Kiran Desai
“This Lullaby,” Sarah Dessen
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Junot Díaz
“Blade Runner (do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep),” Philip K. Dick
“Don’t Get Caught,” Kurt Dinan
“Strangers She Knows,” Christina Dodd
“These Shallow Graves,” Jennifer Donnelly
“Room,” Emma Donoghue
“The Cases that Haunt Us,” John E. Douglas
“November Blues,” Sharon M. Draper
“Panic,” Sharon M. Draper
“House of Sand and Fog,” Andre Dubus III
“A Stolen Life: A Memoir,” Jaycee Dugard
“Submarine,” Joe Dunthorne
“Paso a Paso,” José Antonio Echeverria
“The Circle,” Dave Eggers
“Perfect Chemistry,” Simone Elkeles
“The Authority,” Warren Ellis
“Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison
“The Gathering,” Anne Enright
“The Painter from Shanghai,” Jennifer Cody Epstein
“The Round House,” Louise Erdrich
“Sophomore Undercover,” Ben Esch
“Like Water For Chocolate,” Laura Esquivel
“Middlesex,” Jefferey Eugenides
“The Horse Whisperer,” Nicholas Evans
“Sleepless,” Thomas Fahy
“Ask the Dust,” John Fante
“Bad Days In History,” Michael Farquhar
“The Comedy Writer,” Peter Farrelly
“White Oleander,” Janet Fitch
“Madame Bovary,” Gustave Flaubert
“Dark Places,” Gillian Flynn
“Sharp Objects,” Gillian Flynn
“Separation of Power,” Vince Flynn
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” Jonathan Safran Foer
“The Carnival at Bray,” Jessie Ann Foley
“The Guest List,” Lucy Foley
“The Pillars of the Earth,” Ken Follett
“World Without End,” Ken Follett
“Come Back,” Claire Fontaine
“If I Stay,” Gayle Forman
“Just One Day,” Gayle Forman
“The Jane Austen Book Club,” Karen Fowler
“Joy Special of the Day,” Elaine Fox
“You Hear Me?,” Betsy Franco
“Palo Alto,” James Franco
“Dime,” E. R. Frank
“Cold Mountain,” Charles Frazier
“The Likeness,” Tana French
“Anansi Boys,” Neil Gaiman
“The House of Bernarda Alba,” Federico García Lorca
“Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” Gabriel García Márquez
“Love in the Time of Cholera,” Gabriel García Márquez
“Annie on My Mind,” Nancy Garden
“Killjoy,” Julie Garwood
“Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert
“Howl and Other Poems,” Allen Ginsberg
“Girl in Pieces,” Kathleen Glasgow
“Fat Kid Rules the World,” Kelly L. Going
“Bee Season,” Myla Goldberg
“Kenang-Kenangan Seorang Geisha (Memoirs of a Geisha),” Arthur Golden
“Memoirs of a Geisha,” Arthur Golden
“Sister Mischief,” Laura Goode
“A Reliable Wife,” Robert Goolrick
“Forever for a Year,” B.T. Gottfred
“The Handsome Girl & Her Beautiful Boy,” B.T. Gottfred
“The Nerdy and the Dirty,” B.T. Gottfred
“Tomorrow Girls,” Eva Gray
“An Abundance of Katherines,” John Green
“Looking for Alaska,” John Green
“Will,” John Grayson
“Paper Towns,” John Green
“Sex Plus: Learning, Loving and Enjoying Your Body,” Laci Green
“The Quiet American,” Graham Greene
“None Of The Above,” I.W. Gregorio
“Changeling,” Philippa Gregory
“The Other Boleyn Girl,” Philippa Gregory
“A Time to Kill,” John Grisham
“The Firm,” John Grisham
“John Grisham Value Collection: A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Client,”
John Grisham
“From Where I Watch You,” Shannon Grogan
“Water For Elephants,” Sara Gruen
“The Freedom Writers Diary,” Erin Gruwell
“Snow Falling On Cedars,” David Guterson
“A Map of the World,” Jane Hamilton
“We’ll Always Have Summer,” Jenny Han
“The World’s Strongest Librarian,” Joshua Hanagarne
“Fly Away,” Kristin Hannah
“The Art of Fielding,” Chad Harbach
“Jude the Obscure,” Thomas Hardy
“Chocolat,” Joanne Harris
“The Lollipop Shoes,” Joanne Harris
“The Silent Wife,” A.S.A. Harrison
“Plainsong,” Kent Haruf
“The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood,” Gwen Harwood
“Necropolis,” Jordan L. Hawk
“Second Skin,” John Hawkes
“The Girl on the Train,” Paula Hawkins
“Catch-22,” Joseph Heller

“The Collected Plays,” Lillian Hellman
“Demian the Story of Emil Sinclairs Youth,” Hermann Hesse
“Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend.,” Hermann Hesse
“Siddhartha (Dual-Language),” Hermann Hesse
“Siddhartha: A Novel,” Hermann Hesse
“Skin Tight,” Carl Hiaasen
“The Island,” Elin Hilderbrand
“Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition,” Katie Rain Hill
“Here Comes Santa Claus,” Sandra Hill
“Royal Assassin,” Robin Hobb
“The Dress Lodger,” Sheri Holman
“Watch Me,” A.J. Holt
“November 9,” Colleen Hoover
“Heart Bones,” Colleen Hoover
“Hopeless,” Colleen Hoover
“It Ends With Us,” Colleen Hoover
“It Starts With Us,” Colleen Hoover
“Layla,” Colleen Hoover
“Losing Hope,” Colleen Hoover
“Regretting You,” Colleen Hoover
“Verity,” Colleen Hoover
“Confess,” Colleen Hoover
“Ugly Love,” Colleen Hoover
“Impulse,” Ellen Hopkins
“Burned,” Ellen Hopkins
“Collateral,” Ellen Hopkins
“Crank,” Ellen Hopkins
“Fallout,” Ellen Hopkins
“Identical,” Ellen Hopkins
“Love Lies Beneath,” Ellen Hopkins
“People Kill People,” Ellen Hopkins
“Perfect,” Ellen Hopkins
“Tilt,” Ellen Hopkins
“Tricks,” Ellen Hopkins
“I Never,” Laura Hopper
“The Changeling,” Kate Horsley
“The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini
“A Thousand Splendid Suns,” Khaled Hosseini
“Taken at Dusk,” C.C. Hunter
“Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley
“M Butterfly,” David Henry Hwang
“Icy Sparks,” Gwyn Hyman Rubio
“A Widow for One Year: A Novel,” John Irving
“The World According to Garp,” John Irving
“Never Let Me Go,” Kazuo Ishiguro
“Bit of a Blur,” Alex James
“Fifty Shades Series,” E.L. James
“Green River Killer: A True Detective Story,” Jeff Jensen
“No One to Trust,” Iris Johansen
“All Boys Aren’t Blue,” George M. Johnson
“Truly Devious 3-Book Box Set,” Maureen Johnson
“The Graduate,” Terry Johnson
“Choice Words,” Peter H. Johnston
“The Recognition of Sakuntala,” Arthur William Ryder Kalidasa
“Scent of Danger,” Andrea Kane
“Confessions of a Not It Girl,” Melissa Kantor
“The Big Bad Wolf Tells All,” Donna Kauffman
“Milk and Honey,” Rupi Kaur
“The Sun and Her Flowers,” Rupi Kaur
“Summer in the City of Roses,” Michelle Ruiz Keil
“Street Dreams,” Faye Kellerman
“Mr. Ding’s Chicken Feet,” Gillian Kendall
“The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend,” Kody Keplinger
“YOU: A Nove,” Caroline Kepnes
“On The Road,” Jack Kerouac
“The Book of Longings,” Sue Monk Kidd
“Four Past Midnight,” Stephen King
“Dolores Claiborne,” Stephen King
“Lisey’s Story,” Stephen King
“Night Shift,” Stephen King
“The Drawing of the Three,” Stephen King
“The Wastelands,” Stephen King
“Under the Dome,” Stephen King
“Prodigal Summer: A Novel,” Barbara Kingsolver
“Confessions of a Shopaholic,” Sophie Kinsella
“Shopaholic and Baby,” Sophie Kinsella
“Fear the Hunters,” Robert Kirkman
“Miles Behind Us,” Robert Kirkman
“Don’t Say a Word,” Andrew Klavan
“Primary Colors,” Joe Klein
“Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs,” Chuck Klosterman
“Gender Queer: A Memoir,” Maia Kobabe
“City of Night,” Dean Koontz
“Twilight Eyes,” Dean Koontz
“The Bear Went Over the Mountain,” William Kotzwinkle
“Born on the Fourth of July,” Ron Kovic
“The Pirate,” Jayne Ann Krentz
“The Poppy War,” R F. Kuang
“Dark Triumph,” Robin La Fevers
“Grave Mercy,” Robin La Fevers
“The Namesake,” Jhumpa Lahiri
“I Know This Much Is True,” Wally Lamb
“Search for Safety,” Paul Langan
“Survivor,” Paul Langan
“Liar,” Justine Larbalestier
“My Sister Rosa,” Justine Larbalestier
“The Splendid and the Vile,” Erik Larson
“Recipe Box,” Sandra Lee
“Furyborn,” Claire Legrand
“Mystic River,” Dennis Lehane
“The Grass Is Singing,” Doris Lessing
“Another Day,” David Levithan
“Dexter Is Delicious,” Jeff Lindsay
“Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” Malinda Lo
“The Dirt on Sex,” Justin Lookadoo
“Character, Driven,” David Lubar
“The Bourne Identity,” Robert Ludlum
“The Robert Ludlum Value Collection: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne
Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum,” Robert Ludlum
“Brave New Girl,” Louisa Luna
“Game,” Barry Lyga
“I Hunt Killers,” Barry Lyga
“Boy Toy,” Barry Lyga
“A Court of Frost and Starlight,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Mist and Fury,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of of Wings and Ruin,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Silver Flames,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Wings and Ruin,” Sarah J. Maas
“House of Earth and Blood,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Thorns and Roses,” Sarah J. Maas
“Fall on Your Knees,” Ann-Marie MacDonald
“Easter Rising,” Michael Patrick MacDonald
“Guyaholic,” Carolyn Mackler
“The Hike,” Drew Magary
“Son of a Witch,” Gregor Maguire
“Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” Gregory Maguire
“Wicked: Memorias de una bruja mala,” Gregory Maguire
“The Natural,” Bernard Malamud
“Nectar in a Sieve,” Kamala Markandaya
“Slightly Single,” Wendy Markham
“Blue is the Warmest Color,” Jul Maroh
“A Game of Thrones,” George R.R. Martin
“A Dance with Dragons,” George R.R. Martin
“A Feast for Crows,” George R.R. Martin
“A Storm of Swords,” George R.R. Martin
“The Mystery Knight,” George R.R. Martin
“The Official A Game of Thrones Coloring Book,” George R.R. Martin
“A Clash of Kings,” George R.R. Martin
“Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling’s Disgustingly Dirty Joke Book,” Jackie Martling
“Paper Dollhouse,” Lisa M. Masterson
“Strange Intimacy,” Anne Mather
“Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour,” Morgan Matson
“The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn,” Robin Maxwell
“The Good Lord Bird,” James McBride
“Perfect Fifths,” Megan McCafferty
“Second Helpings,” Megan McCafferty
“Freedom’s Choice,” Anne McCaffrey
“All the Pretty Horses,” Cormac McCarthy
“No Country for Old Men,” Cormac McCarthy
“Outer Dark,” Cormac McCarthy
“Man o’ War,” Cory McCarthy
“Sold,” Patricia McCormick
“The Revolution of Little Girls,” Blanche McCrary Boyd
“The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” Martin McDonagh
“Sophomore Switch,” Abby McDonald
“Amsterdam,” Ian McEwan
“Atonement,” Ian McEwan
“On Chesil Beach,” Ian McEwan
“Duquesa by Default,” Maura McGiveny
“Beautiful Disaster,” Jamie McGuire
“The Memory of Running,” Ron McLarty
“Lonesome Dove,” Larry McMurtry
“Everything You Want Me to Be,” Mindy Mejia
“Talking in the Dark,” Billy Merrell
“Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined,” Stephenie Meyer
“Pretty Woman,” Fern Michaels
“The Real Deal,” Fern Michaels
“The Authority,” Mark Millar
“Circe,” Madeline Miller
“The Song of Achilles: A Novel,” Madeline Miller
“Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (The Signet Classic Poetry
Series),” John Milton
“Paradise Lost,” John Milton
“Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and
Being a Human (A Graphic Novel),” Erika Moen
“All My Friends Are Dead,” Avery Monsen
“Watchmen,” Alan Moore
“Camp Confidential,” Melissa J. Morgan
“The Year of Secret Assignments,” Jaclyn Moriarty
“The Center of Everything,” Laura Moriarty
“Seikai 1,” Hiroyuki Morioka
“The Bluest Eye,” Toni Morrison
“Beloved,” Toni Morrison
“Paradise,” Toni Morrison
“Song of Solomon,” Toni Morrison
“Kafka on the Shore,” Haruki Murakami
“Heart of Stone,” C.E. Murphy
“Dead End,” Jason Myers
“Street Love,” Walter Dean Myers
“Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks,” Lauren Myracle
“Rhymes with Witches,” Lauren Myracle
“Shine,” Lauren Myracle
“L8R G8R,” Lauren Myracle
“The Infinite Moment of Us,” Lauren Myracle
“ttfn,” Lauren Myracle
“TTYL,” Lauren Myracle
“yolo,” Lauren Myracle
“The Art of Hana-Kimi,” Hisaya Nakajo
“Skin,” Donna Jo Napoli
“Linden Hills,” Gloria Naylor
“The Men of Brewster Place,” Gloria Naylor
“The Women of Brewster Place,” Gloria Naylor
“Like a Love Story,” Abdi Nazemian
“Getting Somewhere,” Beth Neff
“On the Volcano,” James Nelson
“Suite Francaise,” Irene Nemirovsky
“The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen
“We Are All Made of Molecules,” Susin Nielsen-Fernlund
“Holding Up the Universe,” Jennifer Niven
“Breathless,” Jennifer Niven
“Everlasting,” Alyson Noël
“Evermore,” Alyson Noël
“Night Star,” Alyson Noël
“Where I end and You Begin,” Preston Norton
“Sweat,” Lynn Nottage
“Plague in the Mirror,” Deborah Noyes
“Back Roads,” Tawni O’Dell
“Beasts,” Joyce Carol Oates
“The Assignation: Stories,” Joyce Carol Oates
“We Were the Mulvaneys,” Joyce Carol Oates
“Panic,” Lauren Oliver
“Before I Fall,” Lauren Oliver
“When the Emperor was Divine,” Julie Otsuka
“Ars Amatoria,” Ovid
“Metamorphoses,” Ovid
“Where the Crawdads Sing,” Delia Owens
“Choke,” Chuck Palahniuk
“Invisible Monsters Remix,” Chuck Palahniuk
“Lullaby,” Chuck Palahniuk
“In Order to Live,” Yeonmi Park
“The Dogs of Babel,” Carolyn Parkhurst
“Learning Tree,” Gordon Parks
“Bel Canto,” Ann Patchett
“The Patron Saint of Liars,” Ann Patchett
“Honeymoon,” James Patterson
“Private,” James Patterson
“Sail,” James Patterson
“Sam’s Letters to Jennifer,” James Patterson
“Sideways,” Alexander Payne
“A Day No Pigs Would Die,” Robert Newton Peck
“The Leftovers,” Tom Perrotta
“Out Stealing Horses,” Per Petterson
“Prague,” Arthur Phillips
“Fishtailing,” Wendy Phillips
“A Spark of Light,” Jodi Picoult
“Handle with Care,” Jodi Picoult
“Picture Perfect,” Jodi Picoult
“The Pact: A Love Story,” Jodi Picoult
“The Storyteller,” Jodi Picoult
“The Tenth Circle,” Jodi Picoult
“Nineteen Minutes,” Jodi Picoult
“A Year and a Day,” Leslie Pietrzyk
“Thirst No. 1,” Christopher Pike
“Thirst No. 2,” Christopher Pike
“Thirst No. 4,” Christopher Pike
“Thirst No. 5,” Christopher Pike
“Into White,” Randi Pink
“It Doesn’t Have to Be Awkward: Dealing with Relationships, Consent,
and Other Hard-to-Talk-About Stuff,” Drew Pinsky
“Yes Please,” Amy Poehler
“Tinisima,” Elena Poniatowska
“Behind the Shadows,” Patricia Potter
“The Whistling Toilets,” Randy Powell
“The Cabin,” Natasha Preston
“The Cellar,” Natasha Preston
“Caves Graves,” Natalie Prior
“Jane Swann’s Way,” Marcel Proust
“La Belle Sauvage,” Philip Pullman
“Burning Glass,” Kathryn Purdie
“The Family,” Mario Puzo
“Gabi, a Girl in Pieces,” Isabel Quintero
“The Elegant Gathering of White Snows,” Kris Radish
“The Fountainhead,” Ayn Rand
“Modern Love,” Andrew Rannells
“Punkzilla,” Adam Rapp
“Beautiful,” Amy Reed
“The Cute Girl Network,” M.K. Reed
“Such a Fun Age,” Kiley Reid
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” Taylor Jenkins Reid
“Stop in the Name of Pants!,” Louise Rennison
“Stone Fox,” John Reynolder
“Wide Sargasso Sea,” Jean Rhys
“The Vampire Armand,” Anne Rice
“The Witching Hour,” Anne Rice
“Life,” Keith Richards
“Juliet Takes a Breath,” Gabby Rivera
“Redeeming Love,” Francine Rivers
“The Atonement Child,” Francine Rivers
“Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal,” Mary Roach
“Birthright,” Nora Roberts
“The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters,” Elisabeth Robinson
“Normal People,” Sally Rooney
“Jack of Hearts (and other parts),” L.C. Rosen
“Portnoy’s Complaint,” Philip Roth
“The Casual Vacancy,” J.K. Rowling
“The God of Small Things,” Arundhati Roy
“All of Us with Wings,” Michelle Ruiz Keil
“Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens,” Bill Russell
“The Dead-Tossed Waves,” Carrie Ryan
“Leviathan Wakes,” James S.A. Corey
“And They Lived …,” Steven Salvatore
“Bait,” Alex Sanchez
“Once a King, Always a King,” Reymundo Sanchez
“Option B,” Sheryl Sandberg
“The Fool’s Run,” John Sandford
“Vampire, Interupted,” Lynsay Sands
“Push,” Sapphire
“Blindness,” José Saramago
“Jesus Land: A Memoir,” Julia Scheeres
“Uses for Boys,” Erica Lorraine Scheidt
“The Reader,” Bernard Schlink
“The Beginning of Everything,” Robyn Schneider
“Bully,” Jim Schutze
“The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue,” V.E. Schwab
“The Gift of Forgiveness,” Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt
“Living Dead Girl: A Novel,” Elizabeth Scott
“Lucky,” Alice Sebold
“The Lovely Bones,” Alice Sebold
“Naked,” David Sedaris
“Peony in Love,” Lisa See
“Writing My Wrongs,” Shaka Senghor
“Equus,” Peter Shaffer
“Skin and Bones,” Sherry Shahan
“Demon Apocalypse,” Darren Shan
“Forbidden Knowledge,” Roger Shattuck
“Tweak,” Nic Sheff
“The Stone Diaries,” Carol Shields
“Sea Glass: A Novel,” Anita Shreve
“Alichino,” Kouyu Shurei
“The Food Chain,” Nicky Silver
“If I Was Your Girl,” Ni-Ni Simone
“Wilder,” Andrew Simonet
“The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping with Chicks,” Jen Sincero
“The Silence and the Roar,” Nihad Sirees
“The Primal Blueprint,” Mark Sisson
“Prep: A Novel,” Curtis Sittenfeld
“You Think It, I’ll Say It,” Curtis Sittenfeld
“Stay In Line,” Teddy Slaterguess
“A Thousand Acres,” Jane Smiley
“The Way I used to Be,” Amber Smith
“Joy in the Morning,” Betty Smith
“Tree Grows In Brooklyn,” Betty Smith
“The Geography of Girlhood,” Kirsten Smith
“Betwixt,” Tara Bray Smith
“Anatomy of a Boyfriend,” Daria Snadowsky
“Sadar’s Keep,” Midori Snyder
“No Visible Bruises,” Rachel Louise Snyder
“MARS,” Fuyumi Soryo
“Summer on Wheels,” Gary Soto
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” Muriel Spark
“It Happened to Nancy,” Beatrice Sparks
“At First Sight,” Nicholas Sparks
“Message in a Bottle,” Nicholas Sparks
“Nights in Rodanthe,” Nicholas Sparks
“The Guardian,” Nicholas Sparks
“The Rescue,” Nicholas Sparks
“The Wedding,” Nicholas Sparks
“Small Town Girl,” Lavyrle Spencer
“Everyone likes Eggs,” Jerry Spinelli
“Star (French Edition),” Danielle Steel
“The Gift,” Danielle Steel
“East of Eden,” John Steinbeck
“Still Missing,” Chevy Stevens
“Earth (the book) A Visitors Guide to the Human Race,” Jon Stewart
“Every Last Word,” Tamara Ireland Stone
“Marcelo in the Real World,” Francisco X. Stork
“Until the Twelfth of Never,” Bella Stumbo
“Sophie’s Choice,” William Styron
“We Should Hang Out Sometime,” Josh Sundquist
“The Kitchen God’s Wife,” Amy Tan
“The Valley of Amazement,” Amy Tan
“American Colonies,” Alan Taylor
“Just Friends,” Billy Taylor
“The Spectacular Now,” Tim Tharp
“Concrete Rose,” Angie Thomas
“The Loners,” Lex Thomas
“Picking Cotton,” Jennifer Thompson-Cannino
“Blankets,” Craig Thompson
“First Time,” Meg Tilly
“Sigh, Gone,” Phuc Tran
“Milk Glass Moon,” Adriana Trigiani
“Stuck in Neutral,” Terry Trueman
“The RattleRat,” Janwillem Van de Wetering
“Red Thunder,” John Varley
“Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything,” Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
“Y: The Last Man,” Brian K. Vaughan
“When We Make It,” Elisabet Velasquez
“The Covenant of Water,” Abraham Verghese
“Shojo Beat,” Viz Media
“Dicey’s Song,” Cynthia Voight
“All I Want is Everything,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“Don’t You Forget about Me,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“Tempted,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“You Know You Love Me,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“It Had To Be You,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“Slaughterhouse-Five,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
“Slaughterhouse-Five: The Graphic Novel,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
“The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
“Black White and Jewish,” Rebecca Walker
“We All Looked Up,” Tommy Wallach
“A Thousand Country Roads: An Epilogue to The Bridges of Madison
County,” Robert James Waller
“The Bridges of Madison County,” Robert James Waller
“The Glass Castle,” Jeannette Walls
“Stargazing,” Jen Wang
“Salvage the Bones,” Jesmyn Ward
“Numbers,” Rachel Ward
“Something Worth Saving,” Sandi Ward
“The Graduate,” Charles Webb
“Girl Boy Etc,” Michael Weinreb
“Chasing Harry Winston,” Lauren Weisberger
“Little Altars Everywhere: A Novel,” Rebecca Wells
“A Certain Slant of Light,” Laura Whitcomb
“The Professor and the Madman,” Simon Winchester
“Happiness Sold Separately,” Lolly Winston
“A Man in Full,” Tom Wolfe
“The Interestings,” Meg Wolitzer
“Turkish Delight,” Jan Wolkers
“Brighter than Gold,” Cynthia Wright
“Native Son,” Richard Wright
“Blu’s Hanging,” Lois-Ann Yamanaka
“Revolutionary Road,” Richard Yates
“Armageddon Summer,” Jane Yolen
“The Sun Is Also a Star,” Nicola Yoon
“Everything, Everything,” Nicola Yoon
“Nothing But Your Ski,” Cathy Ytak

Compiled by staff writer Richard Tribou. Source: List obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project and confirmed by Orange County Public Schools.

Categories Academic Freedom, Accountability, Censorship, DeSantis, Extremism, Fascism, Florida, Freedom to Read, Literacy, Literature

Maurice Cunningham on the Rise and Fall of Moms for Liberty

By dianeravitch
December 21, 2023 //
5

Maurice Cunningham, a retired professor who is a specialist in dark money in education politics, surveys the meteoric rise and fall of the rightwing group Moms for Liberty in The Progressive. First, the recently formed organization gathered plenty of publicity as a fearsome force censoring books, accusing teachers of “indoctrinating” students, attacking anything in the schools that acknowledged the existence of gay students or families, and opposing teachers unions. The Moms launched with a big budget, more than anyone could gather at a bake sale. But came the school board elections of 2023, and their candidates took a shellacking. Recently came news that one of their prominent co-founders, Bridget Ziegler, was caught in a sex scandal—a threesome—and the organization was publicly humiliated.

Maurice Cunningham wonders how this checkered organization will survive.

He writes:

On June 30, 2023, a Washington Post headline declared “Moms for Liberty didn’t exist three years ago. Now it’s a GOP kingmaker.” On November 10, 2023, after a raft of school board elections across the country, the Post ran another headline: “Voters drub Moms for Liberty ‘parental rights’ candidates at the ballot.” Moms for Liberty (M4L) not only didn’t make any kings, it didn’t even make many school board members. What happened?

The pre-election headline reflected the messaging skills that M4L has carefully honed to make itself more palatable. By November, however, the reality on the ground became clear.

To learn the origins and context of this group, open the link and read on. The article doesn’t mention the Ziegler sex scandal. Cunningham wrote about that in an article in the Tampa Bay Tribune, but it’s behind a paywall. The Moms are on a downhill slide as a result of their election losses, followed by Bridget’s bisexual tryst. Her ex-friends removed her name from the Moms website.

Categories Bigotry, Censorship, Cruelty, Dark Money, Democracy, DeSantis, Elections, Extremism, Failure, Florida, Freedom to Read, Gender, Hypocrisy
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