One of the books that is currently banned in Florida is “The
Hill we Climb”. Naturally, I put it on reserve at the local library, and picked
it up a few days ago. Since it is only 32 pages long, it is a very quick secret.
Here’s a news flash for you:
There is NOTHING in the book that is remotely controversial.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/books/review/amanda-gorman-the-hill-we-climb-best-seller.html
Since book bans usually lead to unintended consequences, Amanda
Gorman’s book was the #1 fiction best seller in early April.
Most people are award of the fact that she read her poetry at
Joe Biden’s inauguration AND at the Super Bowl. In January, Penguin Random House announced that because
of the "overwhelming demand" and presales, "The Hill We
Climb," with a foreword from Oprah Winfrey, would give the book a first
printing of one million copies, which quickly turned into 1.5
million.
The Harvard graduate and
National Youth Poet Laureate, 23, was the youngest inaugural poet in U.S.
history, the first poet to write and perform an original poem for the Super Bowl, and now her book, "The Hill We
Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country," is the first book of
poetry to debut at No. 1 on USA TODAY’s
Best-Selling Books list.
And not just debut, but the first book of poetry to even claim the
top spot on the list since its inception in October 1993.
So why is her book, (and numerous others) banned in Florida?
You can blame Florida’s Fuhrer, Ron DeSantis, who is determined
to stamp out “woke” (whatever the hell that is), but he is also supported by a
group named Moms for Liberty.
The group is influential within the Republican
Party. Many of the group's chapters across the U.S. have forged
close ties to right-wing extremist groups, including the Proud Boys and Three Percenters, as well as sovereign citizen, QAnon,
and Christian nationalist organizations. In
2023, the Southern
Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks
extremists, termed Moms for Liberty a far-right extremist
organization.
Moms for Liberty has been criticized for harassment, for deepening
divisions among parents, for making students' education more difficult, and for
having close ties to the Republican Party rather than being a genuine grassroots effort. The group was labeled
an "anti-government extremist" organization in 2023 by the Southern
Poverty Law Center
Moms for Liberty was co-founded in Florida on January 1, 2021, by
former school board members
Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, and by then-current school board member
Bridget Ziegler. By late 2021, Ziegler had left the organization. Republican activist
and campaign consultant Marie Rogerson is the third-leading member of Moms for
Liberty. Descovich receives a stipend as Moms for Liberty's executive director.
Descovich conceived of the organization in the fall of 2020, after losing
a seat she had held on the Brevard County school
board in a primary to former district employee Jennifer Jenkins, who campaigned
against Descovich's opposition to mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic and teacher raises Voter
turnout was higher among Republicans than Democrats county-wide.
As of their first national gathering in Tampa, Florida, on July 14–17, 2022, Moms for
Liberty claimed to have 195 chapters in 37 states and nearly 100,000 members
What books has Florida banned?
According to the article
below, more than 350 books have been banned in Florida, and the article below lists
the specific books that have been banned. I’ve read 5 of them, and one of them is
“To Kill a Mockingbird”. A year after its publication, To
Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Florida, of course, is not the only state to ban books.
More than a 1,000 books
have been banned in 86 school districts in
26 states across the United States, a new PEN America analysis shows.
PEN America, a
literary and free expression advocacy organization, released a detailed analysis on Thursday of challenges to
and bans on school library books and class curriculums. The group said it
documented media reports, consulted school district websites, and spoke
with librarians, authors
and teachers from July 31, 2021, to March 31, 2022.
According to PEN
America, in that period, there were 1,586 books banned. Texas led the country
with the most book bans – 713 – affecting 16 school districts, followed by
Pennsylvania and Florida with 456 and 204 bans, respectively. PEN America
describes a book ban as “any action taken against a book based on its content”
that leads to the removal or restriction of a previously accessible book. The
analysis includes book removals or restrictions that lasted at least a day, the
group says.
Politicians and
school board members have played a significant role in book banning, PEN
America says. At least 41% of book bans were linked to directives from state
officials or elected lawmakers.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has
pressured school boards to remove what he calls “pornography” from school
libraries. Meanwhile in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill late last
month that requires school libraries to post more information about their
collections and seek community input on materials they acquire.
The book bans
“have become a favorite tool for state-wide and national political
mobilization” with groups such as Moms for Liberty, a
conservative group whose “mission is to organize, educate and empower parents,”
curating lists of books to be challenged and urging parents to mobilize, the
analysis says.
The group also found that at least 96% of the
bans were initiated by school administrators or board members and that for
the most part, school officials did not follow existing guidelines, raising
“serious concerns,” it said.
The report
also states that school officials were not transparent or made “opaque or ad
hoc decisions” before removing book titles.
Suzanne
Nossel, CEO of PEN America, said the wave of book bans represents a troubling
retreat from America’s historic commitment to First Amendment rights.
“By
short-circuiting rights-protective review processes, these bans raise serious
concerns in terms of constitutionality, and represent an affront to the role of
our public schools as vital training grounds for democratic citizenship that
instill a commitment to freedom of speech and thought,” Nossel said.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/07/us/book-bans-pen-america-analysis/index.html
As you know by know, I am opposed to book bans, and my reasons for that opinion can be found in the article below:
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2022/01/
In March of 2023, a teacher’s union in Florida sued the Florida Department of Education over a new law that made book bans easier to achieve. Since teachers and librarians can be fined, or charged with a crime over this issue, it’s an important step to take.
If you don’t live in a state that has book bans, you can’t vote
out the politicians involved, but you can read as many banned books as
possible.
Ron DeSantis is one of the leading GOP candidates for the 2024 presidential race. Although I’m usually careful about expressing my political views, one thing is clear.
It’s obvious that you would have to be crazy to vote
for the guy.
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15 or 20 years ago, I could make up poems at the drop of the hat, and I have managed to save copies of a few of them. However, you don’t need to be a literary genius to write poetry.
All you
need is a computer.
BING just
added a feature where you can use artificial intelligence to write poetry.
Inspired
by a picture of a lighthouse in Majorca, I asked BING to write a poem about a
lighthouse keeper, and this is what I got:
***********************************************
The lighthouse keeper stands alone, A
beacon in the night, He keeps the ships from danger, And guides them to the
light.
He spends his
days in solitude, With only gulls for friends, But when the night comes
creeping in, His vigil never ends.
He watches
o’er the stormy seas, And through the darkest night, He keeps the light burning
bright, A symbol of his might.
For though he
may be all alone, He knows that he is strong, And when the ships come safely
home, He knows he’s done no wrong.
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