It's a shame that more people don't contemplate that thought in their present. Future history starts now.
The purge of books from Orange County Public Schools, in Orlando, over the course of the past semester is the latest consequence of a conservative movement across the country — and strongest in Florida — to rid public and school libraries of materials deemed offensive. While the vast majority of such challenged and removed books involve race, gender and sexuality, several Jewish books have previously been caught in the dragnet.
The Orange County case is unusual for the sheer volume of books removed — 699 including some duplicates, according to documents the district provided — and for the unusually large number of books about the Holocaust and Jewish identity included among them. They included:
– “Suite Française,” by Irène Némirovsky, a Ukrainian-French Jewish writer who wrote her novel in secret under German occupation before perishing in Auschwitz
– “Herzog,” a semi-autobiographical novel by Jewish writer Saul Bellow, an outspoken cultural conservative whose son Adam Bellow is a publisher of right-wing Jewish books
– “Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self,” by Rebecca Walker, feminist theorist and daughter of author Alice Walker, whose own antisemitic comments and writings have faced scrutiny in the past
– “Bee Season,” a novel about a high-achieving family of Jewish scholars and cantors, by Myra Goldberg
– “The Splendid and the Vile,” a nonfiction history book about Winston Churchill’s decision to fight Hitler’s forces during World War II, by Erik Larson
– The collected plays of Lillian Hellman, a Jewish playwright and left-wing activist who was accused of Communist activities
– “The Storyteller,” a novel dealing with the Holocaust by bestselling author Jodi Picoult
– “The Reader,” a German novel about the aftermath of the Holocaust by Bernhard Schlink
– “Sophie’s Choice,” a bestselling novel also about the aftermath of the Holocaust by William Styron
– “The Freedom Writers Diary,” a nonfiction compilation of several high school students’ diaries inspired by their teachers’ efforts to instruct them on the Holocaust and Anne Frank
“Books are removed from classrooms with deference to House Bill 1069,” district spokesperson David Ocasio told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, referring to a Florida law signed this year that heavily restricts instruction and classroom materials about human sexuality.
Other outwardly Jewish books on the list, including “The Reader” and Philip Roth’s “Portnoy’s Complaint,” contain explicit sexual content. Non-Jewish World War II novels “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Catch-22” were also pulled.
Among the hundreds of other books flagged for removal in the district were frequently challenged books like “Gender Queer” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” as well as literary standards like Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” and children’s fare like a book based on Disney’s “The Incredibles.” Some items were listed more than once.
Other districts in Florida this year have pulled an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary in order to comply with the state law.
I live in Florida. This is not unbelievable to me. Sadly.
https://popular.info/p/florida-school-d ... ctionariesFlorida school district removes dictionaries from libraries, citing law championed by DeSantis
The Escambia County School District, located in the Florida panhandle, has removed several dictionaries from its library shelves over concerns that making the dictionaries available to students would violate Florida law. The American Heritage Children's Dictionary, Webster's Dictionary for Students, and Merriam-Webster's Elementary Dictionary are among more than 2800 books that have been pulled from Escambia County school libraries and placed into storage. The Escambia County School District says these texts may violate HB 1069, a bill signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis (R) in May 2023.
HB 1069 gives residents the right to demand the removal of any library book that "depicts or describes sexual conduct," as defined under Florida law, whether or not the book is pornographic. Rather than considering complaints, the Escambia County School Board adopted an emergency rule last June that required the district's librarians to conduct a review of all library books and remove titles that may violate HB 1069.
Each school in Escambia County has thousands of titles. As a result, many school libraries were closed at the beginning of the school year pending the completion of the review.
School libraries do, yes.
Since Ayn Rand's books were among the ones pulled, maybe they will notice, or they'll just demand those back but Doug Adams books stay banned (yes, the school district no longer has their towels).
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/bill- ... ts-absurd/Bill O’Reilly Outraged After School District Pulls His Books Under Florida Law He Supported: ‘It’s Absurd’
Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly fumed against a Florida school district’s decision to pull two of his books while officials determine whether they run afoul of a state law he supported.
Escambia County School District has at least temporarily removed more than 1,000 titles from its shelves because those books have been “alleged to contain pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct.” Those include O’Reilly’s Killing Jesus: A History and Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the law in March 2022.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen some books in some of these libraries, I mean you’re talking about kids in middle school, some of the stuff that has ended up there is incredibly, incredibly disturbing stuff,” DeSantis said at the time.
Reached for comment by Newsweek on Friday, O’Reilly expressed his displeasure.
“It’s absurd,” he told the publication. “Preposterous.”
He added:
O’Reilly said he still supports the law, but added that the removal of his books is an abuse of the law.When DeSantis signed the book law, I supported the theme because there was abuse going on in Florida. There were far-left progressive people trying to impose an agenda on children, there’s no doubt about it. And the state has an obligation to protect children. But the wording of the law was far too nebulous in Tallahassee…
So, that law needs to be tightened up, DeSantis needs to come out publicly and say ‘this is insane, we’re not going to cooperate with this and we’re going to investigate the people who did it.
“I want to emphasize the fact that there are abuses in certain school districts that harm children,” he said. “There are materials that are inappropriate and those materials have to be specifically included in the law with language that is very specific.”
The pundit also took to X/Twitter where he wrote, “This will not stand.”
yup - ban books with all that nasty sex ed, while they have free access to all the smut on the interwebs
The tide turns on Florida book bans
JUDD LEGUM
But now, things in Florida are changing. Republicans in the Florida House have proposed legislation that would make it more difficult for people to challenge books en mass. The legislation, which has already cleared two committees with Republican support, is an implicit acknowledgment that book banning in Florida schools has gone too far. It also suggests that the enormous number of books being taken off the shelves of Florida schools has become a political problem for Florida Republicans.
The majority of book challenges in the United States came from 11 people. Two of the most prolific, Bruce Friedman and Vicki Baggett, hail from Florida. Friedman and Baggett have each challenged hundreds of books in Clay and Escambia County, respectively. (Baggett has challenged more books in Santa Rosa County.) Over half of all book objections in Florida during the 2022-3 school year came from Clay and Escambia County.
Friedman and Baggett frequently challenge books that include LGBTQ characters or discuss the existence of racism, whether or not the books include any sexual content. Baggett previously told Popular Information that she challenged And Tango Makes Three — a book about two male penguins who raise a baby chick in the Central Park Zoo — because she was concerned "a second grader would read this book, and that idea would pop into the second grader's mind… that these are two people of the same sex that love each other."
This month, Florida Representative Dana Trabulsy (R), the chair of the House Education Quality Subcommittee, introduced legislation (HB 7025) that "authorizes school districts to assess a processing fee of $100 for each objection to a material by a resident or parent whose student is not enrolled in the school where the material is located." The new fee would apply "to each objection after the first 5." (The bill also makes changes on a variety of other educational matters.)
Baggett has challenged 193 books in Escambia County. Had Trabulsy's legislation been in place, Baggett would have been required to pay $18,800 to submit her challenges.
"I’m happy that we are digging in and trying to remove reading material that is inappropriate for our children," Trabulsy told Politico. "But I think [book challengers] really need to be respectful of the amount of books that they are pouring into schools at one time."
Friedman did not respond to a request for comment about the new legislation. He told Action News Jax that "[t]he fees bill will not pass into law" because it would be "political suicide for a conservative." Even if the bill did pass, Friedman said, "it will fail to stop my efforts." Baggett did not respond to a request for comment.
The House Education Quality Subcommittee is comprised of 14 Republicans and 4 Democrats. The committee voted to approve Trabulsky's bill on a vote of 17 to 1. The bill also cleared the House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee, another body dominated by Republicans, on a vote of 16-0. The bill still has a number of hurdles to clear and similar legislative language has not been proposed in the Florida Senate. But it does appear to have the support of Florida House Speaker Paul Renner (R). A spokesman for Renner said he hoped the bill would "weed out the possibility of abuse in the process, encouraging only legitimate claims to be brought forward for review."
Many of the Florida Republicans now voting to limit book bans have close ties to DeSantis. It appears they no longer believe championing the removal of school library books is a political winner.
The dragnet in Escambia County has even snared two books by right-wing pundit Bill O'Reilly. He is not happy about it and declared that "things are getting crazy with book banning in Florida." O'Reilly told Newsweek that Florida's approach is "absurd" and "preposterous." According to O'Reilly, "the wording of the law was far too nebulous in Tallahassee" and "DeSantis needs to come out publicly and say 'this is insane, we're not going to cooperate with this and we're going to investigate the people who did it.'"
Real change in Florida's school libraries would require repealing HB 1069 and putting into place safeguards to prevent abuse. In Colorado, for example, new legislation would "require all materials to remain on shelves and accessible during a challenge" and mandate that "decisions made to the acquisition or removal of materials or displays cannot be discriminatory."
If this change is approved, let the librarians do a bold move and reinstate banned books and then ask for the fees to have them re-banned ...Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 10:04 am BOOK BAN BITES FLORIDA REPUBS IN B*TT!!!!!!
https://open.substack.com/pub/popularin ... -book-bans
The tide turns on Florida book bans
JUDD LEGUM
This month, Florida Representative Dana Trabulsy (R), the chair of the House Education Quality Subcommittee, introduced legislation (HB 7025) that "authorizes school districts to assess a processing fee of $100 for each objection to a material by a resident or parent whose student is not enrolled in the school where the material is located." The new fee would apply "to each objection after the first 5." (The bill also makes changes on a variety of other educational matters.)
Baggett has challenged 193 books in Escambia County. Had Trabulsy's legislation been in place, Baggett would have been required to pay $18,800 to submit her challenges.
Judd Legum @JuddLegum wrote: Replying to @JuddLegum
2. Since its initial publication in 1970, millions of children have read In The Night Kitchen.
The book is about a young boy who has a surreal dream about baking a cake
@Moms4Liberty challenged the book in Indian River County Florida, claiming it was pornographic
3. As a result, In The Night Kitchen was removed from school libraries. Jennifer Pippin, the local @Moms4Liberty chair who filed the challenge, says she then met with the district Superintendent. They agreed to resolve the complaint by adding clothes to Sendak's drawings.
Fred Wellman @FPWellman wrote: This is a Republican running for Secretary of State in Missouri. She took books from the Springfield Library and burned them. This is the Missouri Republican Party in a nutshell. They are lunatics and frauds with no agenda but hate.Brittany @prideforMO wrote: Valentina Gomez came to @springfieldlib Friday for a book reading and decided to take these books from our shelves and burn them with her homemade flame thrower.
Ive never seen someone unravel so quickly.
Sawyer Hackett @SawyerHackett wrote: Yikes. In a new ad, a GOP candidate for Missouri Sec. of State uses a flamethrower to burn books—promising to burn books she doesn’t like in the public libraries.
It’s to be hard for Republicans to say they don’t want to ban books in 2024.
