Political Forums - Newly elected school board president sworn in on stack of banned books

"Pennsylvania’s Central Bucks School District was one of the places where Moms for Liberty lost big in the 2023 elections, with a right-wing school board majority swept out and replaced with Democrats. On Monday night, Karen Smith—who had been serving on the board in the Democratic minority prior to this election—was sworn in as the school board president, part of the wave of change from the anti-LGBTQ+, pro-book-banning board voted out in November. She made a powerful symbolic choice when it came to what book she’d be sworn in on: not the Bible or another religious book, but a stack of frequently banned books.

At the top of Smith’s pile of books was Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust survival memoir “Night,” a choice with particular local resonance. In January, after the board banned staff from advocating on “partisan, political, or social policy issues,” a Central Bucks librarian was told to remove the Wiesel quote, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

The other books Smith chose were: Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”; Donna Gephart’s “Lily and Dunkin,” which has a transgender main character; George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir about growing up Black and LGBTQ+; Mike Curato’s graphic novel “Flamer”; and Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta.”" DKos

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...&pm_medium=web

sniff, sniff. Kind of brings a tear to my eye.

Turns out one of the founders of 'moms for liberty' is quite the libertine her own self down in Florida. (grin)