Tag: book banning

The Moms of Coercion Have Made Progress in Carroll County. We Can’t Let That Happen Here.

fclocalyokel8 Comments
NOOOOO!

Right over the border in Carroll County the Moms of Liberty (snicker, barf), got 39 books removed from CCPS while a Reconsideration Committee decides their fate. You can peruse the whole list here, but of course your friendly Lady Yokels are going to give you some examples.

Yes that Wicked!

Our hearts just hurt watching this. We are going to assume that many of our followers are readers, and we therefore we want you to remember back to your high school days and to that book that changed you. Think about all of the books that have changed you in some way, and then imagine a bunch of non-readers (yeah we are going to go ahead and make that assumption with a whole lotta confidence) tried to take those books away. What part of you wouldn’t exist because you hadn’t read that book?

Moms of Liberty formed as a protest group to all of the Covid-19 restrictions they believed were unnecessary. These so-called “joyful warriors” (yes that’s the same language our very own local book banner, Cindy Rose, likes to use) needed to find another cause to keep that cash flowing when all the restrictions lifted. So, they decided to go after diversity (which they ignorantly call CRT) in the curriculum( or more accurately American History) and LGBTQ+ folks. They’ve pushed themselves into the national spotlight in such a way that Republican Presidential candidates believe they have to court these folks. They even presented Ron DeSantis with his very own liberty sword! How Nice!

When books are written about the collapse of American Civilization, that will be on the cover.

This group of bored Covid deniers have recently been labeled an extremist group by the Southern Law Poverty Center because:

“What we’ve been watching really closely around this particular group… [are] times when they show up with other groups that have explicitly advocated or committed intimidations and violence,” Hiller said. “There are cases at school boards in North Carolina, for example, where Moms for Liberty showed up together with Proud Boys and were part of intimidating the school board.” Carroll Rivas echoed this observation.

“Their organizing is quite concerning for how it harms communities, but also because of the associations with other hard right groups that they’ve really had since their inception,” she said.

Some members of Moms for Liberty chapters have also been accused — and in at least one case, convicted ā€” of harassment.

And, hmmm, weren’t they popping up around here last election…..

Two of those ladies still pop up at school board meetings to promote anti-inclusionary measures.

We need to keep our school board sane as we’ve already heard about some of the folks gearing up for a run next time and IT IS NOT GOOD. Our school system is currently reviewing books because of Cindy Rose et al. and we all need to stand up to make sure this nonsense goes no further. These conservative groups are trying to destroy American education. First, they do things like tell people the schools are making white kids feel bad about themselves, or allowing them to find out that gay people actually exist. Then they sow so much doubt and get people all riled up (remember when folks around here spread the rumor that kindergarteners were being taught about anal sex because we sure as hell do) and then they take over the school board. Afterwards, the curriculum is dumbed down to the point that the kids in that district have a tough time making in the world outside of the county they grew up in.(And if you don’t think this has happened do some reading on the old coal towns. Coal executives sat on those school boards and do you think academics were emphasized by people who needed the local population to go into the mines? Not at all.)Throw on top of that the feeling amongst many elite Republican donors that public schools should all be privatized so they can make a pretty dime on them! It’s all a recipe for disaster!

We sure hope this guy is right:

But, we still don’t want to see things get this far in Frederick County.

There are a couple of groups besides the Moms of Liberty working towards hurting kids and dumbing down our school curriculums. Make sure you stay alert to these threats. We know it’s exhausting, but we can’t let them win.

Local Yokel Legislating Time! Time to Fight Back Against the Pearl Clutchers!

fclocalyokel7 Comments
And it can hurt everyone else around them.

There’s a whole potpourri of dumb shittery going on in this country. Most of it in Florida, because durh. If you haven’t heard about the firing of a principal because some ignoramus didn’t want their child to look at art, take a look here.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/29/1166735136/visitors-flock-to-see-michelangelos-david-sculpture-after-school-uproar-in-flori

Besides the appalling amount of time someone must have on their hands to complain about a naked statue from the Renaissance, it’s embarrassing to the rest of us. According the above referenced article the statue is getting a lot of visitors lately. And we don’t have to stretch our imaginations too far to imagine many of those visitors are snickering at us prudish Americans. Even though, in reality, a vast majority of us are not bothered by stone figures of men. This Lady Yokel remembers taking my children to the Walters Art gallery to look at art. There were many naked statues and my then preschool-aged daughter asked why one of the boy statues had a tail. Not only did she get a lesson in anatomy, we have a fun family memory that we will never forget! No way I was pulling a John Ashcroft and asking the museum to cover up the stone genitalia.

Florida once again came into the news this week when one parent’s complaint caused a documentary about Ruby Bridges to be removed from a school district while the district reviewed the film. To spread the love around it’s not just Florida, though they do seem to be very special down there. We also have one person (cough, cough Cindy Rose), who has complained about some books we know she hasn’t read. As a result of her complaint a whole bunch of people are on a committee, and do you know what they have to do that Cindy didn’t? READ THE BOOKS!

Reading isn’t boring, people who don’t read are boring.

Dr. Jason Johnson and Randi Weingarten spoke on MSNBC’s Deadline White House yesterday about this very issue. Dr. Johnson made the point that local districts need to pass laws that prevent one person, who may not even live in the district where they are making the complaint, from removing books, movies, or art from schools and libraries. That statement got the old Yokel noggin thinking!

It’s time for some new legislation!

We propose that Frederick County Public Schools and Frederick County Public Libraries adopt the following policies:

  1. In order for a book, film, lesson, or art to come under review 10 community members need to make a complaint.
  2. That complaint should include the following:
  • A written synopsis of the media or lesson to prove the complainant is familiar with what they are complaining about.
  • A thorough analysis of the harm found in said media.
  • Peer reviewed research that backs up the harm claim.
  • Proof that the person making a complaint is from the local community AND is personally affected (parent, guardian, staff member, student, etc.) by the so called harmful media.

3. If you can’t do what is listed under #2, rethink your life choices. Because maybe you are the fucking problem.

We admit that the local authorities may have to clean the language a bit, but hey it’s a start! We need to fight back against the nutbaggery, because we don’t know about you, but we are tired of their shit.

Don’t let this be our future.

Cindy demands hundreds of books be removed from FCPS libraries! By December!

fclocalyokel1 Comment
You know we are in trouble when there are handouts!

Chicken Little, AKA Cindy Rose, showed up at Wednesday night’s BOE meeting–with handouts! “What’s on those papers,” you may ask. A list of over 300 books she wants removed. She tells the board that it’s bad enough you’ve taught our kids that gender is a social construct and all the horrible “CRT,” (more commonly recognized by rational people as non ethnocentric history), but now she says the board is sexualizing our children.

Go to this link, navigate to the October 12th Board Meeting, click the Skagit video icon, and skip ahead to 2:30:19 to see this horror show for yourself.

She warns the parents in the room to get their kids out because she’s going to make the most uncomfortable public comment she’s ever made…and she’s made a lot!

Buckle up!

She reads two very sexually graphic passages from two books (she previously mentions that some of the books on her list are unacceptable because they contain vulgar language), one that she claims is in middle school and another that she doesn’t identify the grade level, but it’s high school.(It’s from the book PUSH which is a true story that was made into a major blockbuster.) It’s kind of funny to hear her read this stuff because it is making her squirm.

LOL!

She’s also upset that kids(high schoolers) can read about Jeffrey Dahmer and other things that have happened in real life. She demands that the board remove all 360 books on her list by December. And she will be at the Curriculum and Instruction meeting over library books and they better damn well have an explanation on how each and every book got on that list and what they are going to do make sure that anything that violates Cindy’s sense of morality never makes it to a bookshelf again.

And let us remind you that her sense of morality was violated by this book:

Yes folks, she complained to the school system about Click, Clack, Moo! We are asking that one of board members send us that list!!! Please, please send us that list!

Don’t be fooled by this woman, she found the most alarming passages she could, and then read them out of context just to get everyone all riled up. (I mean this woman needs a job, not on the BOE, but something to keep herself nice and busy!) Just because a book is challenging to her exclusionary white Christian heterosexual world-view does not make it bad.

And this isn’t her first time trying to ban books, read here for more.

We’d like to close with this quote from a column written by a conservative former Republican as food for thought:

“I found breaking with my party to be a painful but liberating experience, and she [Liz Cheney] might, too. Leaving the GOP made me realize how much I missed by looking at the world through a partisan lens. In particular, I was willfully blind to what the Republican Party had become long before Trump came along. The racism, the nativism, the hostility to science, the conspiracy-mongering, the cruelty, the willingness to win at all costs: None of it is new. Trump did not invent these malign trends. He merely accelerated them.”

Cindy is an example of this acceleration. And an accelerant. Don’t let her burn it all down.