opinion | Fighting the book ban: what we can do
To the editor:
Regarding “If You Care About Book Bans, You Should Follow This Lawsuit,” by Michelle Goldberg (column, nytimes.com, May 19):
There is something deeply disturbing about the freedom to choose what we think, what we read, who we love, what we do with our own bodies, and even who we choose to be.
Reading Ms. Goldberg’s column about the lawsuit against Florida’s Escambia County School District and Escambia County School Board over the book ban, I once again felt the outrage and despair of what can I do, how can I We help to stop this?
We must support the critical struggle of these parents, librarians and all people who believe that exposing yourself to different opinions and beliefs is not poisonous and will not poison the mind.
The deepest fear shared by book banners, homophobes, and misogynists is the terrifying possibility that reading and thinking can lead to questioning or even challenging long-held prejudices!
As Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward righteousness.”
Nancy Cole
Rockville, md.
To the editor:
Those who try to ban books because they don’t like what the books say should remember what the biblical story of Adam and Eve teaches us: forbidden fruit is always tempting.
I hope students will check out one of the available online lists of banned books so they can see what Big Brother doesn’t want them to read.
If the books have already been removed from the shelves of the local library, they can buy the books, read them and pass them on to their friends in samizdat style.
The students can then politely thank Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and others for their good recommendations, just in time for their summer reading.
Daniel Fink
Beverly Hills, California.
To the editor:
I don’t understand why in this Florida district the burden was placed on parents to choose that their children have access to limited titles in the school library. Those parents who object should be the ones opting out, if certain books make them uncomfortable.
Thirty years ago, when our son was in fourth grade, his teacher asked my physician husband to give an age-appropriate presentation on AIDS. The teacher warned all the parents in advance and offered them the chance to both talk to my husband and let their child go to the library during the session if they wanted to. During the presentation, the principal was present to ensure that the discussion went as promised.
The process was respectful to parents and students; the students who attended had smart and thoughtful questions.
What a contrast to the policies of this Florida district. Mislabeling certain books of forbidden fruit can make children embarrassed by normal, healthy curiosity.
Mary Rosenberg
Ardsley, NY
‘The hill we climb’, limited
To the editor:
Regarding “Florida School Restricts Access to Amanda Gorman’s Inauguration Poem” (nytimes.com, May 24):
A Florida parent objects to Amanda Gorman’s beautiful poem “The Hill We Climb,” and the school board bends like a coward by restricting access to it. A limited freedom is a denied freedom.
Send that parent back to the failing Florida school, along with the school board members who admitted to immature comments, and have them all write an essay: “What Makes America Great on the Hill We Climb.”
As the poem says:
The new dawn blooms as we free it
‘Cause there’s always light
If only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be.
Ted Lowenberg
San Francisco
The refusal of the Republicans to expel George Santos
To the editor:
On “GOP Leaders Should Hold Santos Accountable for Defrauding Voters” (editorial, May 21):
The editorial is right about the unprecedented scam George Santos perpetrated against voters in New York’s Third Congressional District. Yes, other elected officials have dishonored Congress, but Mr. Santos ran for Congress like an impostor, in costumes specially made to appeal to specific segments of our community.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy says Mr Santos’s eviction should follow previous processes. But as the editorial points out, Mr. Santos is an outlier. He never represented the ‘will of the people’. So those previous processes are not applicable.
The editorial highlights Representatives Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler and Tony Gonzalez for acknowledging what is at stake and speaking out. Yet they voted in return for expulsion and instead referred the Santos issue back to the House Ethics Committee, where it languished for three months.
The George Santos protecting Mr. McCarthy to reinforce his political weakness is not the Jewish, half-black, well-educated real estate magnate with family ties to Holocaust survivors we’ve chosen. The GOP must go beyond lip service to restore public confidence.
Jody Kas Finkel
Big Neck, NY
The writer is the founder and coordinator of Concerned Citizens of NY-03, organized to remove Mr. Santos from office.
To the editor:
The editorial explained why GOP leaders should hold Rep. George Santos accountable, then highlighted this question: Are members of Congress really willing to “risk their credibility for a crook”?
You can’t risk what you don’t have. Republican leaders have lost credibility because of their credulity and undying loyalty to one of the greatest con artists in American history – our 45th president, who is also the Republican Party’s leading nominee for the next presidential election.
Why shouldn’t they support this scammer as well?
Leslie D. Dye
Santa Fe, N.M
Win, lose and the rubble of Bakhmut
To the editor:
Re “Bakhmut falls to the Kremlin. What was won?” (front page, May 23):
Bakhmut’s rubble stands in stupid, stoic refutation of Donald Trump’s recent statement that he is not thinking about the war in Ukraine”in terms of winning and losing.”
The stark ruins of a once free and vibrant city underline the horrific loss: that of property, normality, peace, sovereignty, livelihoods, limbs and lives.
The losers are the brave people of Ukraine, even as they fight steadfastly for victory to secure the kind of victory that must come, even as many in the US embrace the abandonment of morality, decency and Trump’s noble quest for freedom.
Ukraine is and must remain our struggle if we want to remain true to our country’s core values and history.
If we withdraw now, we too will be among the losers.
Lawrence Freeman
Alameda, California