<
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-08-22/la-et-that-librarian-book>
"Amanda Jones is a Louisiana middle-school librarian who sleeps with a shotgun
under her bed and carries a pistol when she travels the back roads.
Threats against her began two years ago after she spoke out against censorship
and was drawn into the culture wars over book banning. She was condemned as a
pedophile and a groomer and accused of “advocating teaching anal sex to
11-year-olds.” The Christian right targeted her, and she found herself in the
news warning that conservatives in her state and across much of the country
were endangering libraries and intellectual freedom.
“I never expected any of this,” said Jones, who lives in Livingston Parish.
“It’s a huge weight to feel all that attention. I’m just a school librarian
from a two red-light town.”
Jones’ cautionary and disquieting testament to the nation’s divisiveness is
told in her new memoir, “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in
America,” a blunt, angry, searching and redeeming story about a woman engulfed
by forces and designs she never imagined. It is a glimpse into a family and a
small town that reads like a chapter out of “The Scarlet Letter” or “The
Crucible,” narratives whose themes of fear, superstition, rage and religion are
again permeating the nation’s political moment, including Republican vice
presidential candidate JD Vance’s recent comments that “Democrats want to put
sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries.”
“Our presidential election will determine how far it goes,” Jones said in an
interview. “If Trump is elected, Project 2025 [a 900-plus-page conservative
manifesto] will take root. It will ramp up the hate. We’ll see a large flight
of educators and librarians from their jobs. Trump’s made it OK for people to
hate and attack. I noticed it right after the George Floyd protests. People
started saying the quiet part out loud.”"
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
