The widow of a World War II veteran has compared the efforts of the state of Florida (USA) to ban some books on LGTBI and anti-racist themes in classrooms with Nazi Germany.
This is Grace Linn, who last Tuesday attended the meeting of the Martin County School Board to protest against this new regulation in Florida that censors gender discourse and critical theory of race in the classroom and that has been approved by Governor Ron DeSantis.
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“I’m 100 years old and I taught older students some computer skills at a high school,” Linn said in a speech criticizing DeSantis’ banning policy. “My husband, Robert Nichols, was killed in World War II at just 26 years old, defending our democracy, constitution and freedoms. One of the freedoms that the Nazis massacred was to read books, which they banned and burned.”
“The freedom to read, which is protected by the First Amendment, is an essential right and duty of our democracy. Yet it is under attack by public and private groups who think they have the truth. In response to this, the year last year I made this quilt,” Linn said as a man held up the stitched fabric with different book titles. “I have made it to remind all of us that these few of the many books that are being banned have to be protected and read by whoever chooses.” The quilt, the woman explained, appeared on national television as part of a campaign against the book ban.
“Burning books and banning books is the same. Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge. Fear is not freedom, it is control. My husband died as a father of freedom. I am a mother of freedom. Banned books should be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this.”
Under the law that censors books, all school materials must be pre-authorized by a “specialist.” Otherwise, teachers who break the law could face fines of up to $5,000 or even jail terms of up to five years. Since it was approved, several classrooms have emptied their shelves, as can be seen in some publications that parents and teachers have shared on social networks.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is establishing himself as an institutional champion of American neoconservatism. This kind of parental pin that censors certain titles in schools is part of a series of laws that violate the rights of minorities. Some measures against what he and the conservative and ultra-Catholic groups call woke thought (which could be translated as ‘progress’). DeSantis also proposes more restrictions on abortion, attacks on freedom of the press or the permission to carry weapons without licenses. He has yet to announce his candidacy for the 2024 Republican primary, but it is an open secret that could overshadow Donald Trump.
