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Scottie's Playtime 
Here’s a bit of an antidote to Speaker Johnson. There are live hyperlinks and links on the page. The original plan really hurt my heart as a former Book Fair chair and continuing bibliophile.
https://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/people-for-the-american-way-applauds-scholastics-reversal-on-book-segregation/
People For the American Way Applauds Scholastic’s Reversal on Book Segregation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 25, 2023
Contact: Press Department at People For the American Way
Email: media@pfaw.org
Phone Number: 202-467-4999
Washington D.C. – People For the American Way today applauded children’s book publisher Scholastic’s reversal of its decision to remove or segregate books at school book fairs. Scholastic had said it would banish books about race, gender or sexuality to a separate section at school book fairs or eliminate the books entirely. Following intense public pressure from groups including People For the American Way, Scholastic has apologized and now says it will not put these books in a separate catalog or section. People For the American Way President Svante Myrick released the following statement:
“The leadership at Scholastic has made the right decision, and we applaud them for putting the well-being of kids ahead of the harmful political agendas of censors and book-banners. At the same time, we have to recognize that the far-right political pressures that Scholastic struggled with have not gone away. Scholastic reports that more than 30 states have introduced or passed laws to ban books about gender and racial diversity in schools. This is unacceptable. We know that most Americans are against book banning and censorship. We are proud to have been among those who raised our voices in strong opposition to Scholastic’s initial decision to accommodate the censors, and we will continue to fight censorship and applaud Scholastic and others when they join us in that fight.”
People For the American Way had launched a petition against the Scholastic policy, which received nearly 8 thousand signatures in its first week.
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About People For the American Way
People For the American Way, a national progressive advocacy organization, inspires and mobilizes community and cultural leaders to advance Truth, Justice and the American Way. We convene courageous Americans, produce compelling media and organize campaigns to defend our democracy from authoritarian threats and advance America’s promise that everyone will enjoy freedom, safety and a vote that counts. Learn more: http://www.pfaw.org
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Hi Ali. Great story. We have to push back and hard against this small minority that are trying to take over the US and drive all of us to the 1950s and then to a religious take over. They show their hypocrisy when they ban books with no sexual content but a gay character while insisting on keeping the Christian Bible in schools. That happened recently here in Florida, where the bible was challenged along with books having gay people in them. The books with gay characters were removed but the bible with all its sex and violence was returned to the school shelves. It is now clear what the goal is, not to protect kids, but to insist on an indoctrination of children in a hateful mindset.
A personal story that really hurt me at the time. I had a friend in JR high. After all I had been through I was not really reaching out for friendships, but Doug and I seemed to get along and really enjoy being with each other. So at 14 years old, I decided to tell him I was gay. One of in a long list of very bad decisions I made. We sat in the Jr High lunchroom at a table having lunch and I explained I wanted to share something with him. I told him I was gay. I am glad I stopped there because the next day he saw me, handed me a folded paper and said we were not friends, and he never wanted me near him again. He said he told his mother he had a friend at school who told him he was gay. He said his mother and him prayed and she wrote this note to give me. He said I was to stay away from him from now on. He said his mom told him I was sick and had a demon and would infect him if he was around me.
After he walked away I opened the paper. On it was a screed about how being gay was an abomination according to god, along with a list of bible verses. The note informed me that I was going to burn in hell and that only god could save me. Remember all that had been going on. I had just spent a summer in Canada being beaten and forced to give nearly daily blow jobs. I did not have family nor people I hung out with, I only had a couple kids I would call friends. And the one I felt closest to had just turned on me all because of his religion telling him to shun me. Well his religion or his parents or his church, it doesn’t matter. I was crushed and stunned. Think of how different that day would have been if he had reached out to me, told me it was OK, gave me a hug. If he had invited me to his church, I would eagerly have gone. But instead, his god drove me away.
Sorry Ali. I shouldn’t have written all this to you. You are a grand person and don’t need this. But to me this is what religion does. It took away one of the few people I could have talked to of my abuse, maybe it would have stopped if that family had wanted me a gay kid as a friend. After that I did not even try for friends, I never spoke of being gay or being abused. I sucked everything in and led a lonely, solitary life. I was a smart kid whose grades barely let him pass each year, who often missed as much school as he attended, who left home abuse and sore, walked the halls of the school numb, in pain, afraid, seeing the world of people moving around me having what I wished I could be part of but knowing it was not for me. Then going back home after each school day to more abuse.
Sorry Ali. I don’t normally share these memories but today it wears on me. With the surging religious take over of the US, with books I really needed and did not have, with the threat of the ending of help for kids like me I am so close to breaking I don’t know what to do. Again I ask if Doug had embraced me, taken me to meet his family, had kept being the friend of an abused 14-year-old boy who was often raped before going to school, would my life had changed? Would his life have changed? Hugs. Scottie
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His like may not have changed, but yours could have, at least a bit. I’m sorry. And no worries about writing this here. I’m a friend and ally always, FWIW.
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OK, several hours later, that’s supposed to be life, not like, in the 1st sentence. Maybe you did what I do, and read what I meant instead of the typo, but I saw it over on the column to the side-> blush
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Hi Ali. Yes my mind supplies the word from the context of the sentence also. I proofread what I type and normally I catch stuff. But it always seems that right after I hit send and the comment posts that I then see any errors or goofs. I wish that WordPress had a system like Disqus that you can correct your comment with an edit after you post it and after you do edit it a little edited shows up on the bottom of the comment.
On the rest, I have often wondered what happened to him. Did he go on to become a fundamentalist bigot, did he leave the church? Oh well, I guess I will never know. Thank you for being so kind and nice. You are the kind of person the US needs more of these days. Hugs. Scottie
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