In no way, shape, or form does the opinion of this writer align with the views or opinions of Ridgeview News. While I believe in the rights of Freedom of Speech covered by the 1st Amendment, I also believe that the Publisher and Staff of the Calhoun Chronicle has the right to determine publication placement, importance and relativeness to their readers. – Shari Johnson, Publisher
Submitted by Deirdre Purdy
Why are Republicans so Scared of the Written Word?
I’ve been writing this weekly column for the Calhoun Chronicle (and elsewhere) for months. The office manager who lays out the paper always hides it among the press releases and USDA news.
Last week, I objected to a column on page 2 of the Chronicle that stated that mRNA Covid vaccines make a person a “genetically modified organism.” I asked the office manager if she could print that up front with the other columns as it was both a public service and pointed out a serious, dangerous error in her newspaper.
Instead, she found a better place to hide the column, at the tail end of the Legal Notices. Even I had a hard time finding it. So, good work, I guess.
Why are Republicans so scared of the written word?
From 2022 to 2023, right-wing demands by parents and politicians that books be banned from classrooms and libraries are escalating.
The most active book-banning group is the very conservative Moms for Liberty. The “Liberty” is their freedom to impose their views on others.
Funny thing – on their website they claim to “oppose government overreach.” Yet, they use legislative and authoritarian bans to impose their own moralistic views of what children and young adults should never read.
They ban in the name of parental rights. No one objects to parents deciding what their own children should read. But these Moms are deciding what no students should read. Not just their kids, but your kids and all kids.
A list of the 51 books most banned recently (USA Today) includes books about sexual orientation, suicide, bullying, drugs, poverty, racism, school shooting, autism, war, domestic violence, atheism, slavery, colonialism, murder, dystopia, sex, puberty, teen pregnancy, abortion, sexual assault, White supremacy, patriarchy, theocracy, fundamentalist religion, science fiction, apartheid, magic, death, and grief,
That is a lot to whitewash out of humanity and history. These kids better not be allowed to read a newspaper either or watch the TV news.
Children can be killed in a school shooting, but they best not read about it. Bullying is rampant, but books should not mention it. 50% of our county school kids live with grandparents due to the opioid epidemic, but they can’t read about that either. Most teenagers worry about puberty and I’ll guarantee they’re thinking about sex, but written words about these subjects are all too dangerous.
Children want and need to read about real lives like their own and their hopes, fears, concerns, and situations.
The topics of life itself in the 21st century are being blanked out. If protecting children from reality is the goal, why are these moms not seeking to ban video games, TV shows, music, movies, and cell phones?
I suspect it’s because reading requires engagement, attention, and perseverance. No book ever jumped off a shelf and leapt into a student’s mind. And because reading requires mental work, the ideas you read become part of your knowledge base.
You will hear it’s “for the children.” Don’t let the children get ideas! But getting ideas is just what education – and newspapers – are supposed to be about.
The written word is powerful. Support the freedom to read. Ban book banning.
Deirdre Purdy – Chairperson, Calhoun County Democratic Executive Committee
Accuse the other side of what you are actually actively doing- a longtime tactic of the left. Utterly mind-boggling- “conservatives are banning and censoring”? when it is the left who have deplatformed silenced banned censored and even imprisoned Christians and conservatives for thought not in lock step with them. Attempting to malign parents for speaking up against actual pornography and confusing gender propaganda being forced upon small children- I urge everyone to actually look up Moms For Liberty’s website and see what they actually stand for and are fighting against. Those on the left are attempting to indoctrinate OUR children and grandchildren with sick attacks on the very ideals most of us live by and believe in- it is not difficult to find out who has been promoting child sexual mutilation and false gender ideology- in truth, parents have been banned, shouted down and even arrested for trying to read some of the pornographic material in childrens’ textbooks. One father was arrested after his daughter was raped by a transgender boy who attacked her in the girls ‘ bathroom. The left wants to demonize us for standing up for what is right, true and normal and want to label US as the ones silencing voices when in fact it was and always has been them. WE believe in freedom of speech for all, not some, and WE have suffered their slings and arrows for standing up for that freedom
Thank you, Cheryl, for your response to the hateful and disingenuous viewpoint expressed by the Chairman of the Democrats in Calhoun County. She insulted a very large percentage of the moms in our country merely because they are standing up for their children and the children of others. Your description of what Ms. Purdy claims to be extremist views about pornography and gender mutilation being taught in schools is spot on. Deirdre’s views expressed in her article I am sure are not shared by most Calhouners and has resulted in over 50% of Democrats switching parties in the past six years as evidenced by party registrations provided by the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office.