Book banning reunion this summer!

Thanks to AR (0.00 / 0)

For pointing out the math error. Events of Spring of 1974 were 35 years ago.

If you need details on how to get there, visit: http://www.kanawhatextbookwar....

---

by: Clem Guttata @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 20:38:58 PM UTC

Kanawha county book protest reunion (4.00 / 4)

There should be picketeers protesting the reunion.  

Everyone who had to cross their picket lines and who had to evacuate a school building because of a bomb threat should be there to let them know they didn't win.   They need to know they are not admired.  

If I weren't going to be out of town the day of the reunion, I would be there with a "I read banned books" T-shirt and a few signs.  

---

by: weary traveler @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 22:09:26 PM UTC

Let's not be too casual about what's going on. (4.00 / 2)

My wife taught at Piedmont Elementary at the time, where the whole thing started.  People ended going to jail for a long time. Two folks were shot dead, many bomb threats were made against schools, and someone even tried to assassinate the Kanawha School Board with a bomb.

She remembers local ministers marching with the Klan over books they hadn't even read and which didn't contain most of the things they were supposed to have contained.

According to a post by Cyberpaw over on Hippykiller's Fifth Column

the "Heritage Foundation" came to church basements with a slide-show, making untrue claims about what the new textbooks contained. It was the experimental run of the Lee Atwater scheme to turn the Southern Baptist Convention, which had previously been mostly apolitical, "in the world, but not of the world," into a permanent arm of the GOP. From there, 1980, and all that followed found root and grew.

This "reunion" will be an attempt to re-connect some really pernicious right-wing activists. Can there be any doubt that its timing roughly coincides with the "special meetings" called by Jermiah G. Dys' WV Family Policy Council going on this week over gay marriage at our statehouse?

Stirring the whole gay controversy in light of the fact that WV alredy doesn't recognize gay marriage is a variation of the old "southern strategy", except they've substituted homophobia in place of racial bigotry. I'm sure most WV Blue readers realize that the Southern Strategy is a common tactic which has been effectively used by right wingers for years to get the poor and middle class to vote against their own interests.

What I predict will come from Dys' special WV legislative session hearings is a political bludgeon for "conservative" (aka "Big Coal") candidates to use against the few progressive WV lawmakers we have left.

It is notable that Jeremiah Dys' holier-than-thou "Family Policy Council" has never once lobbied or tried to raise awareness for poor and needy families.
I strongly suspect that its because they're the Appalachian tentacle of the "Christian" Mafia.

The legislative special session meeting over gay marriage in WV has reportedly been been set for 11 a.m. July 14 in the Senate Judiciary Committee room.  I'd just like to know who scheduled it and what reason they gave for doing so.

---

by: One Citizen @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 22:51:44 PM UTC