Why Red States Grow Stupid People

 

If you remember me when I was a child you will see an unkempt, shy, head down, slinking girl with a book in her hand. Always a book, as if it was another appendage. My parents never told me I couldn't read a certain book. I'm not sure they even looked to see. I don't even recall the Sisters of No Mercy giving me the stink eye regarding the choice of my reading material. They surely knew what I was reading. If I wasn't wasting precious time learning math my face was in a book. Libraries were not an option except when the whole neighborhood came out to meet the bookmobile. Unfortunately, that lasted one glorious summer. So, where did I get my reading material? The Scholastic book list for one. My mom's bookshelf, books found in boxes in our garage. I don't know. I just know I had one. I weep for the children who live in Red states like Tennessee which has recently banned a number of books I've read as a child, along with most LGBTQ and books about the Holocaust. 

And we shake our heads and wonder why Trump's lemmings are so gullible, so easily led. They don't know how to think for themselves. They prefer a man who looks confident as lie after lie spews from his mouth. I'm not a religious person but laws have mercy, thank-you mommy and daddy for not living in a red state. We lived in the bluest of the Midwest, where Governor Pritzker signed a bill in 2023 outlawing banning books.

One book Tennessee has banned is because of the cover of a naked statue. My friend for life, Scout Finch is not welcome in Tennessee, nor is George Takai and his memoir about being sent to an internment camp when he was a child.

The banned book list is long. I'm sure one of the biggest book of lies is still around, still expected reading. The Bible. 

Again, this is why we are here today, with a lunatic for a leader, aides and representatives who prefer the citizens be stupid and willing to walk blindly into their own abyss.