Another Mother Attack on Liberty

 

by Pa Rock

Open-Minded Reader

A Florida member of the reactionary group, "Moms for Liberty" and who is also running for a seat on her local school board, engaged in a political stunt this week when she and another person showed up at the Santa Rosa Country sheriff's office to make an accusation that a local school librarian had provided "pornography" to a minor.  The pair were demanding a law enforcement investigation because, they said, the governor (Ron DeSantis) had deemed the book to be pornographic, and yet the librarian had offered it up to a 17-year-old minor to read.   The angry mother insisted that a third-degree felony had been committed.

The book that had the school board candidate so excited was a 512-page young adult novel entitled "Storm and Fury," a book featuring an eighteen-year-old protagonist and gargoyles fighting demons.  It has been widely recommended for young people aged fourteen-through-eighteen.  The book reportedly has one "makeout" scene as well as a scene where another leading character "almost" has sex.

Undoubtedly much to the chagrin and consternation of the complaining mother, the county sheriff's office declined to get involved in a school matter and referred the situation back to the school district.

Someday, decades from now, there will surely be some good long-term research released on the impacts that loud and angry activist parents had on their offspring.  It should be very interesting reading even if it does not contain gargoyles, demons, and hints of sex.

But that will be then, and this is now.

And for now:  Don't fear books, but rather fear the people who fear books.  A mind is a terrible thing to starve.

(Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout is available from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com in paperback editions.)