#Florida Freedom to Read Project

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, and Noel Sims at Popular Information:

In a chilling meeting of the Florida State Board of Education last week, a school district superintendent was publicly browbeaten and repeatedly threatened with criminal prosecution. The members of the State Board were incensed that Van Ayres, the Superintendent of Hillsborough County Public Schools, had not unilaterally and permanently removed a list of 55 books from school libraries. While Florida Republicans have defended removing books from public school libraries in the name of "parents' rights," no Hillsborough County parent had objected to the books at issue. Rather, the State Board had summarily declared that the 55 books were "pornography," even though none of the books met the legal definition of pornographic material. Many of the books targeted by the State Board are award-winning literature that have been read by students for years — including two finalists for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Patricia McCormick's Sold and Elana K. Arnold's What Girls Are Made Of. Also included was Forever, a seminal young adult novel by Judy Blume, winner of the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors the best young adult authors. These books include sexual content and other mature themes. But they are not smut or pornography. They are works of literature that have long been recognized as valuable material for many high school students. The Florida Freedom to Read Project obtained the full list of books that the State Board wants immediately banned from public schools.

Ayres had ordered the removal of all 55 books — and hundreds of others — after receiving threatening letters from Florida Secretary of Education Manny Diaz Jr. (R) and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R). But the State Board was angered that, with the exception of six books, Ayres indicated the materials would be reviewed by the schools’ librarians, known in Florida as media specialists, to determine which books were age-appropriate and which should be removed permanently. Kelly Garcia, who was appointed to the State Board by Governor Ron DeSantis (R) in 2023, suggested that librarians in Hillsborough County were illiterate and told Ayres they lacked a "single shred of decency." She described the librarians as "child abusers" and asked if Ayres had considered firing all of them.

Ryan Petty, appointed by DeSantis in 2020, told Ayres it was time to demonstrate "courage." According to Petty, Ayres should tell librarians and others in his school district, "I don't care what the rules say." Then, Ayres should order the permanent removal of the "garbage" from the library and tell district librarians that anyone who does not comply will be "terminated immediately."

[...] Ben Gibson, the State Board Chair, demanded that Ayres remove all 55 books within two weeks. (Gibson incorrectly stated there were 57 books on the list.) Gibson told Ayres not to let the books be subject to "an expensive review process" and instead "be done with it." [...]

The groups behind the bans

Both the legislation and the book bans are being advocated for by two right-wing groups, Moms for Liberty and Citizens Defending Freedom. Since 2021, Moms for Liberty has pushed to limit conversations about race and LGBTQ issues in schools, remove books from school libraries, and limit sex education curricula. The group’s website argues that the organization is “fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”

Moms for Liberty has reported school librarians to law enforcement for letting a student check out a popular young adult novel, claiming that they were distributing “pornography;” convinced a school district to “draw clothes” over illustrated books that depicted figures without clothes, including Maurice Sendak’s In The Night Kitchen; and argued that young adult books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges were “critical race theory.” Citizens Defending Freedom’s website states that its “resources empower citizens to hold school boards, local officials, and other governing bodies accountable, ensuring they uphold the principles of freedom and liberty.” The group’s “focused efforts” include “uncovering corruption,” “promoting our faith,” and “election integrity.”

Florida continues their hateful book ban crusade on the specious basis of “pornography” in schools. This time, it’s Hillsborough County Public Schools under the microscope.

[graphicpolicy]

Oni Press launches new Gender Queer merch Fighting Censorship benefiting the CBLDF & Florida Freedom to Read Project. We got our order in to rock at conventions, on video, & just around town! #comics #charity #fightcensorship @oni-press.bsky.social @cbldf.bsky.social ‪@flfreedomread.bsky.social‬

[tomorrowusa]

The most revolutionary thing Florida students can do is to start underground libraries away from the prying eyes of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his lackeys.

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison. “Forever” by Judi Blume. “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut. All have been pulled from the shelves of some Florida schools, according to the latest list compiled by the Florida Department of Education tallying books removed by local school districts. Recent changes to state law have empowered parents and residents to challenge school library books and required districts to submit an annual report to the state detailing which books have been restricted in their schools. Florida continues to lead the country in pulling books from school libraries, according to analyses by the American Library Association and the advocacy group PEN America. “A restriction of access is a restriction on one’s freedom to read,” said Kasey Meehan of PEN America. “Students lose the ability to access books that mirror their own lived experiences, to access books that help them learn and empathize with people who … have different life experiences.” The list released for the 2023-2024 school year includes titles by American literary icons like Maya Angelou, Flannery O’Connor and Richard Wright, as well as books that have become top targets for censorship across the country because they feature LGBTQ+ characters, discussions of gender and sexuality, and descriptions of sexual encounters, such as “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe. Conservative advocates have labeled such content “pornographic.” Also on the list of books removed from libraries are accounts of the Holocaust, such as “Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” and “Sophie’s Choice.” So is a graphic novel adaptation of “1984,” George Orwell’s seminal work on censorship and surveillance. “Everywhere from Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’, George Orwell,” said Stephana Farrell, a co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which tracks book challenges in the state. “If you take the time to look at that list, you will recognize that there is an issue with … this movement.”

Ron DeSantis still hasn't convinced his rubber stamp legislature to pass laws to break into your home and confiscate your books. Though it may not be a good idea to tell your MAGA neighbor that you're stockpiling books by Toni Morrison, George Orwell, Anne Frank, Kurt Vonnegut, and Richard Wright.

[ellipsus-writes]

The words they're afraid of.

(Read on our blog.)

The recently appointed Department of Defense head Pete Hegseth (formerly Fox News pundit, perpetually soused creepy uncle, and current group chat leaker of classified intel) banned images of the Enola Gay from the Pentagon’s website for the offense of “DEI” language. In keeping with the far right’s stated war on anything vaguely resembling diversity, equity and inclusion, even historical photos are up for cancellation. When a literal weapon of mass destruction is censored for being a bit fruity under the Trump administration’s war against inconvenient truths, what exactly is left untouched?

This is clown show stuff, but the stakes are far from funny. While some might be hesitant to compare the current administration to the very worst history has to offer, we can at least all agree that they are dyed-in-the-wool grammar Nazis. Policing language has been the objective of the MAGA culture war long before Project 2025’s debut—the wave of book bans orchestrated by astroturf movements like Moms for Liberty, and Florida’s 2022 Don’t Say Gay bill have already had a profound effect in the arena of free speech and freedom of expression (despite the far right’s long tradition of doublespeak performative free-speech martyrdom to the contrary). Don’t Say Gay ostensibly targeted K-3 education, but LGBT+ content at all levels of education (and beyond) was either quietly censored or entirely preempted in practice. The results were not just a war on so-called ideology, or words alone—but on reality and essential freedoms.

Now, words as innocuous and important as racism, climate change, hate speech, prejudice, mental health, and inequality are targeted as subversive. Entire concepts are being vanished from government institutions, scrubbed not only from descriptions but from metadata, search indexes, and archival frameworks.

If you don’t name a thing, does it exist?

These words are as numerous as they are generic: women, race, Black, immigrants, multicultural, gender, injustice. But what is painfully unserious is also particularly dangerous in its real-world consequences. The process of controlling words is a well-worn authoritarian tendency. Fifty-two universities are now under investigation as part of the President's effort to curb “woke” research and thought crimes. Institutions are being coerced to comply with a nebulous set of ideological demands, or face budgetary annihilation. That means cutting funding for entire departments, slashing financial aid, defunding scientific grants, and pressuring faculty to self-censor.

The possibilities for censorship extend far and wide—interfering, by extension, in everything from reproductive healthcare programs, to libraries and museums. The Trump administration’s proposed budget slashing all federal funding for libraries, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will effectively gut an infrastructure that supports over 100,000 libraries and museums across the country—community centers, educational lifelines, internet access points, and archives of marginalized histories (starting with the Smithsonian Institution).

When you erase access, you erase participation. And when you erase participation, you erase people, and the means by which future generations might even learn they existed. A culture that cannot remember is a culture that cannot resist.

The erasure is, yet again, unsurprisingly targeted at minorities and LGBT+ people. The National Parks Service quietly revised the Stonewall Monument’s website to remove references to transgender people—a fundamental part of the original protests. Not an oversight, not a mistake, but a deliberate excision—one point in a wider plan of erasure depicted in stark detail in Project 2025, a blueprint to dismantle civil rights, defund LGBT+-related healthcare, and rewrite history from the ground up.

Dehumanization by deletion—welcome to the reactionary resurgence of doubleplusungood governance. In Trumpland, words are weapons—but not in the way they intend. Their fear of language betrays its power; that’s why they’re trying so hard to police it.

Words hurt them.

Hurt them back.

- the Ellipsus Team

[redgoldsparks]

My publisher, Oni Press, and I have launched a Gender Queer merch line themed around freedom to read, trans rights, and fighting censorship this summer! We are donating a portion of the proceeds to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Florida Freedom to Read Project.

Pre-orders will be open through Friday, August 20 2025 with fulfillment to begin in September. Oni will also be making select, advance editions for some items available for early sale at San Diego Comic-Con in July.

[hikkikoaubrey]

Please read, don't scroll pass this. (II)

One the previous post I talked about the KOSA Bill and the TikTok Ban Bill as you can see above, but now for this post I'm going to talk about something of even greater importance. Project 2025.

Project 2025 is a plan from Republicans / Conservatives to seize total control of America from the inside out while destroying democracy in the process, ultimately turning America into a Christian nationalist militarized state. One of the main ways they plan on making this a reality is through Trump getting a second term as president.

If this comes to pass, this will ruin and even end the lives of many, and to make it worse, the changes caused by Project 2025 will still be in effect even long after Trump's second term ends.

We cannot let Trump when this election, and as much as I hate this, Biden is really our only choice since voting on a 3rd party will most likely won't work. I know Biden has a lot of problems, but we don't have a choice.

Here is some more links with some additional info (including the actual Project 2025 website), please look more into this and spread this around (even if you're not in America)

Website

Project 2025 | Presidential Transition Project

Videos

The Conservative Plan to Take Over the Country (you need to know about this) (youtube.com)

Project 2025: The Fascist Plan For America (youtube.com)

Tweets

Project 2025 (@Prjct2025) / X (twitter.com)

STOP THE COUP 2025 #StopProject2025 (@stopthecoup2025) / X (twitter.com)

https://x.com/oogamretsim/status/1769776085221220774?s=20

BMB Empower Network on X: "A guide to #Project2025, the extreme #rightwing agenda for the next #Republican administration, aims to roll back #civilrights and destroy the #federalgovernment. https://t.co/TVhHMRjjTD" / X (twitter.com)

NowThis Impact on X: "When conservatives tell you what their plan is, believe them. Here’s how Project 2025 aims to break down the U.S. government, dismantle the education system, institute a national abortion ban... and that’s just the beginning. https://t.co/htZORS5whU" / X (twitter.com)

https://x.com/cardon_brian/status/1772756740016099494?s=20

David Pepper on X: "🚨 🚨 NEW WHITEBOARD 2024 is being framed as Trump vs. Biden. But Trump’s unhinged Ohio speech the other day, his past actions, the ominous Project 2025, and more, make clear that the election really is about: Trump vs YOU… and your FREEDOM. WATCH, RT and then… https://t.co/qG0Nr5SYOj" / X (twitter.com)

https://x.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1770499903640264865?s=20

Kanis The Arctic Wolf 🔜 Florida on X: "WE CANNOT STAY SILENT ABOUT THIS! Project 2025 and KOSA are DANGEROUS, it’s a threat to all of our rights and democracy as a whole. If we don’t stand up for our rights now, we won’t have them to fight for later on. SPREAD THE WORD, DEFEND OUR RIGHTS, IT TAKES ALL OF US!" / X (twitter.com)

https://x.com/batzless/status/1770583846540509549?s=20

Tumblr Posts

[smart-dreamy]

Last night I read a trivia about the Disney studios and, today, I was in the way to the church and I had a sudden epiphany about Disney recent movies and why they look different from the old ones (yes, I’ve already reach peak daydreaming mood).

Yesterday, I discovered that in the 1990’s and 2000’s Disney company had a main studio to the “blockbuster projects” and a “auxiliar studio” in Florida (alias: a studio were Disney bosses hired creative and skilled animators and screenwriters, but never gave them full freedom to develop theirs ideas. Basically, kept them there to make sure other studios wouldn’t have an upper hand to surpass them with theirs talent. Television media does a similar thing hiring actors and hosts who are getting better audience in other channels and put them in small shows).

But, the thing was that the main studio was too busy crafting 3D animation after buying the Pixar studios; therefore, they let the Florida studio staff do whatever they wanted, and we were blessed with the Experimental Era; which only lasted till the main studio took back the reels with the 3D animation and ended the Florida studios moment of spotlight (a good part of the staff went to Dreamworks, by the way).

Even though I really love “Tangled” and “Moana” and other modern movies, and I feel they have that “Classic Disney” feel, I can’t deny that “Wish” and other recent productions don’t bring me the “feel” and today I finally noticed why: Disney can’t make movies like they did once before because Disney forgot what it is to be an outcast!

If we really think about it, we see that what we love about the old movies isn’t just the cinematography and music, it’s the empathy and warmth we feel about the main characters. I still remember how joyful I felt when watching “Beauty and the Beast” and feeling connected to Belle’s inner passion and distracted nature and to the fact she was surrounded by people who didn’t understand her dreams (nor tried to).

But, that’s only the surface level of being an “outcast”, you don’t need to be rejected from society to be an outcast. For me, the best “Classic Disney” moments of that idea is the debut scenes of the princesses in “The Little Mermaid” and “Pocahontas”. Both characters are important on theirs communities (they are daughters of the leaders and already have a steady and comfortable life), and theirs debut scenes are literally theirs absent in an important social event (I mean, Ariel didn’t care about being the spotlight of a whole kingdom that gathered just to applause her beautiful singing). That simple act of denial from both princesses already reveal theirs personalities: they have good lives, but it’s not theirs dream life. They choose to cast themselves out theirs societies, because they see they are different from theirs surroundings.

Still, being an outcast isn’t just about being “different from society”, it’s about wanting to change your life and already have tried so many times and with all your strengths and will, but still being powerless. It’s the feeling of wanting a better life and actually earning it, but never having the grasp of such life because the society or people that can help you to achieve such dreams don’t see you as fit for it.

I know (and even laugh about too) of the “Disney princess crying in the ground moment” memes and internet jokes of the old Disney movies, but that is exactly what it means to be an outcast. It means to feel trapped, alone and misjudged. You feel miserable and sad not because things don’t go your way, but because you’ve been trying and trying every day to make your life better and each day it fails, and it looks like it doesn’t matter how much you work, try and rise above your doubts and fears, you reach a moment you notice you can’t change your life. That’s being an outcast.

Being an outcast is feeling you should have a different life, but knowing it’s above your reach. It’s Aladdin singing to the lone streets, it’s Mulan crying in the rain in loneliness and shame, it’s Cinderella racing to cry in the backyard because her last hope for joy and bliss was ruined, it’s Louis tearing his notebook apart feeling worthless, it’s Ariel sobbing above the shatters of her dream life, it’s Tiana praying for a Star because she has nowhere else to turn to, it’s Rapunzel lying to Gothel as a last resource to see the lanterns, it’s Esmeralda crying and praying on the feet of a religion that isn’t even her own because her people are suffering and dying!

Being an outcast is not just about society interactions, it’s a feeling of abandonment.

When you are an outcast, you will reach a level of despair and hopelessness that you won’t be able to move on by yourself, you will need help because the effect you need in your life is above your doing. There we have the cathartic “magic intervention” in Disney movies: the Fairy Godmother, The Fa family ancestors meeting, Naveen showing up in the balcony, Ariel making a Faustian deal (a dark turn, but you got what I meant), Genie helping Aladdin, Ralph and Vanellope bonding while practicing driving and Moana following the instructions of her grandmother spirit.

Why “Wish” didn’t have these moments? Because Disney can’t understand why these moments matter, because only outcasts know how it feel to be that way.

Disney has surpassed the common level of movie industry, they already have the power over mostly of our entertainment media and I don’t exactly complain, because there’re several movies they made I do enjoy, like Marvel movies (till “Endgame”). But, it’s clear they missed theirs way with the “outcast protagonist” plots, because it’s not about quick jokes and CGI effects; it’s about audience connection and our wanting for the hero to rise above theirs trials.

Disney don’t know what it is to be powerless and miserable because they are the Big Bosses of the game! They own thousands of merchandise companies, theirs brand means a world by itself and any beginning artist would dream to work in the company.

And, we can see they are struggling with understanding the outcast’s point of view with what they did to Asha in “Wish”. Asha is not an outcast, but they wanted us to buy that idea just to fit the “Classic Disney trope”, but Asha is far from being an outcast! The whole character feels bland and superficial, because her dreams are superficial! I won’t take more lines to explain and develop how her wish for “more than this” is bland, because 3/4 of the internet already talked about it and explained it very well. But, just to prove my point, some opinions of why Wish is a failed “outcast journey”:

Asha has a loving family, a steady and respected job and she has a whole musical number singing genuinely about how much she loves her city. Yes, she felt a disillusionment with Magnifico being cynical, selfish and mean; but, it didn’t make her an outcast. The only rejection she had was from her grandfather denying to hear his wish and even the job denial wasn’t that impactful because nearly none knew about it nor expected it from her (different from Mulan, for instance) and Asha herself had no “dream” connected to being a sorcerer, she even mentions along the movie she has no knack for magic, and the only thing we can connect to her job attempt is that she wants to grant Sabino’s wish. And it would’ve been an awesome plot mover, if they had showed why Sabino was sad without his wish (yes, “A wish worth making” deleted scene, I’m looking to you, what a precious piece of art. I almost sobbed while watching that scene!).

Her “magic intervention moment” doesn’t feel deep nor emotional either, because we don’t know what she wants, she had not enough turmoils nor conflict for us to actually cheer for her Happily Ever After.

And the worst of it all is that Disney HAD A PERFECT OUTCAST PLOT ON THEIRS HANDS! And they denied the concept art plot for reasons I still don’t quite understand! Because I’ve already read thousands of Wish fanfics that used such denied ideas, and all of them rocked because they were actual outcasts stories! Like the movie should’ve been!

The only hope I still have for the future of Disney movies is that they can look with better eyes to the original ideas theirs animators make and decide to give them the spotlight they deserve. I’m really rooting for that new Era of Disney and I know they have the capacity to make stories as great as before, if they actually listen to theirs staff and understand that while they are no longer outcasts, they can make outcast stories if they give theirs employees the creativity freedom and acceptance they deserve.

[psivn]

[   ryan phillippe ,  queer ,  trans male +  he/him ,  telepathy ]  leonardo franklin  is  a  neutral agent  of  pandora  selected  for infiltrating and dismantling a major criminal enterprise from the inside & volunteering for PANDORA's stasis program  and  underwent  the  top-secret  mutation  process.  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  the  twenty-six [chronologically 50] year  old  originally  from  miami, florida is  deceased  or  missing.  however,  in  atlantis,  they  are  now  known  as  rouse of  lust  after  developing  the  ability  to  harness psionic abilities that allow him to read and control aspects of the minds of sentient beings, transfer, manipulate, alter, or destroy thoughts that can range from reception, ballistics, transference, and/or communication, & use of ambient psionic energy.  the  agent  has  been  with  pandora  for  four (service) years  and  is  trusted  for  being  charismatic  &  clever,  but  once  reprimanded  for  being  secretive &  selfish. 

THE BREAKDOWN

CALLSIGN: Rouse MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral DIVISION: Lust TENURE: 4yrs FORMER OCCUPATION: Exotic Dancer - Escort HOMETOWN: Miami, Florida AGE: 26 | 50 yrs (chronologically) GENDER: Transgendered Male MARITAL STATUS: Single [Annulled Marriage] SEXUALITY: Queer ROMANTIC: Homoromantic HEIGHT: 5ft 7in (1.70m) ARCHETYPE: Athletic HAIR COLOR: Blonde HAIRSTYLE: Variable (example of his common style) IRIS COLOR: Blue FACIAL HAIR: Variable

CHARACTER NOTE: Much of Rouse's point of reference will be from 1997 and earlier. He is a quick learner and a protean member of the former team. He will try his best to assimilate though most things will be reliant on external resources for information and current intel. He was known for his three modalities of "disruption" before slipping into someone's mind. His most notable signature is making someone believe there is a majestic rain of reflective confetti- eliciting excitement and rousing celebratory joy. MORALITY: (Neutral) In order to be more receptive to change, Rouse prioritized his willingness to accept both sides of the coin. You can not have good without evil and evil can not be subdued without good- if conceptualizing the morality code. He generally sees what freedom is just as important as structure. He tries to see the grayscale of life versus the definitive thresholds.

WHY PANDORA: Rouse suspected PANDORA's interest peaked when the international reports of an American "youth" had disrupted and completely destroyed one of the corrupt branches of a criminal organization. Without a family and without any ties to anyone, he saw it as the perfect chance to escape the many narratives that were being spun about him, false reports of his trouble past, and his own illegal involvement during juvenile processions. They told him more organizations could fall with his help and it didn't have to be the result of a scorned lover.

MUTATION: Telepathy. Rouse has the ability to enter, integrate, or dominate someone's mind psychically. This grants him the ability to read, detect, cloak, alter, manipulate, destroy, project, transfer, communicate with sentient beings' thoughts or mental processes. While many of these abilities are harmless, he is quite capable of severe psychic damage/pain.

DIVISION SKILLS: Culture & Politics and Seduction EXPERTISE IN: Performance PROFICIENT AT: Brute Force, Acrobatics & Evasion, Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion SUBSTANDARD AT: Hacking & Cyber Warfare and Vehicular Operations

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

The New York Times

By Hamed Aleaziz

May 10, 2025

President Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security on Friday to increase the deportation force of the United States by 20,000 officers, a move that would lead to an enormous expansion of immigration enforcement if realized.

In a provision tucked into a presidential proclamation focused on pushing undocumented immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, Mr. Trump called on the Department of Homeland Security to soon begin “deputizing and contracting with state and local law enforcement officers, former federal officers, officers and personnel within other federal agencies, and other individuals.”

It was unclear how such an effort would be funded, one of several major logistical hurdles to such a large operation. There are now around 6,000 officers focused on deportation efforts at Immigration and Custom Enforcement.

Mr. Trump has pushed to deputize state and local law enforcement officers for immigration enforcement before, and Department of Homeland Security officials have already signed a series of agreements with local law enforcement in the months since took office. Late last month, local law enforcement officials in Florida assisted ICE in an operation that led to the arrest of more than 1,100 migrants across the state.

The Trump administration has spent the past few months attempting to make good on the president’s promise of mass deportations by conducting sweeping raids in major cities, arresting international students and allowing officers more freedom where they make arrests, like in courthouses. But it has still struggled to reach the pace that would be necessary for Mr. Trump’s expansive deportation goals. 

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has turned to pushing for migrants to leave the country on their own accord, a concept known as “self-deportation.” Earlier this week, department officials said they would pay migrants $1,000 and the cost of their travel if they left the country voluntarily and used a government app to do so.

In his proclamation Friday, Mr. Trump repeated that call, labeling it “project homecoming.”

“This proclamation establishes Project Homecoming, which will present illegal aliens with a choice: either leave the United States voluntarily, with the support and financial assistance of the federal government, or remain and face the consequences,” the proclamation read.

Mr. Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to begin a “nationwide communications campaign” to tell migrants of the self-deportation offer and to warn them that not doing so would lead to stiffer consequences.

Beyond being arrested and deported, the proclamation warned that migrants could face “fines as consistent with applicable law for immigration-related crimes; the garnishment of wages; and the confiscation of savings and personal property, including homes and vehicles.”

[jbeansblog116]

Critical Literacy: Reading Journal 3

I’m honestly surprised by the sort of shock seen by those being introduced to Critical Theory for the first time. In all honesty, it feels like something that should be straightforward for any teacher, but I was incredibly surprised to hear from my classmates that it is not. For those that haven’t heard of it before, Ira Shor in What is Critical Literacy? Differentiates it from “basic” literacy; it is almost entirely separate. She writes, “literacy is understood as social action through language use that develops us as agents inside a larger culture, while critical literacy is understood as ‘learning to read and write as part of the process of becoming conscious of one's experience as historically constructed within specific power relations’’ (Shor 2). Coming from a student in Florida, I can understand in the current day and age how there is a lack of really anything “critical” being taught in a classroom. I understood that politics have developed strong ties in education, but I never realized how this is the way it has always been.

Shor adds, almost sarcastically, that, “In many ways, the project of critical literacy fits the savage and contentious time in which it emerged. In recent decades, America has been moving left and right at the same time though not in the same way or at the same speed, I would say” (8). I would say she’s right. I think now more than ever it’s important for students to be able to read and write critically. I could go on for days about how it’s being banned in order to keep those in power, in power and the average student clueless, but that’s another topic for another time. Instead, I’ll introduce another text we read this week that I feel segways into a proper way to involve students in a classroom. The piece we read was Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom by Henry Giroux. After being split up into groups to discuss the reading, I was surprised to find that my classmates and I had all picked one specific quote. It reads:

“What Paulo made clear in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, his most influential work, is that pedagogy at its best is about neither training, teaching methods, nor political indoctrination. For Freire, pedagogy is not a method or an a priori technique to be imposed on all students but a political and moral practice that provides the knowledge, skills, and social relations that enable students to explore the possibilities of what it means to be critical citizens while expanding and deepening their participation in the promise of a substantive democracy. Critical thinking for Freire was not an object lesson in test-taking, but a tool for self-determination and civic engagement” (Giroux 716).

For me, I liked the idea of having a pedagogy be more than just a tool that was used in a classroom; it’s not just a teaching method. Every class I’ve taken so far in my graduate studies has viewed it as such. Giroux really takes it a step farther, arguing that Freire’s version of critical pedagogy keeps kids not just engaged, but also giving them the ability to come to their own social and civic ideas and values. Yet, I feel that it needed more concrete ways to introduce these topics and reading skills to students.

During class discussion, our professor stated that there is an inherent power imbalance between the teacher and the student, and the education system as a whole is based off of it. Some may argue that it’s the way it should be, but I disagree entirely. I think not allowing the students to have some sort of power in their own classes leaves them feeling ostracized; having been a student (and still being one), I’ve felt this way. While the teacher may respond to their questions, they aren’t truly heard. I think a great pedagogy that could get students thinking and writing critically would be the blank syllabus. By having students argue for and selecting specific works from an anthology, they are forced to relate their own experiences to why a class should read a text as they advocate for it’s inclusion into the class syllabus and schedule. By having students able to vote and select some of their texts, it restores their power in a way that benefits class discussion and thus an inclusion of their different perspectives. While the anthology would be approved by the professor, the students themselves pick what exactly suits them, their needs, and their expectations for the class. This wouldn’t be a cure-all solution, as everyone learns in different ways and what works for some may not work for all, but keeping things the way they are without some sort of intervention or reworking is just, bluntly, ridiculous.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erum Salam at The Guardian:

The wave of book bans sweeping the US, typically reserved for works of fiction deemed controversial, has hit textbooks used in public schools, marking the next step in Republicans’ war on education. The board of trustees for the Cypress Fairbanks independent school district in Houston voted 6-1 earlier this month to redact certain chapters in science textbooks, including those about vaccines, human growth, diversity and climate change. The motion to remove the chapters was made by the board’s vice-president, Natalie Blasingame, and almost unanimously supported. Blasingame, who has served on the board since 2021, did not give a specific explanation for the decision, but said the subjects go beyond what the state requires to teach and creates “a perception that humans are bad”. Last year, the Republican-controlled state board approved textbooks for the schools’ science curriculums, rejecting several books on climate, so the local school district’s censorship of these textbooks is even more restrictive.

Education experts say the move could have far-reaching consequences, prompting similar decisions to omit information in other subjects, and by public school districts across the country. The board’s decision drew the ire of local parents and education groups. Bryan Henry, a local parent and founder of the non-partisan group Cypress Families for Public Schools, said he was concerned about the precedent this decision sets. “Will trustees at the local school board level be able to just delete chapters about civil rights because they just mentioned the history of same-sex marriage?” Henry, 37, said. “It’s really kind of alarming what this could mean for ideological influence and control over what is taught in schools.” Henry describes Cypress, a sprawling suburb of Houston with a population of nearly 200,000, as an increasingly diverse community with a loud minority of political extremists.

“A lot of Republicans in the Cy-Fair area, who are very conservative but are pro-public education, are having to now grapple with the fact that [the] governor, state representatives – they’re really not pro-public education,” he said. “And so people are struggling with how to reconcile that, because they don’t want to vote for Democrats.” Henry added this “level of oversight, micromanagement and interference” was “scary.” The Texas Freedom to Read Project, an organization that fights book bans, swiftly condemned the decision. “To ban entire chapters of textbooks and withhold that information from students is not only unconstitutional, but it is taking away their access to real-life ideas that exist in this world,” said Laney Hawes, co-founder of the group. “Access to a diverse and wide range of information is what prepares students to navigate this world successfully. When we ban books and limit students’ ability to access ideas, we are closing doors to their futures.”

[...] PEN America found 3,362 instances of individual books banned in public K–12 schools for the 2022-23 academic year – a 33% increase from last year, with Florida and Texas leading the way. These books mostly include novels with themes of race or sexuality, not core academic material.

Meehan said the censorships of textbooks is “a further escalation of this movement”. “Texas is no stranger to book bans or censoring other educational content areas or materials. The idea that we’re redacting chapters from state-approved textbooks is almost unheard of. It’s so outlandish,” Meehan said. Book bans have become a core element of platforms of well funded far-right politicians, who have tried to win a larger presence on school boards across the US. “I’m almost worried about a concerning trend where far-right Republican candidates are replacing moderate Republicans on school boards, not because citizens believe they are better suited for the job, but because rightwing billionaires and Pacs [political action committees] are starting to pour money into these local elections,” said David DeMatthews, an education professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who previously worked as a public school teacher and district administrator.

Public school textbooks are the next battleground item in the right-wing’s dangerous and censorious book-banning crusade in schools.

[reynard61]

Since the challenge form has not been released, it is not certain who challenged Arthur's Birthday. But nearly all the book challenges in Clay County schools have been submitted by Bruce Friedman, an activist associated with the right-wing group No Left Turn in Education. Among other things, No Left Turn in Education seeks to "screen and monitor the curriculum, materials and any other resources used in all classes" to prevent the "sexualization of children."  Friedman did not respond to texts or an email seeking comment. But in an interview with Popular Information in December 2022, Friedman said he had compiled "a list of over 3,600 titles" that he was considering challenging. Friedman said that unless the school district voluntarily purged all the books he believed were inappropriate from the library, he would "perform 3,600 challenges and overwhelm your awful, awful procedures and policies." The goal, according to Friedman, is to use Clay County school libraries to "set a good example for what a clean library looks like" for Florida and the country. If anyone gets in his way, Friedman vowed to "run over them like a dead body." Over the last year, Friedman has filed hundreds of challenges. And according to records requested by the Florida Freedom to Read Project and obtained by Popular Information, Friedman has had considerable success. Challenges submitted since the beginning of the 2022-23 school year have resulted in the district permanently banning at least 120 books from school libraries through June 30. 

So if you live in Clay County, FL (and, at some possible future date, in the United States as a whole), and can't find that copy of The Handmaid's Tale or It or Carrie or even Arthur's Birthday at your local public library; well, Bruce Friedman and his merrie band of fascists at No Left Turn in Education are the ones that you can thank for that. 🙄😒

[commiepinkofag]

How the anti-gender movement is bringing us closer to authoritarianism

Judith Butler / March 16, 2024

In the United States, gender has been considered a relatively ordinary term. We are asked to check a box on a form, and most of us do so without giving it too much thought. But some of us don’t like checking the box and think there should be either many more boxes or perhaps none at all. The myriad, continuing debates about gender show that no one approach to defining or understanding it reigns. It’s no longer a mundane box to be checked on official forms.

The anti-gender ideology movement, however, treats the range of sometimes conflicting ideas about gender as a monolith, frightening in its power and reach.

The fear of “gender” allows existing powers — states, churches, political movements — to frighten people to come back into their ranks, to accept censorship and to externalize their fear and hatred onto vulnerable communities. Those powers not only appeal to existing fears that many working people have about the future of their work or the sanctity of their family life but also incite those fears, insisting, as it were, that people conveniently identify gender as the true cause of their feelings of anxiety and trepidation about the world.

The project of restoring the world to a phantasmatic time before gender promises a return to a patriarchal dream order that only a strong state can restore. The shoring up of state powers, including the courts, implicates the anti-gender movement in a broader authoritarian, even fascist project. We see the rolling back of progressive legislation and the targeting of sexual and gender minorities as dangers to society, as exemplifying the most destructive force in the world, in order to strip them of their fundamental rights, protections and freedoms.

Consider the allegation that “gender” — whatever it is — puts children at risk through programs such as reading books with queer characters cast as examples of indoctrination or seduction. The fear of children being harmed, the fear that the family, or one’s own family, will be destroyed, that “man” will be dismantled, including the men and man that some of us are, that a new totalitarianism is descending upon us, are all fears that are felt quite deeply by those who have committed themselves to the eradication of “gender” — the word, the concept, the academic field and the various social movements it has come to signify.

The resulting authoritarian restrictions on freedom abound, whether through establishing LGBTQ+-free zones in Poland or strangling progressive educational curricula in Florida that address gender freedom and sexuality in sex education. But no matter how intently authoritarian forces attempt to restrict freedoms, the fact that the categories of women and men shift historically and contextually is undeniable. New gender formations are part of history and reality. Gender is, in reality, minimally the rubric under which we consider changes in the way that men, women and other such categories have been understood.

As an educator, I am inclined to say to these people, “Let’s read some key texts in gender studies together and see what gender does and does not mean and whether the caricature holds up.” Reading is a precondition of democratic life, keeping debate and disagreement grounded and productive.

Sadly, such a strategy rarely works.

A woman in Switzerland once came up to me after a talk I gave and said, “I pray for you.” I asked why. She explained that the Scripture says that God created man and woman and that I, through my books, had denied the Scripture. She added that male and female are natural and that nature was God’s creation. I pointed out that nature admits of complexity and that the Bible itself is open to some differing interpretations, and she scoffed. I then asked if she had read my work, and she replied, “No! I would never read such a book!” I realized that reading a book on gender would be, for her, trafficking with the devil. Her view resonates with the demand to take books on gender out of the classroom and the fear that those who read such books are contaminated by them or subject to an ideological inculcation, even though those who seek to restrict these books have typically never read them.

To refuse gender is, sadly, to refuse to encounter the complexity that one finds in contemporary life across the world. The anti-gender movement opposes thought itself as a danger to society — fertile soil for the horrid collaboration of fascist passions with authoritarian regimes.

We need to take a stand against the anti-gender movement in the name of breathing and living free from the fear of violence.

Transnational coalitions should gather and mobilize everyone the anti-gender ideology movement has targeted. The internecine fights within the field must become dynamic and productive conversations and confrontations, however difficult, within an expansive movement dedicated to equality and justice. Coalitions are never easy, but where conflicts cannot be resolved, movements can still move ahead together with an eye focused on the common sources of oppression.

Whether or not people are assigned a gender at birth or assume one in time, they can really love being the gender that they are and reject any effort to disturb that pleasure. They seek to strut and celebrate, express themselves and communicate the reality of who they are. No one should take away that joy, as long as those people do not insist that their joy is the only possible one. Importantly, however, many endure suffering, ambivalence and disorientation within existing categories, especially the one to which they were assigned at birth. They can be genderqueer or trans, or something else, and they are seeking to live life as the body that makes sense to them and lets life be livable, if not joyous. Whatever else gender means, it surely names for some a felt sense of the body, in its surfaces and depths, a lived sense of being a body in the world in this way.

As much as someone might want to clutch a single idea of what it is to be a woman or a man, the historical reality defeats that project and makes matters worse by insisting on genders that have all along exceeded the binary alternatives. How we live that complexity, and how we let others live, thus becomes of paramount importance.

There is still much to be understood about gender as a structural problem in society, as an identity, as a field of study, as an enigmatic and highly invested term that circulates in ways that inspire some and terrify others. We have to keep thinking about what we mean by it and what others mean when they find themselves up in arms about the term.

Judith Butler is a professor of comparative literature at UC Berkeley. This essay was adapted from their forthcoming book “Who’s Afraid of Gender?”

[the-sayuri-rin]

A Florida school district has pulled over 1,600 books from its library shelves for review — including Webster’s Dictionary for Students — to ensure they comply with the state’s new sex education law that prohibits books describing sexual content. 

The Escambia County Public School District, in the Florida Panhandle, pulled five dictionaries, eight encyclopedias and “The Guinness Book of World Records.” It's also reviewing the biographies of Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey, Anne Frank’s diary and “The Autobiography of Malcom X,” according to the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a group that seeks to protect students' right to information.

[redgoldsparks]

April Reading and Reviews + Calls to Action by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut..

Once again, before I get to the reviews I have some calls to action around defending books to share with you. Anyone who has been paying attention to book news knows that Florida and Texas have been hit the hardest with book bans, anti-book and anti-library legislation. Florida is dealing with a set of TERRIBLE bills, House Bill 1539: Materials Harmful to Minors and the accompanying Senate Bill 1692: Materials Harmful to Minors. These are book banning bills. They would enable Florida to ban EVEN MORE books than they already do. Luckily there is an incredible local group, Florida Freedom to Read, run by two volunteer moms, who are doing everything they can to combat this. You can watch a short video from the founders here. You can watch a much longer press release about House Bill 1539 featuring authors Judy Blume, Jason Reynolds, Alan Gratz, Maggie Takuda-Hall and more here. HB 1539 has already passed the House, and has now moved on to the Senate. If you live in Florida, I urge you to call your Senators and tell them you oppose HB 1539 and SB 1692. Here's a talking point: Since 2021, only 100 parents have brought complaints about content in books their children have found in school libraries. 95% of Florida parents already allow their children full access to the library, and this bill would disenfranchise those parents. Also, this bill was found to be at high risk of litigation by the state senate's staff analysis, because it violates first amendment rights. If you have the means, please donate to Florida Freedom to Read. You can also follow them on insta and bluesky.

Texas has its own similarly terrible bills moving through legislation right now. Texas House Bill 3225 and its companion Senate Bill 2101 want to forbid municipal public libraries from allowing anyone under 18 to access “sexually explicit” materials. It also says a public library may not “curate, display, or make available for checkout any sexually explicit material in any minor’s section of the library.”

Libraries would have to restrict anyone under 18 to children’s/teen/YA sections—they could not be allowed into the library’s sections for the general (adult) public, where they might encounter “sexually explicit” books. And it would restrict the books that can be made available in those children’s/teen/YA sections. No sex-ed books, no descriptions of “sexual contact” in YA novels meant for older teens. Most libraries do not have walls/doors dividing their children's and adults sections, so if this bill passes, many children will simply not be allowed in their local libraries at all if/until they can make costly structural changes to comply.

These bills could be voted on in the next week so if you live in Texas please contact your representative saying that you oppose these bills. Here is a blog post from Texas Freedom To Read co-founder Frank Strong on what these bills would do. If you have the means, you can also donate to the Texas Freedom to Read project as well. You can follow them on insta and bluesky.

I'll mention one more library fundraiser I found this week. Story Sunbirds, a collective of writers, illustrators, and publishing professionals, has partnered with the International Board on Book for Young People (IBBY) in a campaign called "Libraries are Havens" to raise money for two libraries in Gaza. Two IBBY libraries were established in Gaza in 2008, one in Rafah, one in Beit Hanoun. The Israeli war raging in Gaza since October 2023 has had devastating consequences for the libraries. In Beit Hanoun the building was turned to rubble, and while the Rafah library still stands on its feet, it was bombed and severely damaged. Abla Hamad, one of the two full-time librarians employed by IBBY Palestine, and her family, have been displaced on more than seven occasions. You can read more and donate these libraries here. You can share Story Sunbirds' post about the campaign on instagram here.

Okay, thank you for sticking with me! Here are my reviews from April.

Adversary by Blue Delliquanti 

Mid-covid lockdown, a transman meets a teacher he'd previously learned from in a women's self defense class. The teacher is newly divorced and out as gay. The transman invites him into an arrangement of violent sexual role playing. Both men act out fantasies and traumas, but they do not both survive the pressures of 2021. This is a heavy, dark, brutal comic novella. I am constantly in awe of now much story and meaning and gender and complexity Blue Delliquanti is able to pack into a one shot. Go into this one with some care. 

Shepherdess Warriors by Jonathan Garnier and Amelie Flechais 

Ten years ago, nearly all of the men and boys from Molly's village left to fight in a great war. The women left behind organized their own new leadership and defense, a troop of trained rangers who ride rams out into the wilds to protect their valley. Molly and several of her friends have been training for years, and now get to go on their first few missions. Errands that seem simple quickly reveal strange and dangerous complexities- witches who control animals, bandits, and a huge wolf made of something other than flesh stalk the moors and mountains. This is a fun adventure story, but I wish it had been printed at a larger size. In France, where this was first published, it was printed at a beautiful 9.5 x 12.5; here in the US it's printed at 5.8x9 and so all of the text and art looked a bit small and cramped to my eye. Alas!

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer

This slim volume meditates on gift economies verses extractive capitalism, through the lens of the serviceberry, an abundant sweet berry bush or tree native to the north and eastern third of what we are currently calling the United States. I have never encountered this plant in the wild but I would like to! As always, Kimmerer writes with a gentle compassionate wisdom about how we could live more kindly and lightly and communally on this earth. She invites the reader to think about where gift economies exist in their own lives, and my mind immediately went to fandom and the gift economy of ao3 and podfic; to friends doing clothing swaps, to carpooling, and little free libraries. I want to keep this awareness awake and think about where I can nurture gift economies in my own life. 

A Song for You and I by K. O’Neill 

What a beautifully illustrated, perfectly paced, quiet, and affirming story this is! In a rural valley, a hall of Pegasus-riders live and train to watch over the shepherds, farmers, weavers, and fisher folk who live below. One ambitious young rider chaffs at the "easy" assignment they are given and the way their are viewed by their peers. A reckless decision leads to an injury to their winged horse; grounded for now, the pair accompany a young violinist on a multi-day journey to deliver goods to a nearby city. Both young people struggle with their own doubts and insecurities, and yet are able to see each other with such clear, generous, and loving eyes. Both of them come into a confidence in who they are and what they want to do in their world. This comic book made me want to draw more comic books. O'Neill makes it look effortless! 

The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold read by Marguerite Gavin (re-listen)

This is by publishing order the third book in the World of the Five Gods series but it could probably be read as a stand alone; it has no overlapping characters with the previous two and is set in a new country with its own mystical monarchy problems. As the old kind lays dying, Lord Ingrey is sent to retrieve the body of one of his sons, killed by a young woman in a struggle tinged with supernatural and sexual violence. Ingrey's task seems straightforward: investigate the scene, transport the woman and the corpse to the capital. But immediately things begin to get complicated. As a child, Ingrey was infused with the spirit of a wolf, a type of ancient magic now forbidden in his country. It seems as if the dead prince was trying to perform the same ritual- but where did he get the power? And where did the spirit of the leopard killed at the scene actually go? And what will become of the woman, Lady Ijada? Ingrey concludes that she is a victim who killed the prince in self-defense, but will the justices at the capital see it that way? This is a satisfying and emotional fantasy, with enough moving parts to keep the reader guessing until the end. I'm constantly trying to decide which is the best book to suggest to friends to get them hooked on Bujold, but it's so hard to figure out where people should start. Maybe here? 

Masquerade in Lodi by Lois McMaster Bujold read by Grover Gardener

For the first time since he faced down a Saint to beg permission for Desdemona to remain in the mortal realm, Penric has to work closely with a Saint once again. On the eve of Bastard's Day in the canal city of Lodi a man with a manic, ascendant demon is on the loose. Penric must find him, before the chaos of demon magic spirals completely out of control. This is a short one even for this novella series but I enjoyed it a lot as a carnival romp. 

Penric’s Mission by Lois McMaster Bujold read by Grover Gardener

It's so funny to me how in this novella series Bujold apparently decided "I am only writing the parts of the story which interest me" even if that leads to a book both beginning and ending almost mid-scene. I'm not complaining! I really loved this installment in the Penric and Desdemona saga. But Penric has now completed two full university degrees, yet Bujold completely skipped over all of his schooling, to instead tell the bite-sized mysteries and shenanigans he gets up to between jobs and schools. In this one Penric attempts his first undercover spy mission. It goes terribly. Within less than a day of landing in a new country he has been discovered and thrown in prison. It becomes clear that his jailers plan to execute him without a trial. This feels like the first time Penric has really seriously faced potential death since the first book. I enjoyed how this one unwound; very curious how much of a time jump I'll get between this book and the next one. 

Mira’s Last Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold read by Grover Gardener

Bujold really said "sex work is work" in this one, and continues to explore how the various identities of Penric's demon can come to the fore and assert their own personalities. This one picks up days after Penric's Mission ends so sure to read them in chronological order, not publication order! 

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson read by Kate Rudd (re-listen)

This is a twisty and satisfying teen murder mystery, which weaves together two timelines at an exclusive private boarding school, Ellingham Academy, in Vermont. In 1936, the wife and daughter of the school's rich founder were kidnapped and never returned. The kidnapper also took one student and left a threatening cut and pasted riddle note which has frustrated scholars of the case for years. In the present day, true-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is accepted into the school and is delighted to walk on the grounds she has read so much about. She is determined to solve the Ellingham kidnapping case once and for all, but when a series of mysterious and threatening incidents begin to happen around her, Stevie realizes that she might be in the middle of her own new Ellingham case. The story ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but luckily there are four more books already out in this series and I have the next one on hold already!  Re-listened in 2025, and really enjoyed revisiting the beginning of Stevie Bell's mystery solving career! It was very satisfying to catch all of the foreshadowing I missed on the first pass. 

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ translated by Lin King

This historical fiction novel is set in onion-like layers of frame narratives which greatly increased my enjoyment of the text. Originally written in Mandarin, this novel presents itself as a translation of a 1938 Japanese manuscript written by Aoyama Chizuko, a 26 year old writer touring Taiwan. She yearns to experience the flavors and sights of true Taiwan, at the time a colony of the Japanese Empire. She is assigned an interpreter, a younger woman born and raised on the island whose Japanese name is Chizuru. Aoyama is immediately entranced by her native guide, who is charming, well-read, multi-lingual and poised beyond her years. Aoyama has a famously enormous appetite, which she describes as a monster living in her stomach, and she is amazed when she discovers that Chizuru can match her bite for bite. Aoyama begins to make offers to Chizuru that far outstrip the professional relationship they are meant to have, but she is never able to see the gulf of class, wealth, and colonial power which separate them. Her blindness to her own privilege is the central tragedy of this tale. Supporting this story are two layers of translator's footnotes, an introduction by a fictional researcher, and multiple afterwards by others who supposedly discovered the text and translated it for new audiences. Much of this paratext is omitted in the audiobook; this is a book you MUST read in print. I recommend it, especially if you are interested in translation, luscious food descriptions, and unrequited lesbian yearning. 

Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott illustrated by Loveis Wise

A short, illustrated collection of poetry on themes of uplifting Black voices, acknowledging Black rage and heartbreak, but also Black creativity and brilliance. Woven through with references to Audre Lorde, Phillis Wheatley, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B Wells, Beyoncé, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni and the Combahee River Collective. I don't usually sit down and read a poetry collection in just two sittings but this one I did! 

[mystlnewsonline]

Florida - First Mission from Israel Returns Nearly 300 Americans

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Announces First Mission from Israel Returns Nearly 300 Americans Home TALLAHASSEE, FL (STL.News) Sunday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the first mission has arrived from Israel with evacuees who were unable to return home due to commercial flight cancellations.  Florida partnered with Project Dynamo to bring nearly 300 evacuees home from Israel, including more than 270 to Tampa and seven to Orlando this afternoon.  Once the plane landed in Tampa, evacuees were able to access resources from multiple state agencies.  Additionally, the Governor is sending medical supplies, hygiene products, clothing, and children’s toys to Israel to help impacted Israelis. “Just a few days ago, I signed an Executive Order to allow Florida to carry out logistical, rescue, and evacuation operations to bring Floridians back home and provide important supplies to our valued ally, Israel,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.  “I am proud of how quickly we have been able to activate resources and do what the federal government could not – get Floridians and other Americans back home, reunited with their families, free of charge.” “Following last week’s unprovoked and heinous attacks by Hamas, Governor Ron DeSantis took immediate action to help Floridians in Israel,” said Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez.  “Our administration will continue to work to safely bring Floridians home and support the people of Israel as they fight back to defend themselves.” “Israel mourns its more than 1400 murdered and 150 hostages in the devastating unprovoked terror attack perpetrated by Hamas,” said Consul General of Israel to Florida, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky. “We have gone to war to eradicate Hamas and its allies and to uphold our values of freedom, humanity, and the sanctity of life.  The support we are receiving from Governor DeSantis, the First Lady, FDEM Executive Director Kevin Guthrie, Florida Commerce Secretary Alex Kelly, FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass, and his entire administration and the state is overwhelming.  We are very grateful for the special flights and supplies.” “We have a dedicated team of volunteers who work tirelessly to ensure the well-being of Americans caught in crisis situations all over the world,” said Bryan Stern, Project Dynamo CEO and Founder.  “It’s truly heart-wrenching to watch the destruction unfolding in Israel.  We’re so grateful to Governor DeSantis for partnering with us on this mission to save every American in need.” On October 12, 2023, Governor DeSantis signed Executive Order 23-208 to allow the State of Florida to carry out logistical, rescue, and evacuation operations to keep its residents safe.  Specifically, this order enables the Florida Division of Emergency Management to bring Floridians home and transport necessary supplies to Israel. The Florida Division of Emergency Management will lead efforts for additional flights, which will take more supplies to Israel and continue to bring Floridians back home. The Governor has also surged law enforcement resources upon request to prevent violence at demonstrations and protect Jewish schools and synagogues.  The Governor directed FDLE and FHP to work with the Attorney General’s Office and issue memos to law enforcement and Florida universities, reminding them of their responsibility to protect the Jewish community from threats and unlawful harassment.  Florida will not tolerate hate or violence towards the Jewish community. If you or someone you know is a Florida citizen who is unable to leave Israel due to the current situation, visit FloridaDisaster.Org/Israel to fill out the form. SOURCE: Florida Governor Read the full article