“To Kill A Mockingbird”
I’m going to try to tie together several threads here. Last week I shared about making videos for a training I was taking. I posted the link for those. I’ll share the last one (I think if I can figure out how!) LOL The technology is such a challenge. (So sorry, I ran out of time for to find the video. Did I mention daughter, SIL, and granddaughter are staying with us because their AC is out?)
Hazel, visiting granddog.Crazy how things worked out. Part of what I worked on was getting the timing right on the videos. Some were 30-60 seconds, one was 1-2 minutes, and one 5 -10 minutes. Quite a range. It takes practice to deliver words to fit a time frame. It’s hard if you’re reading though you have much more control over that. But if you’re trying to “talk” it, well, that takes a whole other level of work.So, some of my friends heard that the FWISD had closed it’s school libraries for the first two weeks of school. The State Legislature passed a bill and Gov. Greg Abbot signed the bill that schools needed to purge their libraries of any books deemed “offensive.” Generally, libraries do an inventory every couple of years, looking for books that have become ragged or in disrepair or just aren’t as timely as they once were. (Just like your closet. You can’t keep adding new clothes without weeding out some of the older ones. Well, it’s not a good idea at any rate. I do know folks who will not be named who never weed out.) LOL
I don’t have any pics from board meeting, and Charley looks so earnest here.However they idea the school libraries would be closed the first two weeks? Well that sends the message that books and research are not important. And you never want to send that message. Because of my 8 years on the FWISD Board way back in the late 80s and early 90s (I know some of you may not have been born yet. LOL), I felt compelled to speak out. I don’t want any one person or small group making decisions about what books should be in the library. Each parent can decide for his/her child. They just can’t decide for my child. (Not that I have a child anymore, but you get the idea.)While on the board, I sat through some raucous meetings. I remember one where we had extra police on hand because word was out someone was coming to the meeting with a gun. (This was before Columbine and all the mass shootings which have become all too familiar and is a topic for another post.) I remember being really scared and wondering whether if we dropped behind the large table where we sat if it would stop the bullets. Fortunately, the police presence acted as a deterrent and the guy didn’t show, but it was dicey.
Decorations are not up yet, but will be right after Labor Day.And I remember the times when several individuals would appear really ticked off at us about something. But I don’t remember any organized large groups of 25 or 30 with placards. Tuesday night was intimidating. The board sat a quite a distance from the speakers and from each other I guess that’s still left over from Covid. Very different from when I was on the board. People were not more than 10 fifteen feet from us. We must have been 25 or more Tuesday night. Like it was hard to read expressions.A good change is board members don’t respond to speakers unless they want to clarify and total mis-statement. Now that’s got to be really hard, but probably better than before when we’d get into a back and forth with someone who only wanted to hear us agree with them. If we couldn’t or wouldn’t, they just got madder.
I hadn’t spoken before the board in many years and despite speaking being something that I’m pretty comfortable with, my nerves were running high. I practiced at least a dozen times trying to get the time just right. Two min. max and then they cut you off. And to get the words just right, changing them right up until before I left at 5. I do need to acknowledge my friends who sent me in the right direction to do the reasarch on the topic: Julie MIers, Sue Guthrie, Marcie Fromby, Karen Landon, and of course Lynne Payne. It’s really important to have a wing woman in a situation like that.A group calling themselves Citizens Defending Freedom was there with placards with disparaging terms for our LBGTQ+ friends, It was pretty ghastly. The problem is they just want freedom for themselves and not for others.
Bob’s birthday last year or year before. It was cool enough to be outside, which it definitely isn’t this year or last.I did give my 2-minute-on-the-dot speech. Others said I did well. It was a very heartwarming feeling when I turned around to return to my seat to see a group of folks standing and applauding. Now I had stood and applauded for speakers before me, so I wasn’t the first or only, but I didn’t realize how nice it would feel to see all those folks having my back.Will my friend and I go back? I suppose so. You can’t just lie down and let the naysayers have the stage.
You may be wondering about the title of this post. Well, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, is one of the many books that has been banned across the country. I haven’t seen the list of the books pulled from the FWISD libraries, but it’s probably there. Remember, no one forces you to read a book. But please, don’t try to keep me from reading one. By the way, several members of my family will go see TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Bass Hall next month. I’ll let you know how the performance is. Apologies for such a lengthy post, but not for the subject. We are in a battle to keep this country a democracy. Part of that means rule by the majority while protecting the rights of the minority. And while I might not like what you write or say or read, I’ll defend your right to write, say, and read. I would appreciate if you’d do it civily. As always, I’d love to hear from you.
Hazel, visiting granddog.Crazy how things worked out. Part of what I worked on was getting the timing right on the videos. Some were 30-60 seconds, one was 1-2 minutes, and one 5 -10 minutes. Quite a range. It takes practice to deliver words to fit a time frame. It’s hard if you’re reading though you have much more control over that. But if you’re trying to “talk” it, well, that takes a whole other level of work.So, some of my friends heard that the FWISD had closed it’s school libraries for the first two weeks of school. The State Legislature passed a bill and Gov. Greg Abbot signed the bill that schools needed to purge their libraries of any books deemed “offensive.” Generally, libraries do an inventory every couple of years, looking for books that have become ragged or in disrepair or just aren’t as timely as they once were. (Just like your closet. You can’t keep adding new clothes without weeding out some of the older ones. Well, it’s not a good idea at any rate. I do know folks who will not be named who never weed out.) LOL
I don’t have any pics from board meeting, and Charley looks so earnest here.However they idea the school libraries would be closed the first two weeks? Well that sends the message that books and research are not important. And you never want to send that message. Because of my 8 years on the FWISD Board way back in the late 80s and early 90s (I know some of you may not have been born yet. LOL), I felt compelled to speak out. I don’t want any one person or small group making decisions about what books should be in the library. Each parent can decide for his/her child. They just can’t decide for my child. (Not that I have a child anymore, but you get the idea.)While on the board, I sat through some raucous meetings. I remember one where we had extra police on hand because word was out someone was coming to the meeting with a gun. (This was before Columbine and all the mass shootings which have become all too familiar and is a topic for another post.) I remember being really scared and wondering whether if we dropped behind the large table where we sat if it would stop the bullets. Fortunately, the police presence acted as a deterrent and the guy didn’t show, but it was dicey.
Decorations are not up yet, but will be right after Labor Day.And I remember the times when several individuals would appear really ticked off at us about something. But I don’t remember any organized large groups of 25 or 30 with placards. Tuesday night was intimidating. The board sat a quite a distance from the speakers and from each other I guess that’s still left over from Covid. Very different from when I was on the board. People were not more than 10 fifteen feet from us. We must have been 25 or more Tuesday night. Like it was hard to read expressions.A good change is board members don’t respond to speakers unless they want to clarify and total mis-statement. Now that’s got to be really hard, but probably better than before when we’d get into a back and forth with someone who only wanted to hear us agree with them. If we couldn’t or wouldn’t, they just got madder.
I hadn’t spoken before the board in many years and despite speaking being something that I’m pretty comfortable with, my nerves were running high. I practiced at least a dozen times trying to get the time just right. Two min. max and then they cut you off. And to get the words just right, changing them right up until before I left at 5. I do need to acknowledge my friends who sent me in the right direction to do the reasarch on the topic: Julie MIers, Sue Guthrie, Marcie Fromby, Karen Landon, and of course Lynne Payne. It’s really important to have a wing woman in a situation like that.A group calling themselves Citizens Defending Freedom was there with placards with disparaging terms for our LBGTQ+ friends, It was pretty ghastly. The problem is they just want freedom for themselves and not for others.
Bob’s birthday last year or year before. It was cool enough to be outside, which it definitely isn’t this year or last.I did give my 2-minute-on-the-dot speech. Others said I did well. It was a very heartwarming feeling when I turned around to return to my seat to see a group of folks standing and applauding. Now I had stood and applauded for speakers before me, so I wasn’t the first or only, but I didn’t realize how nice it would feel to see all those folks having my back.Will my friend and I go back? I suppose so. You can’t just lie down and let the naysayers have the stage.
You may be wondering about the title of this post. Well, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, is one of the many books that has been banned across the country. I haven’t seen the list of the books pulled from the FWISD libraries, but it’s probably there. Remember, no one forces you to read a book. But please, don’t try to keep me from reading one. By the way, several members of my family will go see TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Bass Hall next month. I’ll let you know how the performance is. Apologies for such a lengthy post, but not for the subject. We are in a battle to keep this country a democracy. Part of that means rule by the majority while protecting the rights of the minority. And while I might not like what you write or say or read, I’ll defend your right to write, say, and read. I would appreciate if you’d do it civily. As always, I’d love to hear from you.Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my NEWSLETTER MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com) Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest @Marsharwest https://wordbyword.net/category/blog/ https://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/ https://www.instagram.com/marsharwest Amazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle Marsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | Goodreads Marsha R. West Books – BookBub
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