June 22, 2006

The book banners are at it again

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The ACLU has asked a federal judge to stop the Miami-Dade County school district from removing some children’s books from its libraries. The books include Vamos a Cuba and A Visit to Cuba, and were removed because school officials say they contain inaccuracies about life in a Communist country. Both the county schools chief and two advisory committees recommended that the books stay on the shelves, but the county board voted to remove them.

Vamos a Cuba contains pictures of smiling children wearing Communist youth group uniforms and celebrating the revolution of 1959.

What is interesting is that one can be fairly certain that the Miami-Dade district has never tried to remove from the schools the hundreds of history textbooks that are riddled with inaccuracies and distortions about our own history and culture.

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do. That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

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