Apparently, the state of Florida has passed a law, labeled HB1467, which will take its full effect from July 1, 2023. In a nutshell, the bill prohibits materials, namely books, from schools unless deemed appropriate by a librarian or a certified media specialist. And to become a certified media specialist, one has to undergo an online training developed by the Florida Department of Education!! Furthermore, if a teacher is found in violation of the guideline, he/she could be charged with felony! That means every book that currently exists in a school or any new ones that are deemed useful by the teachers has to go through this process!!
As I was reading the article that talked about this bill, I could not help to remember Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian novel about a future time in the American society where books have been personified and outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found.
I know this trend is not a new one and luckily it is not a widespread movement (yet), but the thought of it is scary, especially when you think about who the governor of Florida is, Ron Desantis. Why do I say that?
Well for one, he is a super conservative politician, and to secure the right wing of the Republican party, he is supporting many conservative, not to say anti-democratic , laws. He has also come out in support of downgrading the jury requirement in Florida for death penalty from unanimously voted, to a ‘Super-Majority’. I guess he believes that there are always a couple of bad apples in every batch of fruit!
The problem, however, is somewhere else. The other day, before even reading the article on the books, I realized this handsome, affable, and dynamic politician is expected to enter the presidential race in 2024, and who knows, he could win. And as one of my best and oldest friends in America said: he is worse and more dangerous than Trump.
So maybe to have a decent America, we should hope that Trump gets over his legal hassles, runs in the Republican primary, and by some stroke of Russian help, beats DeSantis. And then, thanks to the Democrats fielding an up and coming star candidate, Trump will disappear once and for all. As an old very popular Aerosmith song says, Dream On!!!
Paris, January 26, 2023
Zeejay