Residents should organize to battle book bans in schools

I'm writing in response to the recent book bans at Martin County schools. These book removals raise a simple yet essential question: What price do we pay when our community bans books? As a retired college professor and Martin County resident since 1952, I support the rights of our students to access library books without political interference.

Readers Digest, hardly a left-wing publication, stated that the national campaign to censor school library books is a “crusade to oppress already marginalized voices.” The problem is growing, and according to the Guardian, 2,500 book bans were enacted in U.S. schools from 2021 through 2022.

Our students will be better prepared to face a diversifying society if their First Amendment rights are returned. According to the Guardian: “Banned books are some of the best books for people to read because they offer new perspectives and insights from people with life experiences different from their own.”

How can we act?

Build a local network of citizens opposed to the book bans and appear in force at Martin County school board meetings. Bring students along and encourage them to talk about how school library books have made them more open minded and knowledgeable about controversial but essential subjects.

My family goes back to the founding of Martin County in 1925 when my great-uncle was appointed the first county judge by Gov. John Martin. My father served as Martin County’s school board architect in the 1950s and '60s during a boom in school building construction. All of us have contributed our blood, sweat and tears to make Martin County a better place for the next generation.

To that end, let’s stop the politically driven removal of books from our schools.

Don Armstrong, Stuart
 

Columnist right about lagoon's demise

For part of the 30 years I’ve lived in Vero Beach, we lived on the river behind the Environmental Learning Center.

I and the kids fished off our dock after work and school almost daily. I had three crab traps hanging off the dock.

I remember my daughter remarking when she was about 5 years old that we should open a seafood restaurant because of all the fish we pulled out of the river.

My son, now 21, turned to me while fishing in the river when he was about 14 or 15 years old and said: “Dad, it’s not like the old days.”

Larry Reisman hit the nail on the head with his observations recently on the Indian River Lagoon.

The influx of people and the desire for green lawns (not the good “green”) with toxic fertilizer runoff and septic tanks leaching into the river has sped up the lagoon's demise.

I fear the effort needed to really do what needs to done is not in the cards during my lifetime.

It may be too late already.

At least I have the memories.

Darryl Jacobs, Vero Beach
 

Thankful daughters grew up on living lagoon

Thanks to Larry Reisman for his insightful observations about his recent trip on the lagoon.

It breaks my heart when I remember back when my girls were “young’uns” and we had 10 to 20 manatees sunbathing in the backyard, a family of otters playing on the bank, a flock of white pelicans herding fish into the bay, and we could dig clams with our toes off the spoil island a canoe ride away.  

I’m so thankful they had the opportunity to grow up appreciating that abundance.

Judy Orcutt, Vero Beach

 

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