Don't think fascism could happen here? You haven't tracked the school book bans. | Opinion

I had my sanctuary at Greenland Elementary School in Oconomowoc in 1960. That was the school library. I can smell those books still, lined up like so many magical doors through which a child might enter. The words, “you may go to the shelves and browse” were like being handed a golden key. By reading, the world outside the Oconomowoc of the 1960s came to us. Harriet Beecher Stowe meant reading about slavery, so did Huck Finn, and Pippi Longstocking meant you didn’t need parents: You just needed to be a strong and independent girl.

These days, the encouragement to “go to the shelves and browse” is tainted by well-financed, organized MAGA fearmongering. Students are told that for their protection, we must purge library shelves. Restrict reading. Erase the complexity of history. We at the Wisconsin chapter of Writers for Democratic Action, a national pro-democracy volunteer effort of over 3,000 writers, readers, bookstores, and partner organizations, are working to alert book ban folk that we know it’s never about the books — it is about suppressing the liberty of others, most especially our youth. Such bans contravene core democracy.

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Wisconsin Writers for Democratic Action is keeping track of each book ban. We’re doing it because we know that these book banning efforts are  about sowing distrust in the very idea of public education and all of our public institutions. These organized MAGA campaigns promote a white nationalism view of the country that sees the LGBTQ community as a scapegoat, and sees a misunderstood, seldom taught critical race theory as a bogus plot against America. Parents who do not want children to read specific books have always been able to control what their children read, in school, or at the library. As it should be. That’s not what this is about.

We are tracking each and every book ban in Wisconsin

This is authoritarian thinking. Book bans are democracy’s poison pills. Wisconsin had 43 book bans in the 2022-23 schoolyear, according to PEN America.

The Wisconsin Idea (1904) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is our home grown state philosophy that education should improve government and public policy through enlightenment, far beyond the boundaries of the classroom. The freedom to read and write is thus part of our state’s DNA. One example of the Wisconsin Idea in action is the Wisconsin Writers Association, a 75-year-old vibrant and growing organization that educates and supports writers, authors, and readers across the state. Our children become readers, and those young readers become citizens, writers, and authors. Erecting spurious barriers and roadblocks to the freedom to go to the shelves and browse, to read and write, has no place in the land of the Wisconsin Idea.

Beginning in 1930, WHA began a statewide broadcast for rural Wisconsin  school children called “School of the Air.” Within it was the radio show, “Let’s Write.” It was a marvelous way to tell children that they too could be writers, and essays were read in class – at the grade school level. I’ll never forget hearing mine in 1960 in Delafield.

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While some school districts in Southeastern Wisconsin held off challenges by right wing extremists (Mequon-Thiensville, Elmbrook) and even unseated them (Stone Bank), other communities saw GOP-backed candidates tighten their grip on school boards (Waukesha, Arrowhead) or take full-control (Kettle Moraine). Overall, the threats to public education in the state will continue into 2025. The election this November decides whether we can keep ideas flowing, our schools thriving, and support for public education and public libraries alive.

Sinclair Lewis's 1936 play talks about fascism in America

Writers for Democratic Action will be working to promote forums that push back against autocratic thinking for children. To that end, we will be announcing a project called “It Can’t Happen Here,” based on the Sinclair Lewis play of 1936 which talks about fascism in America.

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On July 19, we will stage scores of community dramatic readings (Milwaukee being the flagship production) of a play adapted from the book. We learned about this play because we read it in our library. Public libraries hold our nation’s creativity, and they hold our history. They won’t let us forget — and they will let us thrive. Sinclair Lewis, a revered American mind, has much to tell us today, just as the thousands upon thousands of other authors found in our precious public libraries.

The forces behind book bans must be exposed. So, too, must efforts to sustain public faith in literature, and democracy. Just as books are the key to opening up minds, we can be the keys to keeping our libraries open and our bookshelves stacked.

Authors Jacki Lyden, OHS’ 71 and a former NPR host, and Barry Wightman, past president of the Wisconsin Writers Association, are the co-chairs of Wisconsin Writers for Democratic Action, the state chapter of Writers for Democratic Action. John Norcross, on our state steering committee, is a writer and blogger based in Oconomowoc. You can find them at WritersforDemocraticAction.org [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin school library bans suppress liberty, point to fascism