We Must Fight Back Against Book BansWe have the opportunity to protect the next generation’s ability to think, question, and become fully themselves. Our values as a Commonwealth demand we take it.
Before I ever held elected office—before I understood the mechanics of government or the levers of policy—I was a high school student on Cape Cod trying to make sense of the world around me. At Nauset Regional High School in Eastham, I first got involved in organizing by speaking up with my classmates to protect the arts programs and teachers who helped shape who we were and who we’d become.
That experience taught me something I’ve carried ever since: young people deserve to be trusted with complexity, not shielded from it. Books are a fundamental part of that. The books I read in my teens gave me language for things I didn’t yet fully understand, and perspective on lives that looked different from my own. Books helped me ask questions, challenge assumptions, and, over time, better understand myself. That’s why I find the current wave of book ban efforts so troubling and so fundamentally at odds with what education—and our democracy—is supposed to be. Thanks for reading The Gavel Drop! This post is public so feel free to share it. < >What Happens NextAn Act regarding freedom of expression is awaiting action in the House of Representatives.
If passed by the House, any differences between the House and Senate versions will need to be reconciled—most likely in a conference committee—before the bill heads to Governor Healey’s desk for her review and signature. For Your ConsiderationIf preventing politically-motivated book bans is important to you, please:
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