that dewey had one in 1944 that he wound up not winning in 1948. iowa, for examplecorado, wyoming those those states were states that he had won. ohio, he had won in 1944. and did not win in 1948. he blamed the farm vote. and there's good reason to think that that contributed that. and truman was just a more down to kind of guy. he had you know, he grew up on a farm. i mean, he he understood that life in a way that franklin roosevelt certainly did not, at least not from personal experience. and. ironically, dewey, he wasn't being a prosecutor or governor,

actually had a dairy farm. so he he, you know, engaged in the farming to some degree as well. but i think that truman was a much more credible kind of spokesman for issues and. those were states that that we had to count on some of those agricultural areas and he did not manage to win them. and our guest is ben andrew busch, the university of tennessee, a civics professor there. thanks for helping clarify the election.

tonight. i'm happy. welcome amanda jones to the pratt library to discuss her book, that librarian part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on, the front lines of our vicious culture wars. amanda will be in conversation this evening by stacey nunn and president of the maryland association school librarians. amanda jones has been an educator for 23 years. at the same middle school she attended as a child. she has served as of the louisiana association of school librarians and won numerous awards for her in school libraries, including library journal librarian of year, a sought after keynote speaker. amanda is a frequent volunteer for state and national library associations as well as a

co-founder of the livingston parish library alliance and founding member of louisiana citizens against censorship. she lives in livingston parish, louisiana. stacey nunn is third career educator with 14 years of experience. currently stacy as a library media specialist baltimore county. she an active member of the american library association and a counselor at large for the 2024 2027 term. additionally she serves on the scholastic publishing. she is the 2024 president of the maryland association of school librarians and is both the advocacy and conference committees. the washington post called that librarian an important and engrossing story. while the book makes clear the importance of what it makes even more clear is the importance of conscientious. like jones willing to stand up

for their libraries. and in a starred from booklist, they wrote jones is frank open emotionally raw and unwavering. what she endured is every librarian worst nightmare. yet she perseveres offering tips and playbooks for how readers can defend books against lgbtqia. plus topics of interest. sexual health and more in their public. a must read in order to understand the deep and lasting impact of online smear campaigns and enduring need to stand up for books. jones is an inspiration. everyone combatting book bans and her memoir slash guidebook should be available to all to help us defend our right to read is my great pleasure to welcome amanda jones and stacey nunn.

thank you. good evening, everyone. thank you for coming out this evening. we're going to get started right with, amanda? i hope you all had the to read the book. if not, do so just in a few words. amanda, tell me, who is amanda jones? how or what inspired you to become a librarian and? how has moved you forward in terms of your goal setting? okay, so who is amanda jones inside? stacey those are really because we're friends. i small town school educator for 24 years. very town, louisiana. as you can probably tell from my accent, i.

i just my. mom and dad raised me to be a reader. my mom is a former kindergarten. she's retired teacher. my dad to read. and they they took us to the library every every week. we also we would pile our friends the station wagon and my mom would take all of and i became an educator because i just love my community and i love, i think it's a calling. would you say it's because you're an educator, too? like right. it's a calling. being an educator and i just always, you know, kind of knew that's what i wanted to do. and so that's what i do. and been fortunate to be at the same school for this is my 24th year, but i tell me what the second part of that question and how has it moved you forward with your father's and the in the profession. i and not just an educator, a teacher and a librarian but i also really believe volunteering in your professional.

and so i think that when you want to do something and i bring it back this quote it was the the am i going to say the quote because i'm going to mess it up. but it's my dr. martin luther king jr about when, you know, what your life's blueprint is and you have solid blueprint and foundation and you know what you're going to do in life. you should do it as if god almighty has since you down to do this job and do it to the best of your ability. and that's what i try to do. i am very with so many school friends and librarian friends that helped me along the way to try to be the best can be. and so just i'm very fortunate and i think that as a school librarian i have the best job in the world. i don't think there's a better job in i'm biased because that's what i do. but i think there's a better job than to be a school or an educator. thank you. what was your inspiration to? write that librarian. you speak a lot in the book about censorship and you know,

even now you just touched on community. tell me, what was your inspiration for writing the book. yes. okay. so i'm going to tell the story about how it came to be. okay. because i contrary to popular hate in my community, i didn't i'm not seeking fame and fortune. you know, i would have a educator. i, i, you know, i i've been harassed for the past two years. it's still happening in my town. i've been been harassed and the way this all came about was because i gave a speech as a resident of my community at the public library, not at my school board, not where i work as a resident, my community. i went to the public library and gave a speech about censorship and about library policy and my community turned on me because i was targeted.

two extremists and who created these awful memes and lies about me and circulated them within the community, which kind of spiraled me into having to go seek therapy for the first time in my life and my therapist, you when you wake up one morning when a targeted campaign to ruin your reputation and and they basically write they put the quote the warren buffett quote it takes 20 years to build a reputation 5 minutes to ruin it. they wrote that like they they said what they were trying to do for everyone to see. i was in i was in therapy and she said, you should write down feelings. so i had been writing down different things and a friend of mine said, well, you know, you're writing all of these things down. maybe you should write a book and i'm not. well, i guess i am a writer now, but i, i'm a reader. i'm a reader. i don't write well i don't like to write. it is a task for me.

so i had that it seriously, but in my phone on that, on the app notes app, i was like, well, if i did have a chapter, what would i it what would i call it? and it just so happened that, i don't know if you've heard of the organization need diverse books they do an auction every and you can buy you can bid on these auction items for signed copies of books are author visits and they had a 30 minute zoom with a literary agent and i thought well i you know i know how we buy the books and what determines what we put in our collection. i know that in but how does it become a book. so i bid on this auction just to learn and to raise money for help. need diverse books. well, i won auction and that was the best $75 i ever spent. i ended up talking to agent named sarah fiske, and we talked and it was supposed to be for a 30 minute zoom. but went for an hour and sarah was like, wait a are you the

library that i've been reading about in the newspaper and i was like, yeah, that's me. and said, have you ever thought about writing a book was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. well, that very evening, the tobias literary agency that she works for offered me offered to sign me. yeah. and was thinking about how i mean, i'm not really going to write a book, but didn't cost anything. so. okay, so i said i read over the contract, i sent it to attorney and she's like, looks good to me. --. and now, i don't know, i, i signed it, you know, the very day a senior editor, bloomsbury publishing, emailed me and said, i heard you on the new york first person podcast. have you ever thought about writing a book? and i said, well, actually, i just an agent and. i let them talk and they an

offer i couldn't pass up to, tell my story and get paid for it. and i realized that's how that happens. i realize there are people that write their whole lives waiting for an agent. i am very privileged and i'm very thankful. i i kind of think, you know, i don't like to talk about religion lot because i don't want to i don't like to push my religion on other people. but i believe that, you know, god has a plan for me and this must be my plan. and so, i mean, how else, you know, this is to me. so now the book was not it was hard to write. there's a lot of work, but that's how the book came to be. i just started mapping out the chapters like what i would, and i pulled up those funny chapter names. so one of the titles early on when i was being targeted, harassed, i had tweeted out into the universe, are you there, michelle? it's me, amanda. and it was to michelle obama, not that she ever see it, but are you there, michelle? and so was you know, she always says that we should take the high road.

when they go low, you go high. and so my whole tweet was about hard. it is when you're being smeared and to to go high, it's very but it was also my own judy blume, so that i thought because you know, are you there? god, it's me, margaret. and then i thought, well, judy needs her own separate chapter. so i had ww what would judy do and it just kind of and then i started getting a kick of coming out with these titles that i thought were funny. and so it just kind went from there and my agent helped me shift it around and we had a book proposal and it just became a thing. and then i signed it. then i had to write it. so and i can honestly say when you shared the information you were very humble about it, like you guys, i, you know, got a deal to write a book and that was just that. and we were like, wow, we weren't surprised at all like the group tat wasn't surprised at all how, how did the way others portray you contribute to the desire for this all book so

i you know to put it to kind of tell you how how my was at the time in 2021 i was named national school librarian of the year for school library journal and they paraded me in front of the school board, you know my community was all excited because. look what our librarian did, you know in our community and, my school board, i represent to write a letter where she was crying and she was like, you're one of the best things that's ever happened to my our community. and, and i was on this high, like, you know, this is great and then you fast forward one year and they all turn their back on me, you know, these including my school board representative who was a friend of mine who said i was one of her child's favorite teachers. when answer my calls, i asked her for help radio silence. not only did she not help, she's

actually filed bills in our legislature against librarians, you know. and so all i did was go to our public library. and i gave a speech about censorship. and i talked about how books that attempted, you know, books are, you know, censored, banned, whatever you want to call it. they always target marginalized, historically marginalized communities. it's just a i quoted the trevor project and talk about how libraries are a safe space for kids of the lgbtq. i talked about how people are trying to erase history. i but it was just a speech that every single i know would give the same speech. it wasn't anything risque or i didn't talk about books, but all of a sudden, these minimum, these men that i didn't even know i don't even know these men. i've never interacted with them, don't know why they chose to target me because i wasn't the only one that spoke that night. 20 something 30 people spoke and said the same thing i did but they started they took my

picture and they were saying i was advocating for certain acts with children that i giving pornography and erotica to six year olds and that was circulated and you know when you even see your kindergarten the lady who taught you can the guardian write you're a groomer online it takes hit and i kids watch us as educators kids watch us you know and we have to set a good example and i couldn't have responded on social media it would have no good and i wasn't about to get into some kind of argument on social media with any of these people. so the only thing knew to do to clear my name was to speak to journalists and then to write this book, to let my community know. and when i wrote this book mean, i spilled the tea on the community. and there's a lot of and i but i didn't name people i tried to shield their but showcase the

hypocrisy because i don't want anyone to target them like they've targeted me. i didn't shield the identity of the two men that that have been the cause of this. but i wanted people to know the truth and. the book's been out for about two or three weeks and the communities all abuzz about it, that's all they talked about for a solid week and it restarted the hate and they demanded my that they didn't say firing expulsion from school like i was a kid and but i just wanted my story out there on public record on my terms thank. and so at what point were you able to self-reflect and move forward in a healthy way to get the information down on paper i can recall you sharing quite a bit being upset at some sometimes it would be a big blob

and sometimes it would be just a few words. but you definitely indicated that you were upset and and how it really took you for a turn emotionally and so and what at what point were you able to kind like self-reflect and think about like who you really are, what you are really trying to do and to move forward in a healthy way to get this information down on paper and share your story with the world. so i think. so, stacie, i, we have a good mutual friend stacie in our in a group chat and we've been texting for years we all were supportive. i mean, what are there? five of us? six of us in the there's five, five of us and we and we're from all different states. yeah. five different states as school librarians and we're friends and we, you know, but we have a mutual friend, a d.c. librarian and casey boyd and casey, i

think my self-reflection started back in 2020. and i write about this in the book, having met casey and listening to her and but when this hit, i was i was devastated it but my friends really came through for me and i. i spent a week you when you wake up because i had a death threat and the death threat and how the book opens up is with the the first the third i got and it's very explicit and talks about, you know, click, click we're going to come get you and all this business. i was devastated i'll tell you when i was targeted first started being targeted, i spent several days in bed. i cried so much that my eyes wildschut and i could not see my sinuses swelled shut. i couldn't breathe through the top, through my nose. i, i spent about a week maybe in a pity party wallowing, but casey was like, right, what are we going to do? how are we going to fight back?

and i thought, you know, well, yeah, i've got to i can't just wallow this is not the person i was raised to be wallow pity. and so with the help of other librarians from my state and outside the state and my family and i just decided to fight back and. i've since learned of this quote. there's a quote by author samir ahmed that says that we should use our power and our privilege for purpose. and i am very privileged. i'm a white, straight, cisgender female. the only person more power, you know historically is my white male counterpart and. there's a lot of power. you know, people in my community. oh, there's no privilege. yes. is privilege in being white. there is privilege of being middle class, a married know i'm married. there's privilege in that. and i thought if i didn't use i have a platform afforded to me for being a state national librarian of the year.

that's a waste of a platform form. if i don't speak out, i am well-connected to people at, you know, books and the editor of school library journal and people who are connected. so if i didn't use that to get the word out about what's happening because this is not just happening to me. this is happening to libraries all across the united states. i am not unique. i'm just happened to be one of the loudest. this is happening to a lot of people and i can give you a name and every state and i. i thought i had to speak out and it's otherwise what a you know like what a waste. i don't even know if i answered your question. did i just go on. you're doing great. and so like that kind of betrayal, a little bit motivated. were there any moments that you ever felt like you wanted to be and do? oh, yeah. oh, oh, yeah all the time. i mean, but we can't i get out. i'll give you a few examples.

i don't mind sharing so they call me banana. they say that i'm bananas i'm crazy and they use the banana emoji and all of my and all of their posts about me because they think they're funny because they have emotional, they have the intellect like a four year old child and i so, i'm vindictive in the fact that i, i have funnier nicknames for them that not going to say so that are inappropriate but they're so much more intelligent than than their nicknames. but i, you know, they were they were shirts with bananas on them like and so sometimes sometimes i'll tell you about a weak moment. so in the legislature last there were nine anti library bills in the louisiana and they were all the it's a it's a dark money nonprofit extremist group that pushes all this and. it's it's you know with the help

of our we an extremist super majority of alt right extremist in the house and senate and a dictator governor in louisiana and. my lawyer did say i could still refer to him as kim jong landry, but his name is jeff landry. i had a different name as he said. no, that goes too far close to defamation. stick with kim jong way. so but he you know, we we had nine entire library bills and every day these people were posting going to get a mad like like it was like against me personally like what the how many thousands of librarians and libraries and i so i took it personal so we i'm i helped found an organization called louisiana citizens against censorship. and collectively we sent 44,000 emails to the legislature. we built a coalition of people from all of life that are for the first amendment and freedom of speech. so, yeah, one of my vindictive moments was we, were in a, you

know, i told you about my school board member who said how wonderful, great i was. well, i write about her in the book and her i call her katie because i didn't to sell her real name, but her real name is kelly and representative schiff now representative kelly and, she filed a bill called hb 772 in prison library aliens who attended an american library association conference, two years of hard labor to see that's what i that's how i react to and they were nicknaming it the amanda jones bill this was my former friend this is she's my representative in my district and to be honest with you i voted for because the other two were even worse than her. that tells you so. but she you know, i took it personally well because they called it the amanda jones bill. i go to school and i would teach

and work all day and then after school i would spend hours and hours calling lobbyists legisla building coalitions. and so when i showed up to speak at the legislative hearing hearing. it, we defeated bill and it was fabulous fabulous. i say we because they it was a coalition of all of and they even said the legisla leaders, republican and democrats, said, we got 400 emails each against this bill and two for it. it's the power, the people. so being this gets back to have you ever felt vindictive? three rows of the people that hate me that have started this mess against me were sitting behind me in the legislature calling me names during the the legislative session. i have to endure that. i mean when we won, did i take out a banana, turn around and face them and eat it on live tv as it streaming in the. yes i did.

so i mean maybe i'm immature but what they going to fight me for eating a banana that i mean that's about it that's about as vindictive as i get you know, just my husband. yeah. you should hear all my husband wants to do, man. but we can't because not legal. so, you know and i but also i don't i don't wish violence on people you know, the people that like that that destroy want to destroy else that says more about them than it does about so just you have to grow a thick skin and it takes right into our next question you know like you talked about your child rearing and you spoke about up as a christian and what ways do that, how you responded to some of the criticism that you received along the way. so grew up southern baptist in the bible belt and but i was my

my mom was a sunday school teacher. and but we were raised that god is love, love thy, neighbor as thyself. be a good you help those need that's that's the type christian that i was raised to be so in my speech at that the library board in my original speech what i think have really made them mad i said that i was that god is love. but as an adult i realized that what our community means that god is love only. if you if you have the same political beliefs as they like that they still don't like that to hear them speak. i am a i know i'll tell you my favorite quote. so i made a shirt. it says amanda jones has joined the radical leftists to common sense morals on the altar of wokeism. so i made a certain i wear it because i'm vindictive, but i just i was raised and i

technically i'm still a registered republican that's a whole story in and of itself. i, you know, in louisiana, i was telling stacey this backstage, we're closed primaries. only republicans run. i would only i would not i couldn't vote if i wasn't a republican. have i voted that in years on federal and no, i. i don't i think these issues should be like libraries. that should be a nonpartisan issue. right. it's a constitutional first amendment free speech issue, targeting historically communities violates the 14th amendment. we all be for the 14th amendment. i you know, so i, i don't i don't feel i don't like where i'll just leave it at that. i haven't voted that way. i don't think human rights should be political. so and i not be a part of any

party that that would take trying to take away rights from anyone, whether it be the lgbtq community women, children, whatever or whoever. let's talk a little bit about the support of your family. how were they supportive? and let me add on to that, because your mother was quite the upstander in the book and i love that term because, you know, you digital citizenship and that's kind like what we're teaching kids right now. and so your mother was quite the upstander. can you speak more about her strength and just your the support you received from your family? a whole. so the first few days. my parents and i did not speak because they are very they tend to have extremist views politically that i do not have. and they initially kind of were

taken aback at the hatred and thought that i must have done something something. they quickly fixed that, apologized, but they couldn't rap because because when i tell you that people were targeting harass me. so we're like my local representative then senator and like it wasn't it people of power to and but they quickly they quickly were like what happened? and it was all fine. my mother has been one of my biggest supporters this entire time. my mother has this i you know, this is at a public library board meeting two years ago. and still go to every single one of them and still speak. i will i refuse to be silent, but my mom usually goes with and my mom i don't know, i get to the point of remember this, the book or not, but this is when kind of had her back. like, you know, mama bear takes the stage. so my mom is 411 know and i

really so in court because i am suing these men and we're headed to louisiana court but you know, the men tried to sit behind me in so that my family i couldn't look at my family. and so my mom had of that and she's like, oh, hell no. and that my mom like she don't curse you that. but she was like and she like, is that what you talk about where she squeezed herself in between the two men she and her little feet could even hit the floor and she like it herself. and she's like, yeah. and coffin until they got up and laughed and they're like fine. we'll leave you. you. but my mom has. yeah. something not in the book that i'll share is that my mom. very southern baptist in her belief system. and i my best friend is gay and

he he lives. he moved away. but we've been best friends since junior high. high school and he was a part of our family. and i was a part of his family. and she always accepted. but since they retired, my parents do what retirees do intend to watch a lot of tv and a lot of that tv is fox news. some hate has been you know it's when you listen to something that is screaming all the time, you get angry and so their views kind changed. and so i was, you know, trying to explain to my mom, she's like, why do we have to defend? she said, these books and libraries are for everyone. everybody in the community pays taxes. everybody deserves to see themselves is on the shelves and their their families represented, you know. and so she came with me to a library board meeting and this very book was being challenged called carefully and wonderfully made and it was a book for teenagers written by psychologists. and it was under attack and the

people in the community saying it's pornographic. i didn't have anything of the sort in it, but a trans woman got up and spoke and and what i tell you was that that quote about sheik speak, even when you when you say that's yeah you even when your voice shakes and she was like you see her and she was crying and she but she got it out and she said this, this, this book can save lives this. it's got resources. it can help people like me from taking our own lives. she got so upset, ran out of the meeting after she spoke and and and my mom we got in the car that night and my mom started crying and she said, you know what, amanda? she calls me amanda. beth because that's what melanie don't want amanda. beth i think books can save lives. and i was like, mother, where have you been for two years? but for the first time she said, i why these books are important and it's for me.

and i wouldn't read, but that doesn't mean it doesn't mean to be there because it might need to be there for somebody else. so yeah, my mom, she's. yeah. asked me tomorrow might be a different we're like we're like the oil and vinegar so you mentioned i'm being scared at one point are there still moments when you feel scared but do you have that fear of the unknown. yes i, i it's still happening. one of the men, the extremist, posted my online two weeks ago. yeah. he went on this weird ten minute video blog thing about me connecting. me to like this organisé. i don't know what it's like. it doesn't make sense. i've stopped trying to figure it out and on desk was a picture, a framed photo. me because that's not concerning or anything. so as he's displaying a picture of me proudly on his desk and

then in the video and giving my address, you know, it just i don't go out anymore in my town don't go out to eat. i, i get my groceries delivered. i live in a small town with two red lights. so if i go out. i'm going to see everybody in their mama. that's what always say, you know, i don't go out in my community anymore. sometimes have to, though, parent nights at school where i work. but my daughter is 17 and she's in the band. she was 15 when this started. so what you do on a friday night, the football team and the band plays. so if i go, if i want to go, my child, i have to sit in the stands. people call me pedophile and groomer people follow me around, record me, take my picture to post awful things about me. and i live in that. they're going to say these things in front of child and they have we've gone dress shopping at the local little

boutique and. my daughter realized everyone was staring and making ugly comments and she started crying and said, can we please leave for a speech i gave at the public library? i well, i guess it's not just that because i refuse to be silent now, i about everything, you know, i'm talking about all the books, but, you know, i'm scared. i have every two months when i go to speak at the public library board meeting, i have to travel miles through wooded roads. i, i concealed carry. i sleep with a shotgun under my bed. we got cameras installed. i a dash cam. i am in fear for my life and it's not, you know. oh, that's no it's these people are obsessed me and it's it's very scary and they the people that are behind us are people in positions of power and the dark money nonprofit.

so yeah, there's and they're backed, you know, by our governor. so yeah, there's it's i have a reason to be scared. they're not they're still not going to silence me. they're so right. and so you you mentioned in remember in the back room, i said i had a couple moments. it says, what did it feel like when organizations derogatory comments about you and what you stand for. and you mentioned that at one point all of these organizations started popping up like on a teenager or something like that it was i said all the organizations, all the negative like. how did that feel for you in and you've already mentioned that that can that is continuing but how did that yeah it's like a virus a stomach virus and they all catch it and they all just want to regurgitate the everything. hey, they're all over the place. it's like, you know, yeah, mom's for liberty. tweeted, i was a grandma.

the national moms for liberty that has, what, million or so followers. cheer. i check lipstick, talk. who you know, tweeted about me. i but you know it's not those don't bother me as much as the local people the person i taught down the hall from for ten years, my my child's best friend's father is saying because at point they were selling that had my face lasered into it that said librarian tears they sold them and and my my child her best friend's dad said i got get me one of those how do i explain that to my child your best friend's dad is a a-hole like i can't you know

it's you know it's harder when it's people you know and people you expect act better of. so it's it's the close the home people that that are the most upsetting. so you've answered the next few question so so talk let's talk a little bit about the people who actually supported. yes, i'll tell you, it's it's first of all, the school librarians from the get go had my had my back. stacy in the group chat and all of them. and then school i brands across the country i noticed school librarians public academic librarians. the president of the american library association at the time called me personally, didn't know her, called me personally to check on me. i mean, she got my cell phone number. i don't care because i needed to hear, you know, how like she was so supportive of me. what can i do to help all of the the past current and the future at the time american association

of school librarians, presidents, all four of them called me personally. what do you need? students? i have a 24 year educator. when i started teaching, you know, i taught 13 to 14 year olds at the time. so they're in their mid thirties now and a lot of those students, former in their late twenties, early thirties reached out to me and i said i say this often that it's kind of like my it's a wonderful life moment that even though there's been such hate, the and people saying you made a difference to me i had you know i talk about some of them in the book i will say gen z army came out and full force when i those those kids that are and they're not they're early twenties they started trying to get on social media like you know i'll talk about my teacher you know and but i've had you know, i had a

student and i write about the student named sean who lived in minnesota that heard me on npr formula and said, miss jones, i heard you on npr. i recognize your voice immediately. i know you don't remember me, but name is sean and blah blah blah blah. and i was i wrote back, well, yes, sean i remember you. you're in fourth hour. i remember you sat two years prior to that. i taught your brother dylan. remember where he sat? he was in my sixth hour there in their late 20 early thirties because. when they're your kids, they're your kids for life. and he he said, remember we took that lesson to remember we did this. and your then dad outshines the every death threat. you know that's that's yeah you and i'll i'll say sean's in minnesota he's still in minnesota and i'm so proud of him he's married and he has really great job. his brother came my book launch. his brother went to rutgers and

got his master's in education is now teaching in baton rouge and came to my book client and he said and i was miss mckee even as i made it i this mickey rooney and i'm like yes i said i even wrote about it my book when your brother reached out to me because his mom came to and she's like, you know, i just i'm so i'm so thankful that you taught my boys and you just can't take that away from me no matter how hateful people are. all they have is their hate. i have thousands. i counted it up one day. i've taught over 8000 students. you know know, and it if at least you know one of them. i changed that's more than these people they don't have that i feel for them so and so you've you've offered a lot of support to students. well, excuse me you taught a lot of students and i know like you

have a lot colleagues who actually you really inspire them. do you find that people reach out you often? yes i you know, because we've each other for years, you know, i kind of i had so many people i learned from when i was starting out as a school librarian. so like i tried to turn around and offer it back to everybody else. and i think we should lift each other up, you know, like we should all help each other. so if stacy tells me she wants to, you know, maybe join this or run for this or whatever, i'm going to be there for her. and so, you know, i try because people did that for me and i try to turn it around and try to give back and i don't know that i'll ever be able to repay everyone that's given me so much so, but i'll always try the librarian world is the library world in general is fiercely

loyal. but i also learned in this past two years that we're kind of bad. so yeah, and we a lot. i mean, i think that's just that the world of being an educator in general. however, we do share a lot. so i have a few more things because we're to run out of time and we have some coming up. i'm you mentioned a lot about i'm media so i have a few i'm going to give you starter sentences and ask to finish that. okay. social media has been a blessing and a curse. you can you can use it to push false information. hey. or you can use it like what i've been doing to push the truth about libraries and to build coalitions to combat this absolute. here's another one standing up for censorship has been the thing to do. and i wouldn't change a thing about it.

absolutely. and if i had an opportunity, start over, i would change not a thing. yeah, i wouldn't change anything. i mean, that's not don't get me wrong. it sucks. i don't want to go through that again. i don't want to go through that. but i, i want to change it in order to escape what happened to me. i want to change anything. so, yeah, the, the book itself is, is definitely a wonderful tell all. i think that the the way you your story as well as there are parts that school librarian can relate to at some point in time in there i think that it's inspiration personal i think you touch on emotional issues that several librarians felt over time but i also think that people in our world and

hopefully in the world in general disrespect to a different way because you decided to step out and be courageous and brave. so in closing, my last question is who is amanda jones. oh, i'm for the word. oh, accomplice, because am not. i'm going to be accomplice for. is that the word? i'm trying to think if somebody said it, it's not an activist, it's not an advocate it. you go even farther and you become an in the good trouble, you know. so that's why i'm trying to be for the greater good, you know, excellent. and i'll tell you, it it wasn't hard at all like was online searching these questions. so and i'm like, screw this. i just started typing because i had read the book and i knew who you were, but i wanted to give

the audience information like questions that you all may have. i wanted some of those questions to be answered because i've heard this stuff from you but the book really opened my eyes and inspired me and just just gave me some reinforcement on exactly functioning because, my goodness, like all the things you endured throughout the book, the way you shared the information and the way that you were, there were a lot of vulnerable moments there and and i just wanted to say thank you for that. thank you for sharing. you're welcome. you know i kind of buried it all there. i even talk about how i am. i'm very uncomfortable about race, but we better have we have to, you know, and i, i talked my family and the way grew up and my views now and it's uncomfortable all in the house. but we have to be uncomfortable and move. you learn and grow and so the

book is, you know it's a it's my story, what happened to me. but it also touches on what's happening to several librarians across. the country it talks about. explain to libraries, to people that don't understand of the policies that we already have, protect children. and then it talks about hate and hate rhetoric and politicians and why this is happening. and then it ends on a good note with me returning, it's i took a medical leave of absence. so the book ends from returning back to school, which was last year. and it and it gives people several tips on what to see if it's happening in their community or how to help others that. i hope people take away from it that aren't, you know, librarians that are just that are moms, dads, grandparents, uncles, citizens who love libraries and who love reading and want to protect our first amendment. thank you, amanda.

know you're. and so now it's time for audience to ask some questions. so if you have a question, you can come the mic. i'm currently at the mic, the far side of the auditorium where my colleague is at and we will go one after another until top of the hour. so don't be shy. we'll let i have also multiple ala a cell functions would lock us up together. okay yes. thank you for speaking to today and for all have done have you figured because you said many talked at that original meeting why you were targeted specifically it was just you were the most uppity woman there. was it you know, have you figured that out?

i mean, i have my suspicions. i have my suspicion. i went dressed like a suit type. i was dressed up more than everybody else. i say that i was the 20, 21, national librarian, scholar burn of the year and that i was at the time the current president of the louisiana associate school librarians because i wanted to people to know that when i was talking policy, i knew what i was talking about. and i think what they thought happen was that they would target most outspoken or who they thought would be the most outspoken, and that if they could silence me, they can silence everyone. and it did work because when they i mean they didn't silence me, but they scared everybody and nobody went to the next couple of meetings. they were scared, but they messed with the wrong one and they were not prepared. and so they did not choose their victim very.

thank you. you're welcome. hi thank you so much for speaking today. this has been really edgy. the decision to at your school at, your house, i'm sure, was a very hard decision to make. but i'm curious, why did you choose to stay or more specifically, why did you choose to not leave. it was not hard for me, and i never gave it a second thought because lived there my entire life and. it's my town. and they're not they're not i'm not. you know i'm not a quitter, but it's my town and i'll -- if they're going to run me out of my own town. but everybody has me that everything. everybody does. yeah yeah. hi. my name's kristen. i'm a reporter with the baltimore banner and i have covered a lot of the book burning happening in a county not too far away from here. carroll county, i believe you mentioned utilizing your local

news coverage. and i'm wondering if you could talk about what that coverage like and if you think it helped or hurt, it depends on who's covering it, because we had some of the local television reporters, it was some of the laziest i've ever seen in my life. and they just told one side and sensationalized it. but you had the print reporters that were doing the work and they were linking sources and agendas and they were this what really happened. so that was great. but the people, my community look, they looked at what they could see, which was not. and i refused to speak to the the television media, but i spoke to every print reporter and but you have to you have to you have to put it on public. people are going to read about this like 20, 30, 50 years.

i want to document what we did. you know, so print, print all the way. me. hi, amanda. my name is denise. and first i want to say is, is know my christian sister and joshua one nine tells you to please strong and courageous and i just want to encourage you to continue to god's grace and god's power to support your your effort and in your book. secondly, i've raised two daughters, beautiful daughters. 24 and 29 now. and were raised in this library. both had library cards at the of three. so i love love love and libraries and they were both strong and you know i had a dream for my my girls or it to come to fruition the the oldest one the 29 she works for

microsoft and the other one just graduated from from albright and on mother's day this year and the oldest one received her master's from carnegie university. so all from the library that were awesome librarians that we met along the way in the books that that that i encourage them to read as a mother. my third question is for in regards to your daughter in regards to all of this crazy ness and madness because i'm kind of going through similar at this particular time, the peer pressure that was placed on her. i'm just curious, as you can speak, on how did it did it create division? because you're in the high school she's you say she's 17 and you're in high. and that's where you that the most. i mean i went through some with my girls but we was able to trust god in this situation. but i'm just curious as to did

it created create any division in your household or in to the her other classmates and attacking her because of what's going on and do she your book so. that's a good question because i had it affected had my child been targeted too i would had to have taken a step back for her. the thing about my daughter is i mentioned earlier that she's a band and i don't know how bands are school bands around here, but in louisiana they're like tight knit families. and i'll say this community was spewing a lot of hate, but the kids are okay the kids are more inclusive and, empathetic people. and the kids that are in tend to be in the band, in our community are the. there's a lot of members of the communities that i was trying to protect. so they love me. so she love and her principal

the good thing about living in a community where you know her principal the people like they taught me they knew me they were people that watched out for her had had she been by her own peers. and now we we had might not be as outspoken today. but now she's been fine. she care less, actually, about my book she went to the book launch and was like, can we go now? so she's 17. so you know that too. yeah. she's just she's just texted me. when are you gonna be home? i need i need some money. i go. i'm like, your dad's right next to you. i. oh, yeah, she's fine. she's fine. yes. thank you. hi, how are you? i'm i'm a library media specialist in county. i this is my 29th year in education, seventh year in the library. i have been part of several reconciliations. my recommendation book selection committees and i think as in

marilyn, we feel like we are safe. you know or a little more safe than other states. but i see that you know each year it gets a little closer to texas, to louisiana and to florida because there are so there's this can, you know, organizations that's trying to change the narrative of the freedom to read. so my question is, before gets to that point where we're at you know at louisiana, we're in florida, we're in texas where laws are threatening our lives and threatening our job and threatening our livelihoods. what we do now so that we are protecting ourselves, knowing it is at a place. it's happening. it's coming. i was coming. yes. so what do we do as? a state that's pretty liberal that where we when we do have these review committees were actually winning.

we're actually, you know, allowing books to stay made. but it could change. yeah and yeah. so just that's that's a really good question. and i talk a lot, so i write a lot of my book about building an alliance, a public library or a school or like a library alliance in your county and start getting out the good word about libraries and pushing that. but having a coalition already so that when it does arise you already have steps like you've already built a you know you've gotten 910 parents community members together that says if this happens going to do this and you formulate a plan before happens. i just wrote it an essay for time magazine about 2 to 3 weeks ago that attacks on our libraries are really going hinge on this presidential election because you'll see we have one kid i like to get too political. it is it's become a political issue. we have one candidate who is getting up at rallies and spewing that.

they're trying to put sexually explicit material in the toddler libraries, which is not a thing that is doing. and then you have another vice presidential candidate who's signed anti book banning laws in his state as governor in this this election is important and we have to vote because if one person gets in it's going be like this for libraries for another a long time and i just want amy stacey is one of our advocates she the best she's in a group chat with me to see. she's the best she really has so we've got time for two last questions we'll get the mail out. the first one go right now. i did two questions, but one of my questions you just answered, as you know, several major trade publishers just sued and won court cases against school districts in florida. do you see that happening and what role do you think? major trade publishers can play

in preventing sue as censorship in both public and school libraries? it's very important that they that that's i because for a while there was just penguin random house and i a friend of i even talked about writing an article called send in the cavalry like one of the rest of you had to join my come on now. but i'm happy to see that in florida and texas all of the top five have joined now i'm including my own public i'm so thankful and so because the grassroots alliance is that we build they're great in at the local level but we have no money. we cannot file lawsuits. so is a major win in florida this week and then coming in two weeks our next week september fourth. there's a huge case called leila green. leila little green versus l.a. texas. it's going to be in the fifth circuit, which is it's a texas court case, but it's happening

in new in the fifth circuit that's going to determine it's going to be huge for censorship and public libraries. it's in public it's going to take these big corporate nations, these big publishing companies to put their money behind their authors in their books and the citizens in the libraries. i also wish, though, that the library supply companies would join in because if there's no libraries, are they going to supply? so we're working on that, they're thanks, amanda, for writing your book. i think you just sort of answer my know lead into my next question. you know we talked about like the censorship flow school libraries and it's gone down to the public libraries and what's the next step, you know, whether it's like the publishing houses, etc., i think that's exactly where we're going. we talk about project 2025 and it's laid out all in there. and so i think people need to educate themselves on this. so thank you so much. you're welcome. yeah, they actually they did go after bookseller hours in texas with legislation.

they they they went after a bookseller, bookstores. they've gone after was a barnes and noble where they went after a sarah james book. and they even they even like did a little trespassing and got it. yeah. and interviewed and yeah granbury, texas they, you know they're into libraries and and you know i mentioned project 2025 all the time in my community and they're like oh that's not real and i'm like it's happening right now we're here what do you mean it's not real? it's happening right now the libraries are mentioned on page five and what they're doing is what they're and it's you know they'll they won't stop and the goal the ultimate goal is to defund schools and libraries and them and it goes back to authoritarian pushing christian nationalism and you know back in the of who has power, who does and who has the money and if we don't stop it, we're going to lose our schools, libraries.

so, yeah, but is it. please join me in thinking tonight's moderator stacey nunn. and our author amanda jones amanda jones.