Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this coming Monday is Juneteenth, our newest national holiday, a day set aside to celebrate the triumph of freedom over slavery in America. The name ``Juneteenth'' is a combination of two words, ``June nineteenth.'' That was the day, in 1865, that the U.S. Army's ``General Order No. 3'' was issued, finally informing the people of Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation--and that all of the remaining enslaved people in that State were free. Sadly, on this Juneteenth--even as our Nation celebrates--we are witnessing the most concerted effort in decades to erase from our history America's long and still unfinished struggle to fully end racism, the odious lie on which slavery was built. Last year, according to the American Library Association, there were 1,269 demands to ban books in school libraries in various States. That is more than double the number of book bans sought in 2021. And it is the greatest number of book bans demanded in the 20 years that PEN America, an organization dedicated to the freedom of expression, has kept records on this troubling trend. What is the most frequent target of these new bans? Books involving, or even just mentioning, issues of race. And what are the books that these censors are demanding be pulled from the shelves of school libraries? Here are some examples: ``To Kill a Mockingbird'' is one.…”