Political Quotes

“I rise today to speak out about the absurd book bannings that are happening in schools across our country. I want to thank Senator Butler for inviting me to speak today about this issue. You know, I was reflecting, as I was listening to Senator Butler speak in the beginning, about what reading meant to me when I was a young person and when I was first understanding what it felt like to be immersed in a book that I loved--that feeling of learning, of being able to imagine myself living different lives, being able to think about what different experiences would be like, and understanding that my life was not everybody's life, that there is such diversity of life in this world, and being exposed to that through reading was so exciting to me. Also, as I was seeing how I was not like everybody else, I was also able to see myself in the people whom I read about--both my own struggles as well as triumphs in the stories that I read--and that is the gift of reading. So to think about the absurdity of trying to block that gift from people because of one's own views about what is OK and what is not OK is, I think, what is at issue here. So I appreciate very much having the opportunity to read into the Record incredible authors whose works have been unfairly banned. To my colleagues, I think it is interesting that, just last week, the American Library Association released new data documenting how prevalent this is.…”