OPINION: We now have to pass laws to protect freedoms we thought we had

One of the most disquieting pieces of legislation hit the Maryland General Assembly last month.

It’s House Bill 785 — the Freedom to Read Act.

“A library should not exclude material from its catalogue because of the origin, background or views of a person who created the material,” it says.

“A library should not prohibit or remove material from its catalogue because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”

And the gut punch is about the librarians themselves. They shall not be “dismissed, demoted, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred or otherwise retaliated against,” the bill states.

This part is urgent.

“I have had library workers come to me and say, ‘I’m scared to recommend books to young people,’” said Tiffany Sutherland, president of the Maryland Library Association and a librarian in Calvert County. Her co-workers feel under siege and beleaguered.

Texas and Florida have been the epicenters of America’s recent book-banning movement. But the book challenges, the retaliation against librarians, and the chill of educational discourse are also a concern in blue Maryland.

“This is something you saw on the national news,” said Maryland Del. Dana Jones (D-Anne Arundel), who introduced the bill in January. “But it’s happening here, too.”

A similar federal bill - the Fight Book Bans Act - was introduced in the U.S. House in December. Meanwhile, last year Illinois became the first state to pass a law penalizing libraries that ban books. New Jersey was considering one.

The bill in Maryland would be a sweeping and pioneering stand against a trend right out of Europe’s totalitarian age or any of the science fiction books my kids read (when they were still able to get them in the library).

In the 2022-23 school year, there were 3,362 instances of books being banned from public school classrooms and libraries, according to Pen America. The organization’s tally includes instances “where students’ access to books in school libraries and classrooms in the United States was restricted or diminished, for either limited or indefinite periods.”

It’s the volume of attacks that is new in our era.

Sutherland said that in her 14 years as a librarian, she could previously think of only two instances of book challenges.

“Now, it’s a constant barrage of questioning our collection, questioning our profession, questioning what we’re doing, what our intentions are,” Sutherland said.

We can thank the Moms for Liberty — a name as oxymoronic as “down escalator” — for helping to fuel this assault on the freedom we all thought was part of life in the United States.

They have a playbook: finding passages in books that make them clutch their pearls, submitting objections to libraries, and then heading to school board meetings.

There, they read graphic passages, fanning themselves or rolling their eyes. At a Carroll County, Maryland, school board meeting last fall, they described garments falling to the ground, “secret sweetness” and rape, apologizing to the audience — which usually includes the students they’re allegedly protecting.

The campaign was successful in Carroll County — getting more than 50 books removed, including “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and “Water for Elephants.”

Now they’re heading to the Howard County school board with their lists. It must be exhausting to read all those books and demand that a school bans them, right?

“When we see the challenge forms,” Jones, the legislator, said, “there’s a box that asks: ‘Have you read this book that you’re challenging?’ And more times than not, it’s ‘No, I haven’t read the book.’”

Turns out, the Moms for Liberty website links to a cheat code, BookLooks.org, the lazy conservatives’ highlight reel of out-of-context, lurid, violent, provocative or controversial passages of books — no deep reading necessary. Easier for kids to find, too.

While book banners are slamming school boards and librarians with piles of paperwork and appeals, other tactics have remained under the radar.

Sometimes, the objectors just take the book they want to get rid of and walk out with it. Sutherland said she sees that often.

Jones said she’s heard from libraries that put out a display of books for Pride Month and someone comes in, checks them all out, then returns them in July.

“It happens with Black History Month, too,” she said. “That’s not OK.”

The fine for deliberately walking out with or destroying a book used to be $250. Jones’ bill raises it to $1,000 and a possible three-month jail sentence all to say to the book banners, “We see you and we know what you’re doing,” she said.

The fact is, you can’t have it both ways, book banners. You can’t claim freedom and liberty and then decide what books other people can read. You can’t object to the government, and then ask the government to do your parenting for you by banning the books you don’t want your kids to read.

“It’s your choice to leave that book on the shelf,” Jones said. “If it’s not right for you, if it’s not right for your family, nobody’s telling you to check it out.”

Petula Dvorak is a columnist for the Washington Post’s local team who writes about homeless shelters, gun control, high heels, high school choirs, the politics of parenting, jails, abortion clinics, mayors, modern families, strip clubs and gas prices, among other things. Before coming to The Post, she covered social issues, crime and courts.

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