Throughout 2023, American educators have faced a rising tide of organized thought police whose aim is to remove texts from libraries that question or challenge their worldview. Their challenges to these texts often falsely label those who read provide access to the texts as pedophiles and deviants who are harming society. The texts that are targeted often feature characters from marginalized communities, are people of color, and/or are part of the LGBTQ+ community or these texts force the reader to tackle difficult issues like coming of age, mental health, and exploitation. My goal is to provide information and resources about challenged texts so that you, the reader, can make informed choices about what you read–because that is your RIGHT! In a society that relies on an educated citizenry for the survival of our way of life (a saying often erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson), literacy–READing–is a fundamental RIGHT. Reading for deeper meaning is essential to civic life. Jefferson did say that people could not “approve what they do not understand.” Banning books is promoting ignorance and a threat to intellectual freedom and healthy civic engagement. It keeps people away from understanding. Hence, banning books is a danger to civic life in a democratic America. So, my Project 2024 is to help provide that understanding and to be a fREADom RIGHTer fighting to help others access their rights to read freely and make up their own minds.I will review books that have featured frequently on book ban lists. Some of these texts are classics that are commonly taught in schools. Most of these texts are NOT taught in schools but are merely made accessible for students to make their own choices in reading material.
Every Day
by David Levithan
I recently took a master’s level Young Adult Literature course. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality, variety, and intersectionality available to today’s young adult readers. When I was a growing reader, I had a few options, but I often found myself pilfering through my mother’s books. Maybe the challenge helped me develop as a reader, but I tend to think I missed a lot of the meaning of her books. I reread many of them as an adult and picked up far more–both as a second read through and as a more mature reader. That is why it is so important to have quality texts for developing readers. These stories need to be mirrors in which the reader can see themselves or a window in which they can experience the world around them. And that is why I loved Every Day by David Levithan. Levithan’s 2012 novel is a mirror for a diverse and wide group helping many to feel seen–and to know that they are not alone.
The book’s blurb does a good job of capturing the essence of the book: “Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.” The central questions of the novel are “What makes us fall in love–and what makes us who we are?” The main character, A, is a sentient spirit that wakes up every day in the body of a different person. A does not have a gender or a race or an orientation. A becomes what his host is for the short day inside that person, experiencing that person’s life, hardships, and successes. The novel explores both concepts–how do we fall in love and how do we become who we are–and presents interestingly simple concolusions: it takes a spark to ignite–and we are what our experiences make us. In A’s case, their experiences are quite varied and diverse.
So why is this book (and the sequels it has spawned) so controversial? Well, A wakes up in the bodies of transexuals, gays, lesbians, drug addicts, undocumented immigrants, and suicidal people. A’s behavior toward the teenage girl they come to love also borders on Edward Cullen-like stalking. Some of the complaints about the book include that it is a boring take on victimhood. Another complaint is that the speculative/science fiction of A’s existence and the rules that A lives by are never explained in the book.
While I agree that having a better understanding of A’s existence would make the work a stronger work, that problem is that many complaints don’t focus on the limitations of the storytelling, but more on whether or not being inclusive of marginalized groups is gratuitous or not. That is also why I think it is a great book for young adults to read–to explore their own understanding of the world around them and determine whether to book is a mirror of their own world and life or a window to look at and gain understanding of the world around them. I happened to enjoy the novel overall and found it an interesting read that prompted questions. While this novel and its sequels may not make the “best of” shelves, it is a compelling and engaging story. Young adults deserve the opportunity to make up their own minds on whether they find the novel full of tokenism or find it respectfully reflective.
Of note, the novel was successful enough that a movie version was made in 2019.
Be a fREADom RIGHTer: join the fight against banning books! Here are some resources to learn more:
Throughout 2023, American educators have faced a rising tide of organized thought police whose aim is to remove texts from libraries that question or challenge their worldview. Their challenges to these texts often falsely label those who read provide access to the texts as pedophiles and deviants who are harming society. The texts that are targeted often feature characters from marginalized communities, are people of color, and/or are part of the LGBTQ+ community or these texts force the reader to tackle difficult issues like coming of age, mental health, and exploitation. My goal is to provide information and resources about challenged texts so that you, the reader, can make informed choices about what you read–because that is your RIGHT! In a society that relies on an educated citizenry for the survival of our way of life (a saying often erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson), literacy–READing–is a fundamental RIGHT. Reading for deeper meaning is essential to civic life. Jefferson did say that people could not “approve what they do not understand.” Banning books is promoting ignorance and a threat to intellectual freedom and healthy civic engagement. It keeps people away from understanding. Hence, banning books is a danger to civic life in a democratic America. So, my Project 2024 is to help provide that understanding and to be a fREADom RIGHTer fighting to help others access their rights to read freely and make up their own minds.I will review books that have featured frequently on book ban lists. Some of these texts are classics that are commonly taught in schools. Most of these texts are NOT taught in schools but are merely made accessible for students to make their own choices in reading material.
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
“Atticus said to Jem one day, ‘I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know that you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.'” –Chapter 10, To Kill a Mockingbird
This is probably one of the most famous quotes in American literature. It relays the central theme of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel: that we have a moral obligation to protect the innocent in a world fraught with evil and harm.
So, why would a novel about protecting innocence make the American Library Association’s top 10 most challenged books list four times in the past 15 years? Well, it’s complicated. The short answer is that the novel often is seen as racist because of its use of the n- word, its portrayal of black people, and its portrayal of Atticus Finch as a white savior thereby echoing and underscoring white superiority and colonialism. Another short answer–at least when I was growing up in a southern state– was the sympathetic portrayal of blacks and the shining of a light on systemic racism in the south.
Either way, I was never exposed to anything other than old, dead, white guy writings in high school. Any exposure to characters of color was still written by white men (The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron comes to mind). Even in college at the University of Oklahoma, my exposure to diverse voices was somewhat limited. At least I was exposed to indigenous writings and some LGBTQ+ writings. However, I was not exposed to writings by or about blacks. Now, I was in college over 35 years ago. I had high hopes that we had come a long way in that time. With laws adopted in many states and book challenges in many more, I am now sadly disabused of that notion.
When I graduated college, I began to pick up books about injustices and dystopias written by those who lived it. I read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s works. His words from Stride Toward Freedom about acquiescing when one sees injustice as cooperating with that system and saying “to the oppressor that his actions are morally right,” have provided me with guidance over many years now. I read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and was utterly devastated by the vision of what women had come from and what they were again being reduced to being–breeders. But To Kill a Mockingbird was something I came to a few years after I started teaching in Oklahoma and noticed that it was missing from not only my own education but that of my students as well. I wanted to understand why those in power thought I should not have access to this book.
It started with me reading Lee’s acclaimed novel. I loved the novel on first reading. I identified so strongly with Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. I found her so empathetic and understanding of the wrongs going on around her. I remember thinking as I read the novel that Scout being the storyteller supported the central theme about innocence–seeing the world through a child’s eyes can show us how far we stray from good as adults. I sympathized with Tom Robinson and Boo Radley–both of whom were otherized and faced injustice but with very different outcomes that are probably based on race. The novel presented difficult questions and made difficult statements about society.
As a Southern Gothic novel, Harper’s themes of decay, corruption, decline, violence, and class and racial tension brought morality and how it’s defined into question. Even if Atticus Finch was a white savior, he ultimately failed at that salvation. The decay and corruption of the system won.
While I never taught TKAM myself, the novel was and still is on the core reading list of the school district in California where I taught for 24 years. Because I saw this book as the white perspective of injustices in the Deep South, I felt that the best way to present this novel to today’s students would be to pair it with the voices of those who suffer these types of injustices. For example, readings from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou or Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison as companion pieces might help students to better understand life for people of color in the South during the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Passages from modern writers like Walter Dean Myers, Ibi Zoboi, and Angie Thomas could help as well. Teaching texts for me always entailed including multiple voices and perspectives to help students with their lines of inquiry and engagement with the texts.
In a recent Washington Post story, one black student, Joy Matthew, wrote that to remove the book from classrooms “would mean ‘silencing Tom Robinson and every black man who has been unfairly persecuted.'” Another black student, Dyonte Law, cited the novel as important in helping him understand how whites do not recognize their own implicit biases. Others are promoting teaching more books by authors of color to hear the story of their persecutions from their own perspectives, that Lee’s novel has served its purpose, yet doesn’t address the complex race relations in today’s society.
One thing is certain, 64 years after its publication, the novel remains a flashpoint for conversations about what books and whose voices we should share in classrooms. The novel can still play a role in furthering those conversations.
PS Harper Lee followed up her lone novel with a sequel in 2015. Go Set a Watchman picks up with Jean Louise at the age of 26.
Be a fREADom RIGHTer: join the fight against banning books! Here are some resources to learn more:
Throughout 2023, American educators have faced a rising tide of organized thought police whose aim is to remove texts from libraries that question or challenge their worldview. Their challenges to these texts often falsely label those who read provide access to the texts as pedophiles and deviants who are harming society. The texts that are targeted often feature characters from marginalized communities, are people of color, and/or are part of the LGBTQ+ community or these texts force the reader to tackle difficult issues like coming of age, mental health, and exploitation. My goal is to provide information and resources about challenged texts so that you, the reader, can make informed choices about what you read–because that is your RIGHT! In a society that relies on an educated citizenry for the survival of our way of life (a saying often erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson), literacy–READing–is a fundamental RIGHT. Reading for deeper meaning is essential to civic life. Jefferson did say that people could not “approve what they do not understand.” Banning books is promoting ignorance and a threat to intellectual freedom and healthy civic engagement. It keeps people away from understanding. Hence, banning books is a danger to civic life in a democratic America. So, my Project 2024 is to help provide that understanding and to be a fREADom RIGHTer fighting to help others access their rights to read freely and make up their own minds.I will review books that have featured frequently on book ban lists. Some of these texts are classics that are commonly taught in schools. Most of these texts are NOT taught in schools but are merely made accessible for students to make their own choices in reading material.
The Harry Potter Series
by J.K. Rowling
My son was born the year that J.K. Rowling’s first novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was published in the United States (it was published the prior year in the UK under the name Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone). Little did I know then just how large a role Rowling’s world-building books would play in mine and my son’s lives over the course of subsequent years.
I read to my son every night until he was in middle school. It was a great way to relax, unwind, and get really ready for bed. When he was a toddler, we mostly read Dr. Seuss books, Disney stories, and primary books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear. When my son was four year’s old, two of the four published Potter books had already been made into movies. I had not yet read the books, nor seen the films. My mother worked at a book store and brought home the first three Potter books for me to read. I instantly fell in love with the rich world-building, use of diverse world mythologies (particularly Greek and Celtic), word creation from Latin (lumos from Latin for light and patronus from Latin for protector/father), layered symbolism, and great character development and storytelling. I loved how Rowling paid homage to the stories of old in her world-building too. She incorporated elements from Beowulf (the Tri-Wizard Tournament), The Canterbury Tales (the “Tale of the Three Brothers” can be compared to Chaucer’s “Pardoner’s Tale”), and the Arthurian Legends (Harry is a knight on a quest for relics with his Lancelot and Guinevere by his side).
I also loved how the books grew in complexity as the children aged in the texts too. As the kids grew up, so did the books. My precocious four-year old was interested in learning about Harry Potter, so I decided to begin reading Sorcerer’s Stone to him at night. I started it as an experiment of sorts to see if I could help him develop his attention span. And in no time at all, he was invested. He was asking questions, making predictions, evaluating the actions of characters, and engaging with the text.
It was about this time that I discovered that not all parents saw this series as the wholesome fun that I did. One of my good friends forbade her children from reading the books or watching the movies because it was teaching kids to be enamored of “devil worship.” This friend of mine was also a colleague–an English teacher. When I asked if she had read any of the books–or even excerpts from them–she said that her pastor had told her all she needed to know about them and that she did not want her children to become inquisitive about or curious about the occult or witchcraft. I challenged her to at least read an excerpt from the first novel of the series. I told her that the story has many of the archetypes we teach about–the wise old teacher/sage, the quest, the wicked stepmother, mentors, loyal retainers, etc. I also told her that the books were about friendship, overcoming challenges, accountability, good over evil, facing grief, and resilience. It took many years, but eventually, when her children were teenagers, she finally allowed them to watch the movies with her and her husband. While they didn’t read the books, they at least saw that the choice to use magic for good or for ill in Harry’s world is no different than a mere muggle choosing to ensure benefit over harm in our world.
Needless to say, I continued reading Harry Potter books with my son every night until we finished the seventh and final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was sort of bittersweet for the series to end because Harry and his world had been part of our nightly lives for over five years at that point. When we finished the series, my son was nearly 10 years old. And he moved on to other fantasy worlds in his nightly reading. We read Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring immediately afterward. And from that point, my son read himself to sleep every night. The middle schooler felt he could do it on his own at that point. To this day, both my son and I have complete hard cover sets of the Harry Potter series next to our Lord of the Rings series. These are the texts that shaped so many of our conversations over the years–about history, about politics, about family, about grief, about friendship, about loyalty, and so much more.
Anyone wanting to take deeper dives into the texts can also explore political constructs like the classism (socio-economic lens) and “pure blood” discrimination (post-colonial lens or critical race lens) central to the strife in the wizarding world. Readers can apply a psychological lens to explore the emotions and mental state of the characters or a gender lens to determine how traditional/non-traditional gender roles are applied through the characters and their actions. There’s so many layers in the Harry Potter series to just erroneously dismiss it as devil worship. The series prompts questions and thinking–just as good books should.
The fear that children will join in league with the devil because they read a story about a shapeshifter (animagi in Rowling’s world) or a witch casting a patronus (a protective charm) is almost like saying that their kids will drink potions to turn into crones to pass out poison apples or that they will become sea witches who steal voices–as they have seen in Disney movies. If parents really fear the world of Harry Potter, then maybe they should take a page from King James I himself. The king read about demonology and witchcraft and wrote a book about it. He didn’t ban the subject. He banned the evil acts themselves. I would challenge any of these parents to actually read these books and be a guide on the side for their children. Or allow their older children to engage and question and explore the ideals of family, love, goodness, loyalty, and altruism that shine in the character of Harry Potter.
The series is comprised of seven books, plus a number of additional texts (books, plays, etc.) that take place within the same wizarding world.
I set a goal in the last quarter of 2023 to branch out and listen to bands that aren’t normally on my playlist rotation. One band that kept showing up on my searches was The National. It helps that they dropped two new albums in 2023, so there’s plenty of new material to delve into and explore. In April 2023, the band released First Two Pages of Frankenstein, and in September, they dropped a surprise second album, Laugh Track. While the Grammy-winning band has been around for a quarter century, my exposure to their work has been limited over the years. This fall though, one song in particular kept playing on my SiriusXM Coffeehouse channel. I began to remember the title after I Shazamed it for the fourth or fifth time. ”The Alcott,” a duet with Taylor Swift, hooked me. Since then, I’ve been hearing The National more and more as I channel surf. Their acoustic indie sound connected to me and my recent moods. I also love how these guys who have been around for nearly 25 years have tapped into some of the hottest talent from today’s airwaves with their collaborations with the likes of Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Sufjan Stevens, and Bon Iver. So, I’ve chosen a twofer from these two latest albums, First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track.
“The Alcott” by The National (featuring Taylor Swift)
“The Alcott” by The National (featuring Taylor Swift)
“Laugh Track” by The National (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)
“Laugh Track” by The National (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)
Throughout 2023, American educators have faced a rising tide of organized thought police whose aim is to remove texts from libraries that question or challenge their worldview. Their challenges to these texts often falsely label those who read provide access to the texts as pedophiles and deviants who are harming society. The texts that are targeted often feature characters from marginalized communities, are people of color, and/or are part of the LGBTQ+ community or these texts force the reader to tackle difficult issues like coming of age, mental health, and exploitation. My goal is to provide information and resources about challenged texts so that you, the reader, can make informed choices about what you read–because that is your RIGHT! In a society that relies on an educated citizenry for the survival of our way of life (a saying often erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson), literacy–READing–is a fundamental RIGHT. Reading for deeper meaning is essential to civic life. Jefferson did say that people could not “approve what they do not understand.” Banning books is promoting ignorance and a threat to intellectual freedom and healthy civic engagement. It keeps people away from understanding. Hence, banning books is a danger to civic life in a democratic America. So, my Project 2024 is to help provide that understanding and to be a fREADom RIGHTer fighting to help others access their rights to read freely and make up their own minds.I will review books that have featured frequently on book ban lists. Some of these texts are classics that are commonly taught in schools. Most of these texts are NOT taught in schools but are merely made accessible for students to make their own choices in reading material.
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding
William Golding published The Lord of the Flies in 1954 exploring essential questions about the nature of man. Golding wrote this dystopian classic after his experiences in World War II. Ergo, the novel features boys at war with each other mirroring a world at war around them. The violence in the novel escalates from name-calling to murder. Watching little boys (the oldest is 13, the youngest is 4) failing as a society can be difficult, but the text prompts the reader to pick a side–agree that humans are inherently evil or disagree that they are driven to evil from lack of needs (Maslow’s hierarchy is an oft used companion with this text). Or maybe the reader can create a thesis of their own about the nature of humankind.
Golding’s writing richly weaves symbolism throughout–the novel is an allegory in which items and characters have symbolic and deeper meaning. Whether it’s Piggy’s glasses providing clarity, the conch demonstrating order, Simon as the ill-fated messenger, or the Lord of the Flies showing the evil within the hearts of humankind, the novel can prompt conversation that explores how these boys reflect the modern world around us too. The rich biblical allusions show the corruptive influence of evil–how a devil may retell a story of a Garden of Eden-type paradise that falls victim to the destructive nature of humankind. The novel is the name of a devil after all (Beelzebub translates to Lord of the Flies).
While I have read and re-read this novel many times in my years as an English teacher, it did take me a while to appreciate its multifaceted storytelling. This novel can be read through many critical lenses, like a colonialism lens (the portrayal of tribes as uncivilized), a gender lens (Piggy/sow as mother figures), a political lens (democracy versus authoritarianism), etc. I highly recommend that a first-time reader pick one lens to start their reading. There will be plenty in the text that the reader will connect with experientially–like being called names, losing when you feel you deserved to win, and wanting to escape the bonds of rules–but the novel will stretch those initial connections. For example, most of my students felt sorry for Piggy when Ralph called him “Piggy” despite his asking him not to do so. While this may seem like schoolyard games on the surface, my students explored the sense of shame that Piggy was made to feel for just being who he was. While Ralph is clearly the protagonist of the novel, the fact that he perpetrates this shame on Piggy in the opening pages of the novel shows how flawed and thoughtless he can be. These are important themes for readers to explore. I walked away from this novel always asking “How do we become better humans?” Golding seems to put forward a thesis that we do not become better humans. Most of my students disagreed with him on this premise. They tended to agree with Anne Frank–that people are essentially good at heart and that circumstances can often bring out the worst in human nature.
So, why is this book challenged so often? Well, violence is one reason. The allusion to biblical devils might be another. But the one act in the book that stands out is in the central chapter–chapter seven, “Shadows and Tall Trees.” Jack and his hunters surround and terrorize a sow that they have hunted. They commit unspeakably violent acts against this mother, including jamming a spear into her rear orifice. This passage in the text uses sexualized imagery, but honestly, it never says anything directly. Most of my students did not understand until they read the passage multiple times more closely. This passage potentially would need a trigger warning for people who have had trauma in their lives. But that doesn’t mean that the text is profane and shouldn’t be read. If anything, this passage begs the question of how these boys could ever think it okay to act in this way. It prompts questions about group think, about violence against the vulnerable around us. These are important questions for critical thinkers.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies may have some uncomfortable moments, but it is a well-written novel that promotes critically engaging on the topic of human nature. I would recommend that novice readers use a study guide to interrogate the common thinking about the novel. Make no mistake though, I do recommend this book. How can we become our better selves if we never explore the darkness that lurks within?
No one can deny that 2022 was a bittersweet and challenging year for the Foo Fighters. Coming off of the COVID years with their 2021 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with a new album and a fun, campy horror movie, 2022 looked to be their year. They had a full tour lined up with headlining slots at major festivals like Glastonbury, but their tour ground to a halt in March with the unexpected death of drummer, Taylor Hawkins, just a short time before they were to take the stage at a festival in Bogota, Columbia. Hawkins was just 50 years old, and he left behind his wife, Alison, and three children–Shane, Annabelle, and Everleigh. The loss of Hawkins was coupled with the loss of Dave Grohl’s beloved mother, Virginia Hanlon Grohl, in August.
After cancelling all of their scheduled shows to take time to be with their families and to mourn the loss of their longtime bandmate, the band, along with the Hawkins family, put on a pair of tribute concerts in Taylor’s memory. The two September shows were held at Wembley Stadium in London, England on September 3rd and at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California on September 27th. The London show livestreamed via MTV’s YouTube channel for over six hours of tributes from a who’s who of rock & roll old and new featuring Sir Paul McCartney and members of Queen alongside Grohl’s and Hawkins’s children Violet and Shane. Both shows raised money for charities selected by the Hawkins family–Music Support and Musicares. The year was capped off by the Foo Fighters making a New Year’s Eve announcement via their social media about their impending return to the music scene:
To honor the band’s commitment to healing power of music, and to celebrate Dave Grohl’s birthday month, I am picking a four-pack of songs representing the band’s past year. I look forward to hearing more from the Foo Fighters as they hit the festival circuit again this summer, with shows currently lined up at Boston Calling Music Festival, Sonic Temple Arts and Music Festival, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival, and Sao Paulo’s The Town. Here’s a look back so we can look forward together.
Dave Grohl and the surviving Foo Fighters sing “Times Like These” at the Wembley Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert on September 3, 2022.
The Foo Fighters perform “Making a Fire” from their last studio album, 2021’s Grammy-winning Medicine at Midnight.
Adopting the alter ego name of Dream Widow for their comedy horror movie Studio 666, the band released an eight-song heavy metal album to accompany the release of the movie. The movie was released on February 25, 2022, one month before Hawkin’s tragic passing.
Shane Hawkins takes over for his late father on the drums to end the London tribute concert. He joined the Foo Fighters in playing “My Hero” from 1997’s The Colour and the Shape.
*Note: Some may find video footage and subject matter within this narrative about the symbolic significance of April 19th and April 20th disturbing.
April is a month steeped in symbolism for domestic right-wing extremist groups. Two dates in particular hold special meaning for them: April 19th and April 20th. For history buffs, April 19th is the day the Revolutionary War started in 1775. That day is often called Patriots’ Day (before 9/11 became known as Patriot Day) and is a holiday recognized in six US states. Some militia groups call it Militia Day because it was continental militias that fought the opening salvos of the American Revolution. April 20th is the birthday of Adolf Hitler, who still holds symbolic significance to white supremacy groups. This is the story of how these two days have become central to alt-right mythmaking as well as dates of recurring violence and remembrance.
April 19, 1775
The Shot Heard Round the World: Patriot’s Day
April 20, 1889
Adolf Hitler is born in Austria. His birthday becomes a day of celebration in Nazi Germany.
By the 1990s, the dates’ significance and symbolism took a much darker turn. The dates are now mired in conspiracy, extremism, guns, bombs, and death. They are revered by extremists on the far right for marking the bloody birth of our nation and the normalizing of white supremacy. This is the story of how a country born from revolution has found itself in a struggle with its own ideals and ideologies–and how those mid-April days bear witness to so much struggle.
August 21-31, 1992
How it all began.
While not in April, the story of an 11-day siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, sets off a chain of events that Americans are still grappling with today. The US Marshall Service approached the remote cabin of Randy Weaver and his family to bring him in for an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court on federal weapons charges. The Strange Land Podcast captures the rage of the Weavers’ neighbors upon news of Vicki Weaver’s death from the law enforcement on the scene.
Kenneth Lewis and his partner cover true crime in their podcast The Strange Land. This snippet shows the anger toward the government by Weaver’s neighbors.
Seen as victims of government overreach by those on the far right and seen as extremist law breakers by mainstream society, the Weavers became central figures in an anti-government movement cloaked in revolutionary patriotism.
Sara Weaver describes life after Ruby Ridge.
Sara Weaver has written at least four books about the Ruby Ridge siege maintaining the legacy of the event that has shaped her life but admits that “she is devastated each time someone commits a violent act in the name of Ruby Ridge.” The US Marshall Service’s actions that day still resonate today as a battle cry for anti-government movement groups. Her father’s words at this 2003 event in Texas shows how Ruby Ridge, even a dozen years later, show that the siege is still a catalyst for the rhetoric of right-wing anti-government groups. Weaver, who died last month at the age of 74, received a hero’s welcome at the event and is labeled a patriot by this Texas group as he defiantly says he wears his federal conviction like a “badge of honor.”
Randy Weaver declared the US government his enemy.
This video was reshared on YouTube in 2016, at the onset of the Trump presidency. The comments sections from these videos tell a story though–a story of anger and distrust of the government that still exists today, 30 years later. The comments section from Weavers’ appearances are filled with that anger viewing the Weavers as victims of an out-of-control government that should be feared.
From the comments section on the Sara Weaver interview.From the comments section of the Randy Weaver speech.
Fear of the government, hero patriot resisters, talk of taking the country back…this has become the legacy of Ruby Ridge–and April 19/20, because eight months after the debacle at Ruby Ridge, US law enforcement found itself in yet another siege with even grimmer consequences. February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) raided the Branch Davidian compound at Mt. Carmel outside of Waco, TX. The raid erupted into a firefight that ended with four dead ATF agents and five dead Davidians and a 51-day standoff that ending in an apocalyptic inferno on Patriots’ Day, April 19, 1993.
Newsfeed footage of the ATF firefight with Branch Davidians that started a 51-day siege–the siege resulted in a total of nearly 90 deaths when federal casualties are included.
One of the handful of survivors of that deadly day was Australian Graeme Craddock, who to this day believes in Koresh. He contends that the government handled everything in the wrong way. Koresh’s crimes, just like Weaver’s, became lost in the perceived overstepping of the government law enforcement agencies. FBI Negotiator Byron Sage recalls the events of that day as equally tragic but lays the blame for the conflagration with Koresh and his followers who chose to make their own prophecies come true.
Waco survivor Graeme Craddock contends that the government was wrong to act as they did during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, TX, in 1993.
FBI Negotiator Byron Sage recalls how the Branch Davidians reneged on their promise to come out and end the siege to instead choose to set fire to their compound killing 76.
April 19, 1995
These two federal law enforcement failures, Ruby Ridge and Waco, served as a radicalizing force among right-wing groups who labeled these two incidents as massacres. Two men in particular who were radicalized by the events of these two closely timed sieges were Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. McVeigh and Nichols planned and executed the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on the two-year anniversary of the Branch Davidian compound fire. Both were US Army veterans who met in basic training–and they both fostered anti-government sentiments. The two men saw Ruby Ridge and Waco as extreme government overreach by militarized federal law enforcement.
Nichols was charged, convicted, sentenced to life in prison as a co-conspirator to McVeigh, who received the death penalty for building a truck bomb with fertilizer and detonating it in the street in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995. His brother, James, explained their views of the government in Michael Moore’s 2002 film, Bowling for Columbine.
James Nichols, brother of convicted OKC bombing accomplice Terry Nichols, explains the duty of citizens to rise up against a government they find to be tyrannical in this clip from Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine.
The images from that fateful April 19th in 1995, drove a lot of the right-wing movement back underground by the turn of the century. Images like the Pulitzer Prize winning photo captured by amateur photographer, Charles “Chuck” Porter IV, of firefighter Chris Fields carrying the fatally wounded Baylee Almon to the paramedics, galvanized the public against groups that came to be labeled as domestic terror organizations.
From Pulitzer.org’s 1996 Prize Winners page for Charles Porter IV.Chuck Porter’s galvanizing “one shot” of firefighter Chris Fields carrying OKC Bombing victim Baylee Almon.
Firefighter Chris Fields cradled the lifeless Baylee as he rushed her to paramedics for medical attention. In a 2017 interview, he likened the Pulitzer Prize-winning image to a loss of innocence for this country.
McVeigh and Nichols had acted as so many in the over 850 anti-government groups at the time had wanted. They became heroes to the alt right. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, in 1996, one year after the bombing there were 858 known anti-government hate groups.
This Southern Poverty Law Center graphic shows the immediate aftermath of the OKC Bombing as well as the resurgence of right-wing groups during the Obama years.
While many of these groups moved underground in the aftermath of the bombing, they never went away. The bombing–and the date– became a battle cry for angry, disaffected extremists.
The date held so much importance that in 1999, two teenage boys planned to bomb and shoot up their school on that now symbolic date.
April 19-20, 1999
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, planned and executed the most shocking school mass shooting–they set the standard that grimly all subsequent school mass shootings have been compared. More than two decades later, these two disaffected teens and their violent actions are still discussed and analyzed as the US has seen an obscene number of school mass shootings in the aftermath of their plan. People are still trying to understandwhy these boys did what they did.
Disturbing self-recorded footage captures the rage of Klebold and Harris (from Columbine School Shooting – Final Report Documentary – Columbine Massacre)
The original date for the massacre was scheduled for April 19, because they wanted to emulate and even outdo McVeigh’s carnage (as seen from these quotes from the two above linked sources).
McVeigh and April 19th held symbolic meaning to these two enraged teens.McVeigh’s infamous ‘collateral damage’ line provided Klebold and Harris with their targets.
While Klebold and Harris did not achieve the horrific numbers of casualties they sought, their actions were a harbinger of things to come. Much has been documented and written about the events leading to that fateful spring day in the affluent Denver suburb. The shooting at Columbine High School in April 1999 created a national dialogue about school safety AND gun safety in the US. At the time of the shooting, the 1994 Assault Weapons ban was in place, but the two 17-year-olds circumvented laws by purchasing their guns at a gun show from a private dealer by proxy. They asked an 18-year-old friend to come with them to help them purchase two shotguns and a rifle. Klebold later bought a handgun from a private dealer at the same gun show. Robyn Anderson, the proxy the boys used to buy the guns, says that she wished it had been harder for the boys to buy their guns and that background checks had been required.
Robyn Anderson speaks to Diane Sawyer in the immediate aftermath of her friend and prom date, Dylan Klebold, killing classmates with guns she helped purchase.
Four months after the gun purchases, they used the guns to kill 12 students and a teacher before taking their own lives.
Frank DeAngelis was the principal at Columbine High School when Klebold and Harris conducted their deadly rampage throughout the school. He describes coming face to face with one of them.
Lance Kirklin was shot five times during the Columbine shooting. This is part of the PBS series Insight with John Ferrugia. The episode is titled Ripples of Columbine, and it features multiple survivors sharing their experiences from that day.
So, two kids, who tried to emulate McVeigh to exact revenge against a society in which they increasingly did not feel a part of, who bought guns by proxy at gun shows from private dealers, who relished the thought of their infamy, perpetrated the school mass shooting to measure against all others.
Extremists are now adding January 6th to their list of revered dates as well. The insurrection in the aftermath of President Trump’s 2020 re-election defeat shows how transparent and visible these groups have become–the most visible since the 1990s. And this mainstream extremism is not just being fueled with propaganda and disinformation, but it’s being supplied with easy access to guns along with its white supremacist and anti-government rhetoric.
The groups may be fewer than a few years ago, but they are more out in the open and transparent in their actions.
Hate groups are continuing to flourish. Of the 733 groups, 488 are anti-government groups like those associated with McVeigh and Nichols.
With a high number of extremist groups and easy access to guns, the US stands alone in the world with a problem of mass shootings. The increase in mass shootings since the sunset of the assault weapons ban is staggering. And the number and lethality of school shootings continues to shock–but still doesn’t move the public policy. Since the Uvalde School Shooting last month, reporting has shown that since Columbine, over 311,000 students have experienced gun violence with 185 fatalities and 369 wounded. While Klebold and Harris did not succeed that day in April 1999 in reaching their kill goal, their legacy has far exceeded that goal. In many ways, they, like McVeigh, Koresh, and Weaver before them, did succeed in creating a legacy that breathed life into right-wing rage and the alt-right extremist movement that has grown in violence and come out of the shadows into the sunlight.
Jamie Bower, more commonly know to Twilight and Harry Potter fans by his acting stage name Jamie Campbell Bower, is no stranger to music. He is not the typical actor turned singer. Bower grew up in music (both parents had connections to music) and acting, honing his skills in music theater. I happen to admire Bower’s musical abilities better than his acting abilities, but that is a subject for another day. I’ve selected three songs to show off Bower’s skills.
This first selection is a short clip from 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Bower was still a teenager when he filmed his turn as the aptly named Anthony Hope who pined for Johanna.
Jamie Campbell Bower as the star-crossed lover, Anthony Hope in 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
In 2015, Bower, his brother, and three colleagues formed the band Counterfeit. In their five years together they produced three EPs and one studio album before Bower announced their split in November 2020. The band was known for their live performances, even winning the 2017 AIM Independent Music Award for Best Live Act. I’m featuring their last single “The New Insane,” released in January 2020. Counterfeit is the antithesis of stage musicals, but shows Bower’s interesting and dynamic abilities.
Jamie Bower helmed the band Counterfeit for five years (2015-2020). “The New Insane” was the bands final single from January 2020.
After Bower announced the dissolution of Counterfeit via his Instagram page in November 2020, he promptly announced new solo songs he recorded. Before the year’s end he posted his new solo single “Paralysed ” which was soon followed by “Start the Fire” and an amazing cover of Nina Simone’s “I Put a Spell on You.” The song “Paralysed” demonstrates Bower’s vocal range and power so that’s the song I’m highlighting here, but I do recommend checking out all three songs. I’m keen to see where he chooses to go with his solo project. Time will tell…as he remains busy with his acting roles (most recently on the Game of Thrones prequel and the TV show Stranger Things).
Bower belts with range and power in his first solo release, “Paralysed.”
Bower spoke to NME recently about his new solo venture. Give the interview a listen to learn a little more about his concepts for his new music. Also, check out his work on his Spotify and iTunes pages.
Hello! I’m Jules. And I am NOT new to blogging. But this is a new blog site for me. I have finally entered into the real world of blogging–okay, maybe not real world, just the world where I pay to share my thoughts. I will keep my other nonpaid site (ohyesjulesdid.wordpress.com) active, but most of my posts will now be featured on this new paid version of the site. I will begin with posts in my usual areas of entertainment, politics, labor, and education. I invite your engagement. Let’s explore the world through words, images, and sound together. The more we engage in this world, the more we can find common ground and acceptance–and combat the division and sectarianism we face in today’s society and the world.
Oh Yes Jules Did 
