Book chat

 A new Thursday feature, possibly.

In spite of everything, some good has come of the witch trial conducted by the Republicans of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The posturing of Ted Cruz has propelled The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale onto the bestseller list.  "Every purchase now comes with a vial of Ted Cruz tears," Vitale tweeted.  Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a trustee of Georgetown Day School, a private school in the District of Columbia, and Vitale's book is on a list of recommended readings along with Ibram X. Kendi's Antiracist Baby and Critical Race Theory:  An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic.  Cruz held them up to prove that Judge Jackson is a racist who will promote racism and race-related race stuff, and also that he thinks trustees compile the school's reading lists.  Judging by the condition of the book, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn't think he has opened it since sending a staff member to Barnes & Noble to buy it as a prop.  Allegedly.  Anyway, congratulations to Professor Vitale on his windfall.  Just the thing to read when relaxing in Cancun or whiling away the hours in the Bozeman airport.

The End of Policing suggests that money spent militarizing the police could better be used to train them to deal with the social and psychological problems of city residents.  Libraries are already doing this.  They offer computers and help with their use, assist people seeking jobs, and save lives, literally.  At the McPherson Square Branch Library in Philadelphia, librarians are called on to administer the anti-overdose drug Narcan (Naloxone) to patrons and passers-by.  Rep. Patrick Maloney introduced the Life-Saving Librarians Act to provide Narcan kits and training to all libraries.  It seems like a job police could be doing.  I'm sure they do.  But they like to tell us they're the blue line holding back the barbarians and, surprise, librarians are doing that, too, without guns.  They are single-handedly defending the First Amendment against those who want to ban books and strangle dissent, and they do it for less money than a rookie cop in a medium-size city.  

Police are not prepared to deal with assaults on free speech, at least in Providence.  When Red Ink Community Library held an event to mark the anniversary of The Communist Manifesto last month they attracted a mob of masked neo-Nazis (they will put on masks to hide their identity, not to prevent disease), unmistakable in uniforms and swastikas.  One event organizer was assaulted.  The Providence PD arrived, chatted amiably with the master race and left without making an arrest.  Is this our future?  I like Cabaret but I don't want to live in it.

Ted Cruz isn't the only Texas extremist to learn the hard way about the Streisand effect.  State Rep. Matt Krause tried to boost his unsuccessful campaign for attorney general by publishing a ludicrously long list of books that offended him in the state's public school libraries.  The result was #FReadomfighters, a group of several thousand parents, students, teachers, librarians and plain old Texans organized for the purpose of combating censorship.  That's grass-roots organizing -- no Koch money, no ALEX talking points.