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Books George Takei politics

George Takei to serve as honorary chair of Banned Books Week

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The American Library Association (ALA) revealed all the way back in April the theme for this year’s Banned Books Week, happening the first full week of October: “Censorship Is So 1984. Read For Your Rights.” With our current government blatantly seeking to silence its critics (with schoolyard bully tactics), the theme could not be more prescient. The whole tradition of Banned Books Week began in 1982 in response to, you guessed, a huge uptick in books being challenged — the first step in the process to ban them. Methinks the people who bring forth these challenges are the very ones who could benefit the most from reading more books, as opposed to fewer. Now that BBW 2025 is nearly one week away, the ALA announced the celeb who will serve as this year’s honorary chair: George Takei!

Actor-activist George Takei’s next project is on behalf of a longtime passion — the right to read.

The American Library Association announced Monday that the 88-year-old Takei will serve as honorary chair of Banned Books Week, which takes place Oct. 5-11. Libraries and bookstores around the country will highlight books that have been censored, from Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” to Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”

“I remember all too well the lack of access to books and media that I needed growing up. First as a child in a barbed-wire prison camp, then as a gay young man in the closet, I felt confused and hungry for understanding about myself and the world around me,” said the “Star Trek” actor, who spent part of his childhood in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

“Please stand with me in opposing censorship, so that we all can find ourselves — and each other — in books.”

Previous honorary chairs for Banned Books Week, established in 1982, include Ava DuVernay, LeVar Burton and Jason Reynolds.

Takei will share leadership with honorary youth chair Iris Mogus, a first-year student at the University of California, Santa Cruz who has been active for years in anti-banning campaigns.

[From ABC News]

Many of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 are the same as when longtime reading advocate LeVar Burton served as honorary chair a few years ago. Quelle surprise, the list heavily features stories by/for/about queer people and people of color. I do believe that racism, homophobia, and book banning and/or burning are the first three badges ultra right wing fascists need to earn to merit full Nazi scout status, so those who weren’t vacuumed away in the rapture this week can get busy with those bigoted tasks. Merde. The small-mindedness, yet outsized arrogance of thinking that something you personally don’t like (or understand) must be completely forbidden for all is just astounding. Like, you may have gleaned from a comment I made here or there, but I’m not particularly a sportsball fan. It’s not my thing. But I’m not out starting a crusade to BAN fill-in-the-blank ball games entirely! Why? Because I’m lazy! Because I recognize that there are all sorts of people and interests in this world. Good grief!

Anyway, much luck to George Takei in his honorary role. It’s quite the inauspicious year for reading — what with a president who doesn’t engage in the activity himself and who likely views books in the lump category of “non-gold interior decor props” — but that’s why Banned Books Week is more necessary than ever. As is reading for our rights!

Photos credit: BLW Clips/Backgrid, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon

Categories
Books Brad Falchuk Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow & Brad Falchuk are both ‘furious’ about Amy Odell’s biography

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Amy Odell has been promoting her new book, Gwyneth: The Biography, for weeks now. My copy arrived this week but unfortunately I have not started it yet (I will this weekend). Odell has said many times to many outlets that Gwyneth Paltrow did not agree to talk to her for the book, and the book is not authorized in any way. But it definitely looks like Odell did have some good sources within Paltrow’s camp, because Gwyneth is apparently FURIOUS about all of the vintage and current gossip that’s come out.

While readers are poring over the gossipy tidbits in Amy Odell’s new book, “Gwyneth: The Biography” with glee, one person is definitely not happy about the new tome.

”Gwyneth is furious — just absolutely livid about this book,” my insider said. And with reason. In the book, Odell describes Paltrow as having created a “noxious and chaotic” workplace at Goop and dishes on her past love life.

In the book, Odell writes Paltrow thought Brad Pitt was uncouth, stupid and jealous. She told an interviewer: “Brad and I had very different upbringings… So when we go to restaurants and order caviar, I have to say to Brad, ‘This is beluga and this is osetra.’ After Emma came out, Gwyneth went over to [her friend, makeup artist Kevyn] Aucoin’s place and cried about Pitt multiple times. He wanted to be with her but seemed to feel threatened by her success and all the attention she received. [Aucoin’s] advice to Gwyneth was frank, ‘You really need to end this.’”

Paltrow later allegedly told Aerin Lauder that Pitt was “dumber than a sack of s**t.”

As for Ben Affleck, Paltrow loved his sexual prowess but was turned off by his alcohol and gambling addictions.

It is also being reported that Paltrow’s current husband, Brad Falchuk — described as a man who “really likes being (Paltrow’s) husband” — is angry about his portrayal as well.

My source also added: “(Paltrow) told everyone she knew not to participate or talk to (Odell). Clearly, people have.” (Odell claims she spoke to over 200 people for the book).

”Gwyneth is not happy and if she finds out anyone spoke — she will never speak to them again … she has already frozen out some people she thinks (spoke with Odell).”

[From NewsNation]

I don’t doubt that Gwyneth is mad about the book, and I don’t doubt that she’s freezing people out. Something I find interesting is that the vintage gossip about Gwyneth’s relationships has kind of overshadowed Odell’s investigatory work exposing Goop, Gwyneth’s lifestyle/wellness brand. Odell has said in interviews that one of the main reasons why she wanted to do this book was to figure out if Gwyneth smokes her own supply when it comes to quack science, and Odell found that is Gwyneth a true believer. Odell also found that Goop is poorly run, and Gwyneth operates her business like everything is high school. Also: Brad Falchuk is mad about being portrayed as someone who “really likes being (Paltrow’s) husband.” LMAO. I remember the gossip that Falchuk’s first wife was also pretty mad about ALL of this.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Categories
Books Fraud

Memoir ‘The Salt Path,’ made into a movie starring Gillian Anderson, exposed as a fraud

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The South West Coast Path is a National Trail in England, and at 630 miles is the country’s longest footpath. Husband and wife Moth and Raynor Winn set out on the path while in their 50s in 2013 after being dealt a slew of bad cards: they lost money in a bad business deal, which resulted in their losing their home in Wales, and Moth was given a terminal diagnosis. At rock bottom, the couple hit the trail and camped in the wild. At the end of their trek, the Winns said Moth’s illness had all but disappeared. Raynor detailed their experience in the 2018 memoir The Salt Path, which has sold over 2 million copies and was recently made into a movie starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. There’s just one problem: it isn’t all true. There’s truthiness to it, like the fact that the couple hit the road after incurring debt. But instead of them being the victims of a bad deal, turns out Moth and Raynor Winn — real names Tim and Sally Walker — actually embezzled money and left to flee collectors, as The Observer just exposed:

Fiction: In the book, Winn said she and her husband Moth lost a substantial sum of money after making a bad investment in a friend’s business, which left them liable for his debts when the company failed. She said it ultimately led to the couple losing their home. Around the same time, Winn wrote, Moth was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD), which usually has a life expectancy of around six to eight years. Winn said after she and Moth became homeless and Moth was diagnosed with CBD, the couple decided in 2013 to set off on the South West Coast Path. The book documents the pair eventually walking the full 630-mile route, living off a small amount of money in weekly tax credits each week, and wild camping every night. … The book ends with the couple getting a fresh start with the offer of new accommodation. As a result of the walk, Winn says her husband’s health improved, and he has now lived for 12 years since the diagnosis.

Non-Fiction, courtesy of The Observer: The investigation claims the couple lost their home in North Wales after Winn defrauded her employer of £64,000, and not in a bad business deal as she originally suggested. The couple reportedly borrowed £100,000 with 18% interest, secured against their house, from a distant relative, in order to repay the money she had been accused of stealing. The Observer said the couple also had a £230,000 mortgage on the same property, meaning that their combined debts exceeded the value of the house. The couple’s home was then reportedly repossessed after they were sued to recover the money they had borrowed. … The newspaper also said it had spoken to medical experts who were sceptical about Moth having CBD, given his long survival after diagnosis, lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them. It also reports that Raynor and Moth Winn are not the couple’s real names.

Raynor’s rebuttal: In a statement released via literary agents Graham Maw Christie, Winn said: “Today’s Observer article is highly misleading. We are taking legal advice and won’t be making any further comment at this time.” The statement continued: “The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives. This is the true story of our journey.”

[From BBC News]

If you’re like me, the first red flag came with the name “Moth.” I spent the early part of this article thinking, “Who names a kid Moth?!” But then I checked myself, saying, “Come on Kismet, you love unusual names. Look at Butterfly McQueen! Why is ‘Butterfly’ ok but not ‘Moth,’ hmm?” So after addressing and correcting my Lepidoptera biases, I was stung all over again with the revelation of their real name: Walker. You guys, she wrote a book about their 630-mile walk… and didn’t use the gift of their surname Walker! I understand the nom de plume was probably to avoid someone tracking them down for the money they stole, but I still think not using the name Walker for a walking book has to be some sort of crime in and of itself!

As for suggesting that a degenerative disease could be treated, or even cured, just by taking a hike, that sounds an awful lot like “Vitamin A cures Measles” territory. The thing about this whole story is, Raynor Winn/Sally Walker could have written a powerful memoir based on the facts, honestly holding themselves to account. But recasting themselves as the victims is arrogant, while spreading misinformation about a serious disease is pernicious. As The Observer ended their article: “And people don’t just read and watch The Salt Path, they act on it; people with hopes and health problems, setting off believing that they’re following a true path. The consequences of that may mostly be trivial but there’s the potential, too, for real harm.”

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Categories
AI Books

Authors write open letter to publishers urging them not to release AI books

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The fight to protect creative works from being copied by AI without consent or compensation got a big assist a few weeks ago when big Hollywood studios Disney and Universal jointly sued AI image generator company Midjourney. A bigwig like Disney stepping into the fray was just the kind of deep-pocketed mouse muscle artists have needed in their corner. (Plus I’m sure Disney loves the PR angle of making themselves David vs. Goliath, though really it’s more like Godzilla vs. Goliath.) But this is a battle with many fronts, of which image generating is but one. On the written word side of things, a sizable group of authors have just banded together on a new strategy: instead of suing another AI company, about 70 authors — including Jodi Picoult and Gregory Maguire — have signed an open letter and petition directed towards the main US publishing houses, seeking their word that “they will never release books that were created by machines,” nor replace human staff with AI tools.

A letter to the publisher: Addressed to the “big five” U.S. publishers — Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan — as well as “other publishers of America,” the letter elicited more than 1,100 signatures on its accompanying petition in less than 24 hours. … The letter contains a list of direct requests to publishers concerning a wide array of ways in which AI may already — or could soon be — used in publishing. It asks them to refrain from publishing books written using AI tools built on copyrighted content without authors’ consent or compensation, to refrain from replacing publishing house employees wholly or partially with AI tools, and to only hire human audiobook narrators — among other requests.

AI cannot replace art & artists: “The writing that AI produces feels cheap because it is cheap. It feels simple because it is simple to produce. That is the whole point,” the letter states. “AI is an enormously powerful tool, here to stay, with the capacity for real societal benefits—but the replacement of art and artists isn’t one of them.”

Courts recently gave AI a win: Earlier this week, federal judges presiding over two such cases ruled in favor of defendants Anthropic AI and Meta, potentially giving AI companies the legal right under the fair use doctrine to train their large language models on copyrighted works — as long as they obtain copies of those works legally. Young adult fiction author Rioghnach Robinson, who goes by the pen name Riley Redgate, and is one of the organizers of the letter and petition, said these rulings only make the need for safeguards feel more urgent. “With courts allowing AI access to copyrighted texts as fair use, the next — and possibly last — line of defense has to be the publishers” she said.

Some promising responses from the publishers: “Many individual contracts now have AI opt-out clauses in an attempt to keep books out of AI training datasets, which is great,” Robinson noted. But she said publishers should be doing much more to defend their writers against the onslaught of AI. “There are major concerns that publishers might create generative AI titles of their own that could swallow the publishing landscape, or replace editorial workers with AI tools, or the like,” she said. NPR reached out to all five of the publishing houses named in the letter, and received one response ahead of the publication deadline. “Simon & Schuster takes these concerns seriously,” spokesperson Susannah Lawrence said in a statement. “We are actively engaged in protecting the intellectual property rights of our authors.”

[From NPR]

Of course writers came together to… write a letter in protest. I think it’s a genuinely important move — it illustrates clearly to us readers/consumers all that’s at stake, and it creates a public dialogue in which we can track how satisfactorily the publishing houses respond. I just also find it endearingly quaint that they literally took up the pen for this battle. Ultimately, I think we need more of this kind of action, and to keep up with the lawsuits. Because these cost-cutting measures are already underway across all creative industries, from AI taking over narration and voice acting work, to other human jobs being outsourced, often unsuccessfully. And that’s really what keeps stumping me about this big AI mess: it’s not even doing that great a job! Certainly with regards to artistic endeavors. This technology cannot function without being “trained” on the work of humans. AI on its own is never going to spit out Green Eggs and Ham. But if/when AI does absorb already existing material and learns to regurgitate, then it’s coming to take the jobs of people. Humanity in the 21st Century: hastening our own redundancy.

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AI Books Media

Chicago Sun-Times apologizes for AI-generated summer reading list

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Though I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, one of the best day jobs I ever had was as a receptionist. Not because I have a great love of patching phone calls through, but because I basically got to sit up front by myself and read all day. What a luxury! Then I was an idiot and accepted a promotion, sigh… When it came to the very personal question of selecting which books to read, obviously I followed word of mouth from friends and family, plus building a network of favorite authors and seeking out their work. I also picked up from my mother checking out recommendations from Vanity Fair, People Mag, and perusing the recent releases section of the library. So my head and heart go out to the readers of major newspapers last weekend who sought out a summer reading list. Why? Because the list turned out to be an AI-generated collection of books that, to quote the Chicago Sun-Times’s apology, “do not exist.” Read the human-penned apology for yourself:

On Sunday, May 18, the print and e-paper editions of the Chicago Sun-Times included a special section titled the Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer, featuring a summer reading list, that our circulation department licensed from King Features, a unit of Hearst, one of our national content partners. The special section was syndicated to the Chicago Sun-Times and other newspapers.

To our great disappointment, that list was created through the use of an AI tool and recommended books that do not exist. We are actively investigating the accuracy of other content in the special section. We will provide more information on that investigation when we have more details.

The Chicago Sun-Times has committed its strong journalism resources to local coverage in the Chicago region. Our journalists are deeply focused on telling the stories of this city and helping connect Chicagoans with one another. We also recognize that many of our print readers turn to us for national and broader coverage beyond our primary focus on the Chicago region. We’ve historically relied on content partners, such as King Features, for syndicated materials to help supplement our work, including national articles as well as comics and puzzle books.

King Features worked with a freelancer who used an AI agent to help build out this special section. It was inserted into our paper without review from our editorial team, and we presented the section without any acknowledgement that it was from a third-party organization.

King Features released a statement to Chicago Public Media saying it has “a strict policy with our staff, cartoonists, columnists, and freelance writers against the use of AI to create content. The Heat Index summer supplement was created by a freelance content creator who used AI in its story development without disclosing the use of AI. We are terminating our relationship with this individual. We regret this incident and are working with the handful of publishing partners who acquired this supplement.”

We are in a moment of great transformation in journalism and technology, and at the same time our industry continues to be besieged by business challenges. This should be a learning moment for all journalism organizations: Our work is valued — and valuable — because of the humanity behind it.

At Chicago Public Media, we are proud of our credible, independent journalism, created for and by people. And part of the journalistic process is a commitment to acknowledging mistakes. It is unacceptable that this content was inaccurate, and it is equally unacceptable that we did not make it clear to readers that the section was produced outside the Sun-Times newsroom. Our audiences expect content with our name on it to meet our editorial standards.

[From Chicago Sun-Times]

Chicago Sun-Times: “It wasn’t us, it was our third-party partner King Features! We maintain the highest journalistic integrity!” King Features: “It wasn’t us, it was a lone rogue nameless freelancer! We demand the highest integrity from our freelancers! But, yeah, oops.” Am I the only one getting a kick out of the gravely serious tone of this notice? Yes, they totally f–ked up, but the language here is so self-flagellating… all for an explanation that’s still basically passing off the buck to someone else, not once but twice. Something about the high stakes with which they’re treating the snafu is tickling my funny bone. This totally feels like it could be an episode of the forthcoming midwestern newspaper-set Office reboot, The Paper!

As for the AI of it all, between the technology ascribing fake movie reviews to real critics in the Megalopolis trailer, to its making an X-rated boo-boo by slapping the Wicked Barbie doll boxes with a link to an adult website, at what point can we drop the “intelligence” part, and just call it “artificial”?

Photos credit: Anna Tarazevich/Pexels, Lory Lory/Pexels, Mike Jones/Pexels

Categories
Books Geena Davis The View

Geena Davis was bullied for being tall as a kid and called ‘Kareem Abdul Jabbar’

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Geena Davis wrote a children’s book! It’s called The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page, and it was just released this past Tuesday. Much like Julianne Moore’s children’s book, ​Freckleface Strawberry, it’s about accepting yourself for who you are. As a child, Geena was much taller than her classmates, so her book is based on her own real-life experience. The story is about a little girl named Sheila who lives inside of a book. As she gets older, she grows so quickly that she doesn’t fit on the page anymore. Geena, who is six feet tall, not only wrote it, she also illustrated it, too.

To promote the book, Geena popped up on The View on Wednesday. She talked about her own experiences while growing up and hating that her height made her stand out so much. While she’s comfortable and owns her stature now, she was self conscious about it when she was younger. Her classmates teasing her about it didn’t help either. The boys in her class even gave her a special nickname: “Kareem Abdul Jabbar.”

Geena Davis has learned to embrace her height over the years, but she’s admitted it wasn’t always easy being the tallest kid in school. During an appearance on the Wednesday, April 30 episode of The View, the Thelma and Louise actress, 69, spoke about her debut children’s book, The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page, which stems from real experiences she had as a child, and the self-confidence she later learned.

Davis shared, “I was tall from minute one … I was very self-conscious and shy, and the last thing I wanted to do was stand out, and yet, every minute, I stood out.”

“So, it was really tough growing up. The boys’ nickname for me in high school was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which, you know, is so charming,” she added of kids comparing her to the former Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks basketball player who is 7-foot-2.

Davis’ book focuses on Sheila, a young girl who lives inside a book she knows people are reading. But as she grows older, she realizes that she’s growing so quickly that she no longer fits on the page, and the Beetlejuice star said that she could relate.

“This has always been a part of my life, but once I stopped growing, I became very comfortable with it and happy, and got cast in Tootsie, because it was funny to look at me and Dustin Hoffman together,” she said referencing the 1982 flick, in which she made her feature film debut as April Page alongside Hoffman’s Michael Dorsey.

Davis — who also illustrated the book, which is from Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers — also stopped by CBS Mornings on Wednesday for a chat about the release.

She noted that she finally accepted her height as an adult. “[Then] I realized that it’s okay to take up this much space. And so that’s kind of the message of the book.”

Davis shared the book’s release with PEOPLE exclusively in December, saying, “I’ve always been tall – I was a tall baby. As a kid, my fondest wish was to take up less space in the world. It was only as an adult I realized I could be all of who I was, unapologetically.”

“So I wrote this book for all of the ‘too big’ children — including children with big personalities and big dreams — who need reassurance that they can be their true selves and make their own space in the world.”

“It was a joy to write, and so wonderful to be able to illustrate my own words to bring my characters to life. I can’t wait to have it out in the world,” Davis concluded.

The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page is now available wherever books are sold.

[From People]

Kids are so mean! I’m sorry that Geena went through that. I wonder if those kids ever thought about what they called her while they were watching her on screen. I think the one thing I learned as I got older was that the way someone treats you is more memorable to you than it is to them, and likewise. That goes for good and bad behavior. I’m glad Geena got to a place where she was confident in her body. Anyway, she previewed a few pages of the book for the audience and it looks really cute! My drawing skills have still not evolved past flowers and 3D shapes, so I am particularly impressed that Geena did all of the illustrations herself. That’s really cool.

The rest of the interview was fun, too. She revealed that the advice Dustin Hoffman gave her while they were filming her first ever film, Tootsie, was “Don’t ever sleep with your costars, it ruins the sexual tension.” Oh my goodness. Also, they mentioned her 2006 series, Commander In Chief, where she played a president on TV, and asked her for her thoughts on how America still hasn’t had a female president. Geena responded with a joke, ”I’m not even old enough to be a president yet.” That made me laugh out loud. Speaking of, how is she 69 years old? She looks absolutely incredible. My new goal is to look that good and write a children’s book before I’m 70.

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Categories
Books politics

Book publishers see increased demand for print copies of the US Constitution

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We’re almost at the “First 100 Days” mark of Trump 2.0 — yes, it’s only been 100 days, sorry for the reminder — and even Fox News polling can’t hide the fact that Americans hate everything he is doing. (If only the Democratic candidate had laid out in detail that this is what Trump would do if reelected. Oh wait, that’s exactly what she did…) Trump, Musk, DOGE, Project 2025, et al. are swiftly executing the undoing of our government. I think it’s fair to say this is the most dire test of the American experiment that this country has ever faced (despite whatever delusions George Clooney espouses). So while the marauders are hacking away at our government, it seems citizens have been motivated to reacquaint themselves with exactly what the government is supposed to look like in the first place. Book publishers say that print copies of founding documents like the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution are “selling at their fastest pace” in 20 years:

On Wednesday, Random House announced that it would publish a hardcover book in July combining the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, followed in November by a hardcover edition of the Federalist Papers. Both books include introductions by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, who has written biographies of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, among others.

The Random House volumes, released through its Modern Library imprint, will join a prolific market that has surged in recent months. According to Circana, which tracks around 85% of the print retail market, editions of the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and the U.S. Constitution are selling at their fastest pace since Circana began compiling numbers in 2004.

Around 162,000 combined copies have sold through mid-April, compared to 58,000 during the same time in the early months of Trump’s first term, in 2017, more than double the pace of 2016.

Brenna Connor, a book industry analyst for Circana, said the jump “is likely in response to the recent change of administration” and cited increased interest in other books about democracy and government, among them Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny” and the Michael Lewis-edited “Who Is Government?” a collection of essays about civil servants by Dave Eggers, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell and others.

“This pursual of political understanding is playing out in a few different areas,” Connor added.

Meacham, during a phone interview with The Associated Press, said that the founders had sought to make sense of a revolutionary era — whether breaking with England or debating how to form a federal government with enough power to rule effectively, without giving it the kind of monarchical authority that enraged the colonies.

Reading the Declaration and other texts, he believes, can give today’s public a similar sense of mission and guiding principles.

“It is a tumultuous moment … to put it kindly,” Meacham said. “One way to address the chaos of the present time, what Saint Paul would call the ‘tribulations’ of the present time, is to re-engage with the essential texts that are about creating a system that is still worth defending.”

…“We generally see increased sales of editions of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution every election cycle, but particularly this year,” said Shannon DeVito, Barnes & Noble’s senior director of book strategy. “This could be because next year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,” she said, “or the fast and furious current political conversations and policy changes.”

[From AP News via AOL]

Hallelujah — news of Americans buying books instead of banning them. I’m so buoyed by this reporting! My only quibble is that I wish Random House would get their first release out sooner than July, because it would make a wonderful graduation gift. I’m a sucker for a beautiful hardcover, so that combined with the civic zeal of this moment may prompt me to indulge in the Declaration—Constitution combo volume. And I do believe I have a scathingly brilliant idea: you know how drag queens do storytime at libraries to read to little kids? Well, I’d like to do the same thing for grown ups and have drag queens read us the Constitution. Come on, you know it would be a fabulous celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! And most certainly a more perfect union of patriotic citizens than that which is currently in the Gold/White House.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that reading is power, and dissent is patriotic.

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