Sam Smith – My work as a
journalist has been aided by the fact that I’m married to a historian and am
the son of a man who worked for the Roosevelt Administration. As a result, I am
aware that most news is published rarely with any reference to a past greater
than a few days, weeks or months.
News is typically about what happened today with a few references to the recent past. I was reminded of this while thinking about Donald Trump’s assault on books that deal with diversity, equity and inclusion.
In researching this I came across an article from the Smithsonian that stated:
The American Library Association reports that 2022 saw more attempts to have books removed from schools and public libraries than in any prior year this century—indeed, it documented nearly twice as many attempted bans in 2022 than in 2021.
In other words, the attack on books is not merely a Trump story. It is an anti-democratic practice that’s been going on for some time and is now getting worse.
Further, the attack on books includes those that raise such matters as the defense of blacks and women. In other words, many civil rights issues, that we treat as mainly resolved, are in fact coming back but our media is not detailing them because that story is considered history and not journalism.
Many of the stories that affect people on a daily basis have historical backgrounds that would provide improved context for the tale of what happened last night. Instead we find ourselves with a president pretending that our past doesn’t matter. Another reason that we picked the wrong guy.
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