LAURA RUMINSKI / WEST HAWAII TODAY
Books are featured on display in the open area of the Kailua-Kona Public Library in November 2020.
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Books are being banned by the thousands. In 2024, over 10,000 books were stricken from U.S. public schools. An executive order aims to defund the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). IMLS provides funding to the Hawaii State Public Library system, to the tune of approximately $1.5 million. Now the Legislature is considering cuts to the library system.
Books hold our history. All that is left without books is media controlled by oligarchs and the elite, many of whom have bent the knee to Donald Trump.
If you don’t like a book, don’t read it — but leave it for someone who can appreciate it. It shows the power of books, that some would not even want them to be accessible.
The library provides free access to the world’s literature. I say to the Legislature: offer libraries supplemental funding to make up for what was lost. Don’t dumb down Hawaii.
Judith Pettibone
Makiki
EXPRESS YOURSELF
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