If the White Home desires to fireside the librarian of Congress, it might probably. Nevertheless it was fascinating to have just lately had the expertise of assembly this dynamic, devoted particular person, and feeling so proud that she was our librarian of Congress, then studying the White Home’s sloppy, juvenile rationale for her dismissal; it gave me a visceral feeling for simply how diseased this administration actually is.
I used to be the recipient of the Library of Congress’s Prize for American Fiction in 2023. Dr. Carla Hayden struck me then as energetic, engaged and completely devoted to the work of the library. One of many issues Dr. Hayden and I bonded over was the concept data is energy, that in a democracy, the extra we all know, the higher we’re.
The White Home, tossing out nonsense from its meager field of repetitive right-wing auto-defenses, claimed on Friday that Dr. Hayden had, “within the pursuit of D.E.I.,” carried out “fairly regarding issues.” Did it title these issues? It didn’t. It couldn’t have. Placing apart the fundamental idiocy of being towards that place (“What, you worth range? You suppose issues needs to be equitable? And that each one needs to be included?”), members of the administration now use “D.E.I.” as a type of omni-pejorative, intentionally (strategically) leaving its precise that means imprecise.
What it appears to imply, to them, is: The accused is an individual who’s conscious that sure teams have had a special expertise of American life and who feels that it’s a part of our mental duty (and pleasure) to interact with that historical past, in order to enhance our democracy (that entire “extra good union” factor). This the administration sees not as wholesome mental curiosity however as harmful indoctrination. Indoctrination into what? Fact, historical past, a sensible engagement with the previous, I suppose.
The White Home additionally acknowledged, with an inaccuracy that will be comedian if it weren’t so sickening, that Dr. Hayden put “inappropriate books within the library for youngsters.” The librarian of Congress doesn’t put books into the library. And presumably, the American folks profit from gaining access to the widest doable assortment of books. Even these American people who find themselves kids, who, in any case, have dad and mom to resolve what’s inappropriate.
In the actual world, the world of trigger and impact, once we tear down one of the best amongst us and supply bogus causes for why we did it, actuality will finally come for us. To behave honorably requires that we keep in touch with the reality, to have the ability to provide trustworthy solutions to easy questions. If the White Home wished to half methods with Dr. Hayden, why couldn’t it, with out insulting her groundlessly, achieve this, after which (in truth) say why? One wonders.
The firing of Dr. Hayden and the inane dissembling that adopted signify a form of diabolical Reverse Day phenomenon: An distinctive particular person is stupidly tossed apart, and to give you an evidence the administration turns to its patented Random False Rationale Generator.
When a ship is sinking, there’s worth in figuring out how briskly, and calling it out. When a rustic is self-sabotaging, ditto. So let me simply say it: Disgrace on the White Home. Disgrace on those that needs to be stopping this slide into autocracy and aren’t. (I’m you, John Thune, Mike Johnson and Marco Rubio.) Disgrace on all of us if we let these ignorant purveyors of cruelty scale back this stunning factor we’ve constructed over these tons of of years to a hole, braying, anti-version of itself.
