Yesterday’s MoveOn “Banned Bookmobile” visit was very successful; dozens of people were on hand before the 4:30 program began and the crowd grew steadily from there. Nancy Damon, MoveOn’s local organizer/liaison, assembled a great group of speakers (and started the program off in great style herself!) and we got good coverage, including by CBS19, NBC29, and WINA. Before leaving mid-way (to get this newsletter out!), we got to hear “My Monticello” author Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, Rabbi Dan Alexander, current HD-55 candidate/former Charlottesville School Board member Amy Lauferand Albemarle School Board candidate Allison Spillman (make sure your Albemarle County friends turn out to vote for these two!), Albemarle County School Board member Katrina Callsen (and our future Delegate, go vote for her!), and a surprise address by Greene County candidate Sara Ratcliffe (your Greene friends need to vote for her in HD-62). Still to come were Mayor Lloyd Snook, Senator Creigh Deeds, and Judy Le (all three of whom also need our votes, Judy is running for Albemarle County School Board).

Photos from the event are below (used with permission of MoveOn and GettyImages), and we recorded the remarks of Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, Katrina Callsen, and Allison Spillman and have those videos our YouTube channel (subscribe to see past and future videos like these!).

The Banned Bookmobile is on a national tour to highlight the terribly frightening and undemocratic attempts by extremist Republicans to ban books in schools and libraries nationwide; per WVTF and the Virginia Education Association, there’ve been 400 attempted book bans in Virginia this year as of September, and one public library almost closed due to efforts to ban LGBTQ content (but they fought and won that battle!).

Thanks also to Barbara Shenefield for making the great event poster (graphic to your left)!