Amazon turned 30 last week. The retail behemoth’s climb toward today’s more than $2 trillion worth started July 16, 1995, selling one thing: books.

The irony is that’s also about the time the number of people reading books began to decline, a diminution that continues as online shopping and the world wide web are now staples of American life. Bezos knows best?

Fun fact: As we’ve decreased the number of books we read, we’ve increased the number of books the reading police want banned in schools and public libraries. Ten states — Florida, Missouri, Utah, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma, West Virginia,Texas and Iowa — have passed legislation that has either banned books or forced school districts and librarians to essentially do the same.

Book Bans

We tried to get in on the act closer to home, too. The Nebraska Legislature, the Nebraska State Board of Education and a number of local school boards have entertained attempts to either ban books or make criminals out of librarians who keep safe such unacceptable titles as “The Diary of  a Young Girl,” “Where the Wild Things Are” and any Harry Potter book. The University of Nebraska Board of Regents even wanted prohibitions on the teaching of an idea in college. See the ill-defined critical race theory for details.

A wider lens on these bans brings into focus this reality: A sinister set of modern thinkers wants to create a national culture that reverses years of advances in science, the arts and history. Worse, it wants to rewrite the American story.

For specifics, start with the current leadership at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who disparage settled science on vaccines, fluoride and measles. One of the great hypocrisies of the HHS evolution is its call for Americans to improve their diets, a worthy goal for any family or nation.

But when former First Lady Michelle Obama tried to do the same thing in 2010, the forces now questioning proven medical principles were apoplectic. Save the theatrics.

Senate Cuts Public Media

Last week the Senate, with the help of Nebraska’s U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, who continues to think 49.8% is a mandate, and Sen. Pete Ricketts, both of whom thought it good policy to pull public media funds, undercut the work of PBS, NPR and Elmo and imperil dozens of rural radio stations, which sometimes are an area’s primary access to news, information and emergencies such as weather warnings.

If the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was a proven spendthrift or fritterer, perhaps one might have made a case for cutting funds, but nothing to see there. Supporters of the cuts like to argue the $1.1 billion being stripped from the CPB represents only 15% of its total budget. But this argument is not about money.

Here’s why: Congressional accomplices doing the president’s bidding are nicking the CPB because — without providing much empirical evidence — it doesn’t bend to a particular political point of view. Before they plucked some of Big Bird’s feathers and compromised some rural radio stations, they could have at least asked for more than name calling and innuendo.

Aside from diminishing settled science, banning good books, undermining public media — often with disinformation and lies — too many want to return to a 1950s fever dream of America: Before civil rights, before we went to the moon, before the internet, before colossal strides in medical technology and research, before the Human Genome Project, before cell phones, ad infinitum.

History Rewrite

Perhaps the biggest leap backward is the attempted rewriting of our history, editing from school curricula, websites and government agencies some of our unique, American narrative.

To wit: The Department of Defense, sure that DEI was undermining its mission, scrubbed, among others, veteran Jackie Robinson and the Navajo Code Talkers from its noted history. After the public called them out, the DOD reversed course, accompanied by a tortuous explanation.

The DOGE bros started the process of dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), jeopardizing many of the nation’s museums and libraries. Even the Small Business Administration deferred to the moment, removing references, according to the Guardian, “to women, LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color, including facts about American heroes such as Gen. Colin Powell.”

In essence, what is afoot is a remake of the American story, a diminished version of our greatness, which lies in our drive and our diversity … not simply our skin colors, races, religions, ethnicities and geographies but, most importantly, in our freedom of thought and expression.

I’m sure you can find a book all about it. On Amazon.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/07/21/a-dismal-remake-is-afoot/

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