On April 1, 2025 following President Trump’s executive order to purge DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) content from federal agencies Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, directed the US Naval Academy to comply with the order and they removed 381 books from their library they deemed fit the criteria.
Having been in high school in the 70s, I am familiar with banned books.
“The Catcher in the Rye”, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Of Mice and Men” were some of the titles I can remember being banned for language or sex or racism.
When my dad saw the banned books on my summer reading list his reaction was “pick the ones you want to read and I will buy them.”
My dad was a Korean War Veteran and wasn’t about to have some school board committee decide what someone could or couldn’t read.
It turns out I wasn’t the only one that was reading banned books that summer.
Highlighting the banned books just made us want to read them more.
I hope this is also the case today.
You can find a list of the purged books online.
I hope they too find new audiences.
The U.S. Naval Academy is training our best and brightest men and women to defend our country and we are trusting them with billions of dollars in equipment and training.
Why must we shield them from Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”?
Todd McClain
Sequim