Opinion

Maybe it’s the perspective a long life brings, but I find myself eyeing with some skepticism the glut of “personal brands” that assault us every day on television, in print, and through social media. Entertainers, celebrities, politicians striving for acclaim, artists and writers who’ve mastered the public-relations game, journalists and media stars who are building their national profiles — all are “important” in terms of the attention they garner. But are they actually important?

One of the hot news stories is the bill in Florida banning discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary schools. The bill is called “Parental Rights in Education Bill” but has been dubbed the “Don’t say gay” bill. This, of course, has led to a national debate about censorship, decency, and age appropriateness. This is not the first of this discussion as schools are passing similar laws against issues like “Critical Race Theory” and taking books off school library shelves deemed inappropriate. As always, this column does not propose to answer any of these debates, but, historically speaking, censorship is not new and looking at historical examples may help us make more informed decisions today.

The Shawnee News-Star opinion page offers varied opinions on many topics. The viewpoints expressed in the columns, guest commentaries, letters to the editor and editorial cartoons are those of the authors and artists. “Our View” editorials are the opinion of the News-Star.

Dear editor, Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier, stories are now oozing out of the Washington, D.C. swamp that the Biden Administration is allegedly considering diverting medical personnel from Veterans Affair locations to our southern border to help with an expected tsunami of illegal migrants when Title 42 expires May 23rd.

The House again passed the Save Women’s Sports Act. If this bill sounds familiar, it’s because we passed it initially last year, but the Senate did not hear it before session ended. This year, we put the same language into a new bill to give it another chance and we passed it once more.