‘Just say no’ to repressive bills

As our school librarians and teachers pour through the books in their respective libraries, searching for “sex acts” in an effort to conform to our current governor’s wishes, I had the following thought. Life is a “sex act.” We are sexual beings, having a repressed human experience. Young people, and adolescents, need guidance, not censorship. Freedom of speech is the law.

We are living in a time when every child and adolescent is in possession of an an iPad or a smartphone, and there is nothing that they can’t, won’t, or don’t see. It’s the parent’s job to sit down and talk with the child. To help steer them through the sometimes murky waters of the “Information Age.”

We are marching backward toward the days of Senator Joe McCarthy looking under every bed, and in every closet, for Communists during the 1950s. I’m afraid that our governor is once again pandering to the far right, in an effort to advance her own political career on the national stage. When these repressive bills come before the Iowa Legislature, it’s time to echo the words of that revered and respected first lady, Nancy Reagan, and, “Just Say No.”

Charles Henderson

Iowa City