On May 8, 2023, a candidate for the Nebraska State Board of Education attended a local school board meeting, where she advocated for the banning of 52 books. She was there as a favor to a school board member – Terri Cunningham-Swanson – who would go on to be removed from office for “curating” a list of books she wanted banned from the high and middle school libraries.
The state Board of Education candidate, Linda Vermooten, implored the crowd at the meeting to consider the following: “Are you ready for a tsunami of pornographic addiction?”
We laughed. We made jokes. Her question evolved into a “tsunami of pornography.” Hilarity ensued, first in our home, then amongst our friends, and finally throughout the many communities Linda visited on her various stops to scream for censorship. She became known as Linda Pornmooten and the idea of the tsunami continued to amuse us.
What wasn’t and isn’t funny, however, are the constant attempts by the far right to ban books simply because they personally find the content offensive. Those of us who have fought and won against the book banners know that the content they are afraid of – specifically themes of racial justice, recognizing abuse, and/or LGBTQIA characters – is nothing to fear.
These people want to make decisions for the rest of us. They want to take voices away from people of color, from survivors, from our LGBTQIA community.
We are here to give them a big, literary middle finger.
The books they want to ban will be read. They will be reviewed. We will hand them to our children or students to read. We will never stop fighting the ignorance and hatred of people like Linda Vermooten.
And so, Tsunami of Pornography is dedicated to her.
We welcome the deluge of literary awareness and appreciation. If you are interested in being a reviewer for us, please click here to learn more.
We will also bring you news and insights about book banning – its history, the purpose of those who want to deny others access to books, and its impact on society.