Protests were out in full force against a far right-wing advocacy group holding their national summit in Philadelphia June 29-July 2. Self-proclaimed parental-rights group Moms for Liberty (M4L) held their “Joyful Warriors” summit at the Philadelphia Marriott...
Book Bans
Battle for the 2024 mom vote comes to Philadelphia
People for the American Way, a progressive advocacy group, is organizing demonstrations outside the Moms for Liberty conference with help from allied groups including the Campaign for Our Shared Future, MomsRising, and Red, Wine & Blue. A “Drag Queen Story Hour”...
The Book-Bans Debate Has Finally Reached a Turning Point
Across multiple fronts, Democrats and their allies are stiffening their resistance to a surge of Republican-led book bans. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the past month have conspicuously escalated their denunciations of the book bans...
Op-Ed: Lessons for Becoming a Public Scholar
Academics at many colleges and universities today face an uncertain future. Rising tuition and falling enrollments, the lack of tenure-track positions, the dwindling student interest in the humanities in favor of business and STEM degrees, and growing questions about...
Students, authors fight censorship in PA schools
About four hours before the Central Bucks School District passed a new library policy in July, local high school junior Lily Freeman warned a crowd of about 100 what would follow. The policy, passed by a 6-3 vote, targeted books with explicit or implied depictions of...
The day the book banners lost in Pennsylvania’s culture wars
If you ban it, they will come. For the better part of an hour Saturday, dozens of teenagers and their parents snaked around the towering stacks of tomes inside Kutztown’s Firefly Books and sometimes spilled onto the sidewalks of this quaint Berks County college town —...
Commentary: Banning books is a futile practice serving no deed
Last March, I was invited by Christine Pearl ’11 to facilitate a book club session on my second favorite Toni Morrison novel, “Beloved.” The session was an extension of the efforts of the nonprofit organization Red Wine & Blue, whose mission is to empower and...
‘Too Hyperbolic’? School Board Parental Rights Push Falters
State teachers unions have increased spending on their candidates, and grassroots groups including Red Wine and Blue have rallied liberal suburban parents.
PRESS RELEASE: On Day Education Board Meets to Enact DeSantis’ Extreme Agenda, FL Moms Release Six-Figure Ad Buy to Stand Up and Fight Back – Especially With Suburban Women
“We may just be moms, but come November, you’ll be just a former governor.” Suburbs across Florida, October 19, 2022 - Today, Red Wine & Blue released “Just Moms,” a new ad featuring Florida moms fighting back against Ron DeSantis’ education extremism. The ad,...
How to protect schools from right-wing extremists
Reader Commentary in the Balitmore Sun. My thanks to Dhruvak Mirani for his clear and extensive commentary on the current right-wing attacks on public education (“Don’t get distracted by Dan Cox; Maryland boards of education are under threat from right-wing...
Recent Posts
Read This: A Seriously Brief Timeline of Women Organizing for Good
Throughout history, women have organized and fought for the greater good. Right now, as we witness great injustices and many of our freedoms are at stake, let’s recognize and celebrate some of the American women who showed us what’s possible through local organizing....
Do This: Fight the Climate Crisis
Remember learning about the hole in the ozone layer back when we were in school? And that to fix it, we had to stop using aerosol hairspray? We also learned the importance of recycling to preserve natural resources. And none of us will ever forget to cut through...
Okay, But Why Do Billionaires Have Our Data?
Americans are worried about the privacy of our personal information. We check our settings on social media and monitor our credit cards to protect our identity. But as more billionaires are given powerful roles and expensive contracts with the government, they’re accessing and sharing our information across agencies, raising new privacy concerns we should all be aware of.
Why do billionaires have so much of our data? And why isn’t the government protecting us?
Watch This: The Climate Crisis Is a Health Crisis
We’re not doomed yet, but we’ve wasted a lot of time. That’s one of the takeaways we learned from meteorologist and climate change communicator, Chris Edwards, when he joined us recently for our virtual event, Climate Change 101: What You Need to Know. Chris talked...
Okay, But Why Does Your Garden Matter?
Summers past were filled with the sounds of buzzing bees and fluttering monarch butterflies, but it feels like we just don’t hear them anymore. It’s not your imagination – these essential pollinators are disappearing. Climate change and pesticides are killing off the creatures responsible for one in three bites of food we take, but there is an important action we can take to reverse this trend. It starts in our own backyard! We’re answering the question, Okay, but why does your garden matter?