I'm not going to mince words here: we're running a campaign, and we're not sure we're going to win.

You may have heard of our Save Our Libraries campaign, organized by North Alabama DSA and Birmignham DSA. In a nutshell, Kay Ivey has proposed laws that'll defund Alabama's public libraries if they don't ban LGBTQ+ and racial identity-affirming books, and we're running a campaign to stop her.

The Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) -- the governing body for our state's public libraries -- is collecting paper copies of public comments on Governor Kay's defund proposal until April 29. However, Governor Kay has stacked the APLS board with her own pro-book ban cronies.

We've learned from Read Freely Alabama that 1,100 anti-ban comments have already been received by, or on queue to be mailed to, the APLS. But we're not sure that's enough. The only way we can stop these book bans is if we tell Alabama -- and the entire world -- that Alabamians JUST LIKE YOU in overwhelming numbers reject these bans!

That means we need your help. Can you commit to writing, printing, and mailing a public comment that'll be received by the APLS in Montgomery no later than 4:30 p.m. on Monday, April 29? Our goal is to get 429 people to submit comments to the APLS by 4/29.

If you can commit, fill out the form to the right. Once you do, we'll e-mail you a link to a Google Doc that'll guide you through your letter writing, including suggestions for what your comment can say. You'll also get links that'll send you APLS's physical mailing address, where you can mail your printed comment, or to have Save Our Libraries campaign organizers mail your comment for you.

Remember: Our strength is in our numbers, but our power can only start with you.

Thank you, and solidarity,
Save Our Libraries Campaign Organizers