This op-ed originally appeared in Newsweek.
Imagine walking into your local library to check out a book and finding the shelves stripped bare. Imagine taking your child to a museum, only to find all programs have been cancelled and the doors are locked. Imagine living in a rural community where there is no high school and the only accessible education is provided by a local museum that is now closed, or your only access to the internet is a library that's now shuttered by political decree. Imagine trying to teach a classroom about civil rights, women's contributions to science, or the Holocaust—only to be told those stories are "divisive" and banned.
This is no longer hypothetical. It's the path we're on right now.
Recent executive orders issued by the Trump administration—one misleadingly titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" and another that guts the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) among other federal agencies—are not just orders on paper.
They are acts of erasure—coordinated, sneaky attempts to cherry-pick our shared stories and decide who matters, censor our classrooms, and strip our communities of the places we go to learn, to connect, and to remember. They are a direct attack on our democracy and our future. They are an insult to the American people who love their museums and libraries, and should decide for themselves what they want to learn.
As the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS), EveryLibrary (EL), and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), we serve millions of people who rely on access to trusted information, honest historical narratives, and safe spaces to ask hard questions. These executive orders are a betrayal of everyone—especially, every child who visits a museum on a field trip, every voter who registers at their local library, every veteran who shares their story to help preserve our nation's past, everyone who wants the opportunity to think for themselves.
The IMLS is the lifeblood of our nation's museums and libraries. Without it, many small, local institutions—especially in rural and underserved communities—will lose the funding they rely on to keep their doors open. And these entities offer far more than is displayed inside. Many have acted as a place of shelter in natural disasters, places for community connection, and places that provide basic necessities, like access to the internet. Leagues have a history of partnering with local libraries, providing non-partisan civic information and registering voters.
Furthermore, through the League's Democracy Truth Project, we've partnered with libraries across the country to host community forums, debunk disinformation, and equip Americans with the facts they need to participate in democracy. These programs weren't intended to divide but rather to inform, connect, and allow people to make their own judgments. They gave people hope, knowledge, and power.
These aren't just institutions and programs. They are community pillars. They foster public dialogue, archive local histories, and serve as the last truly nonpartisan spaces in American life. They are the bedrock of our democracy. And that's exactly why they're being targeted.
The executive order on "Restoring Truth" doesn't get us any closer to truth—instead, it is an attempt to control the narrative and shape public thinking. We believe that Americans should think for themselves, be able to absorb material of all kinds and walk away with their own perspectives. This order seeks to erase the stories of women, Black Americans, Indigenous communities, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and others whose histories have been actively suppressed so that we fail to understand our country's full history.
This is about control—an attempt to control our history, and with it, the future of American democracy.
Silence is not an option. We must speak up in this moment. We will not stand by while those with political motives tell us what is true and what isn't. Museums and libraries have never been partisan playgrounds, yet the administration is seeking to take away every expression of culture and information that doesn't align with their own.
We call on Congress to intervene and protect our history, libraries, and museums. We urge educators, parents, students, museum professionals, librarians, and everyday citizens to raise their voices. Write letters. Show up at town halls. Share your story. Vote for leaders who believe in the power of truth and the right to know. The time is now to protect the institutions that make our communities vibrant.
Because this is not just an attack on institutions. It's an attack on American values. If we allow our libraries and museums to be defunded and dismantled, if we let history be rewritten to suit political agendas, we will lose more than just funding or access. We will lose the connective tissue within our communities that binds us together. We will lose who we are.
We cannot, and we will not, be erased.