Having retired after more than 35 years as a library educator, I feel more than justified by current events in my choice of career. We are never so exalted as when we are persecuted, as Thomas Merton might say. When libraries are attacked, I can be sure that we are doing our jobs in facilitating the flow of ideas. Ignorance will never win, even if all libraries cease to exist, because human curiosity and the need for human expression will outflank it every time.
Good on you! The library was a safe place when I was coming up. The ladies grew to know me and understood that in 5th grade, I read at college level and should be accomodated, screw the rules! Everyone else saw me as a discipline problem, but the truth is that I was merely not challenged and bored to distraction.
I ahd the same issue. I was reading high school books in the 3rd grade. Our elementary school library had a copy of The Three Musketeers and I read it because it was the biggest book in the library!
People who would kill all knowledge so that knowledge they dislike can’t reach those who are curious to learn about it. It’s an evil so profound that it can’t help but backfire. Remembering how Joe McCarthy crossed the line and destroyed himself is a comfort. Their time is running out.
We have people where I live echoing the same cries of “pornography” who have tried to protest the curriculum of the schools with regard to sex ed and to remove books from school libraries. I live in what is considered a “Blue” State. School Board meetings were so disrupted by theses people that they had to impose new rules to maintain order. These people have been influenced by “Moms for Liberty”. One of the ringleaders in particular has been going after the schools for years complaining about curriculum, even before she picked up with “Moms for Liberty”: a vindictive and unhappy person. And yet she has a special needs child who receives lots of special care from the public school system. She apparently has no problem with our taxes supporting her child, but she certainly wants to impose her unhappy will on everyone else. Another one who ran for School Board participated in the January 6 insurrection.
If you think where you live is immune from this, you are wrong. If you sit on your hands and do nothing, they have won. Try showing up at School Board or local government meeting sometimes to see what’s going on. As the Tennessee Three have shown us, Stand Up. Make your voice heard.
Seems like someone should sue one of these self righteous screaming radicals for something like defamation of the librarian or on First Amendment grounds. Then subpoena their internet search history to discover what their favorite pornhub sites are. You just know they have them.
...or often their spouses or children are indulging in porn or participating in forbidden activities.... (thinking of Falwell's son...by the way, Falwell senior thought oral sex should be criminalized!)
Sounds like you possibly might live in the same “Blue” state as me Jan? I attended a Red Wine & Blue meetings and learned some of this same important information from the teachers and school librarians who were there. If you are interested, there are some really great, well-organized Dem organizations here in NC (if that is where you are) such as Neighbors on Call or NoC. They are led by inspiring leaders and I truly believe we can make a difference.
Here's a resource (advice from successful candidates, briefs on issues, etc.) for school board candidates running against extremist lunatics: Democracy and Education, https://www.assistdemocracy.org/
The only churches that have actually been charged, investigated or penalized have been liberal churches, many of which took stands against the Vietnam or Iraq Wars. No prosecutor has had the courage to go after any of the millionaire run megachurches. Although Ted Haggard was removed from leadership at New Life Church in Colorado Springs after he got caught doing meth with a male prostitute in Denver.
“They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” arguing that “[i]t’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”
If this wasn’t so tragic, I would find it hilariously funny. One of my all time favorite jobs was when I worked briefly as an assistant to the Children’s Librarian in the public library of a small town in NJ. I loved reading to the kids, helping to develop programs to promote reading and my co-workers were wonderful, caring people. As I am sure is the case with many of you, libraries will always feel like safe places filled with wonderful worlds to explore. The Republican effort to remove all sense of safety for our children goes SO beyond heartbreaking and cruel. Children can no longer feel safe in schools due to gun violence and now our libraries are at risk. This is complete INSANITY!!!
So, to be clear, the Republican position is that people--especially kids--should NOT be allowed to read about LGBTQ kids and/or this nation's accurate history. However, coming home from school free of bullet holes, that's a step too far for them?
The ridiculousness in the details of these stories is that it’s often only one or two people initially who have a complaint. That should not get a ball rolling on such a measures but such is the hatefulness and desire for power of these twisted Republicans that it does get the ball rolling.
The story gets picked up by local media and Republican dogs sniffing the air looking for such stories, finds it & gets it backed by dark money or influence, who then campaigns to push the right buttons for ignorant, uninformed people. Soon the one or two people become 56% of a town not wanting a public library at all!
Clearly this is Fascism. They always go after books & education first. You cannot have an educated populace; educated people fight back,
If all it was about was a parent not wanting their child to read a particular book, (that they prob don’t know exists) the solution is simple: create an opt-out form so parents can ban it for their child! Simple. Instead, they are seeking to stop all parents choices and what ANY other child can read, not only in school, but in public now! Takes the choice away from adults as well. And takes away 10,000 books for students, for college students, for pleasure readers... and kill the jobs of Iberians, custodians, researchers, etc all because you don’t want your kid reading 3-4 of the books the library has?!! If that’s not pure Fascism, what is?
This is why people need to understand who they’re voting for in their local elections. Who would think this would be happening when they cast their votes or when they don’t vote at all at local and state levels...
I hope that the lesson being learned here by the general public is to get your asses out there and cast your vote before we are all living in a Republican dystopian nation.
Tiffany your last line is where my dreams go to die. They will absolutely not care and like everything else in this country, they won’t care until directly impacts their lives. Oh and that impact has to be felt. Everything else is a blip on their radar.
They don’t even know how or that it’s impacting their lives right now. Every time I’ve been involved in a campaign of trying to get eligible voters registered and voting, get so many shoulder shrugs and why bothers?
People do not understand the connection between their government and their lives. We control so much of our lives, but we are also restricted by the laws and rules, created by elected & appointed officials. We better get involved because by the time half of these people realize the impact on their lives it’ll be too late.
Hahahaha! You know the phrase "may you live in interesting times?" That's a curse and we are in it! Smack dab in the middle.
PS: Thank you.
However, I have committed to at least trying to emulate the excellent Abraham Washington tutorial on how to deal with the FL's of the world. I must admit that it is a challenge to read the screed from whomever and look for points of commonality instead of my preferred method of breaking out the blowtorch and giving it to them (whichever RW idiot it is this time) real GOOD! This is a challenge, I must admit, that I am not at all sure I am up to.
But, like a nasty smell in the mattress, that blood stain on the carpet or the bill that remains unpaid, the Florida Lady keeps coming back. Right now he/she/useless thing is writing long, elegant screeds of nonsense that no one will read, hence no one will call him out on his nonsense. I've seen a few postings where his was the ONLY comment and you could feel him preening as you read the screed. Creepy making stuff.
Dailey Beast coincidentally published a piece today describing a person who is/was involved with Moms for Liberty in PA. Titled “Moms For Liberty Leader Allegedly Hijacked Dead Woman’s Facebook Page to Harass Foes”, you can’t make this up. My mouth dropped open at the chaos and damage this one woman has inflicted on people and organizations before people started pressing charges. Apparently this woman had a reputation for trouble before Moms for Liberty.
I read that piece as well. Seems to me she is, and has been for a long time, a very dangerous individual. Why she has not been prosecuted for harassment, battery, defamation or the like is unbelievable.
Wow. This is so discouraging and unsettling. I’m nearly finished writing a 400 page nonfiction book that is about gifted children now grown up. Case studies. It’s about what factors have some smart children end up socially, emotionally, and psychologically healthy as adults and others endlessly struggling to recover from the quagmire of typical childhoods in our schools and homes. Of course some of the subjects are gender divergent. Most interesting, of the approximately 60 people who weighed I. On what they think of the topic, only two stated clearly they think it is wrong to be or entertain the idea of a deviation from the Christian norm. The ages of these people who answered are from 20 to 45. Two of the youngest are the ones who think it is wrong. I sure hope my book doesn’t get banned. Thank you for your Terri I work, Popular Information!
Exactly! And that is especially likely to come about if access to libraries and the truth are allowed to exist. Both of these young adults were raised in Christian very conservatives households.
Please add me to the list of advance purchase of your book. We have folks of all those stripes in my family. it might turn out to be sort of a family portrait.
The problem with government is that there are far too many religious nut jobs in positions of power. It's on both sides but obviously more on the right. We need to elect more atheists and people who can use common sense when making a decision and don't base every view they have on the bible. This is so wrong on so many levels. Exposing kids to different ideas and viewpoints should be celebrated. But these christian psychos don't see it that way. It's their way or else. Seems pretty un-American to me.
The problem is that a major component of several religions is the spreading of the news and the harvest(aka religious conversion). This means removing the influences that would prevent or slow the harvest. Obviously, this conflicts with the major component of a plural society called mind your own business.
The battle going on is both sides are trying to push the other back into the closet...or worse. There are no winners in this battle. Any victory would by pyrrhic. We need to figure this out.
"The people pushing to remove books from school libraries often argue that they are not pushing book "bans." Rather, they claim to be focused on ensuring schools have age-appropriate materials"
Righto. And Dobbs was just about states' rights in deciding on abortion laws. The camel's nose under the tent.
Can any of these cultists explain how a kid reading about a gay kid's sex life will lead to human trafficking? Is the kid going to traffic himself? Or become a pedophile in waiting, for when he turns 21?
There are some stupid mother lovers in this country. You can’t defund the police killing innocent people but those books are dangerous so let’s defund the libraries. Hey guns don’t kill people so make them more available to everyone. Are we number one yet?
If a group launched on Facebook, less than a year ago, with fewer than 300 members, can have this much influence, we should ask ourselves: where are they getting their funding? A number of similar groups, crusading on so called “parental rights”, are funded by outside, Dark Money sources. They are radical-right, libertarians who actually care little about the latest moral panic, but are happy to froth up those prone to panic, if it leads to their ultimate goal: PRIVATIZATION.
Grooming is far more likely done by what one refuses to allow to rise to mention, than by anything that may be said. it is more often actions that trap the victim in cycles of guilt.
Having retired after more than 35 years as a library educator, I feel more than justified by current events in my choice of career. We are never so exalted as when we are persecuted, as Thomas Merton might say. When libraries are attacked, I can be sure that we are doing our jobs in facilitating the flow of ideas. Ignorance will never win, even if all libraries cease to exist, because human curiosity and the need for human expression will outflank it every time.
Good on you! The library was a safe place when I was coming up. The ladies grew to know me and understood that in 5th grade, I read at college level and should be accomodated, screw the rules! Everyone else saw me as a discipline problem, but the truth is that I was merely not challenged and bored to distraction.
I ahd the same issue. I was reading high school books in the 3rd grade. Our elementary school library had a copy of The Three Musketeers and I read it because it was the biggest book in the library!
I understand completely!
People who would kill all knowledge so that knowledge they dislike can’t reach those who are curious to learn about it. It’s an evil so profound that it can’t help but backfire. Remembering how Joe McCarthy crossed the line and destroyed himself is a comfort. Their time is running out.
Hopefully the body will survive once the cancer has been excised.
I am ever so grateful to you for your career of dedication to the public freedom of thought. And your hopeful take on this. It will backfire on them.
Hopefully what you say will not be first eclipsed for a time by the ignorance of the moment which seems to be notching some success.
We have people where I live echoing the same cries of “pornography” who have tried to protest the curriculum of the schools with regard to sex ed and to remove books from school libraries. I live in what is considered a “Blue” State. School Board meetings were so disrupted by theses people that they had to impose new rules to maintain order. These people have been influenced by “Moms for Liberty”. One of the ringleaders in particular has been going after the schools for years complaining about curriculum, even before she picked up with “Moms for Liberty”: a vindictive and unhappy person. And yet she has a special needs child who receives lots of special care from the public school system. She apparently has no problem with our taxes supporting her child, but she certainly wants to impose her unhappy will on everyone else. Another one who ran for School Board participated in the January 6 insurrection.
If you think where you live is immune from this, you are wrong. If you sit on your hands and do nothing, they have won. Try showing up at School Board or local government meeting sometimes to see what’s going on. As the Tennessee Three have shown us, Stand Up. Make your voice heard.
Seems like someone should sue one of these self righteous screaming radicals for something like defamation of the librarian or on First Amendment grounds. Then subpoena their internet search history to discover what their favorite pornhub sites are. You just know they have them.
...or often their spouses or children are indulging in porn or participating in forbidden activities.... (thinking of Falwell's son...by the way, Falwell senior thought oral sex should be criminalized!)
Sounds like you possibly might live in the same “Blue” state as me Jan? I attended a Red Wine & Blue meetings and learned some of this same important information from the teachers and school librarians who were there. If you are interested, there are some really great, well-organized Dem organizations here in NC (if that is where you are) such as Neighbors on Call or NoC. They are led by inspiring leaders and I truly believe we can make a difference.
Here's a resource (advice from successful candidates, briefs on issues, etc.) for school board candidates running against extremist lunatics: Democracy and Education, https://www.assistdemocracy.org/
Jan, aren’t they just the worst types of people! “For me, but not for thee!”
There should be a class action suit demanding that churches who violate the separation of Church and State must pay taxes.
They should have been made to pay taxes long ago.
The only churches that have actually been charged, investigated or penalized have been liberal churches, many of which took stands against the Vietnam or Iraq Wars. No prosecutor has had the courage to go after any of the millionaire run megachurches. Although Ted Haggard was removed from leadership at New Life Church in Colorado Springs after he got caught doing meth with a male prostitute in Denver.
“They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” arguing that “[i]t’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”
If this wasn’t so tragic, I would find it hilariously funny. One of my all time favorite jobs was when I worked briefly as an assistant to the Children’s Librarian in the public library of a small town in NJ. I loved reading to the kids, helping to develop programs to promote reading and my co-workers were wonderful, caring people. As I am sure is the case with many of you, libraries will always feel like safe places filled with wonderful worlds to explore. The Republican effort to remove all sense of safety for our children goes SO beyond heartbreaking and cruel. Children can no longer feel safe in schools due to gun violence and now our libraries are at risk. This is complete INSANITY!!!
So, to be clear, the Republican position is that people--especially kids--should NOT be allowed to read about LGBTQ kids and/or this nation's accurate history. However, coming home from school free of bullet holes, that's a step too far for them?
I presume the Bible will have to be banned for all the sexual and violent content that seeks to indoctrinate the vulnerable in society.
The ridiculousness in the details of these stories is that it’s often only one or two people initially who have a complaint. That should not get a ball rolling on such a measures but such is the hatefulness and desire for power of these twisted Republicans that it does get the ball rolling.
The story gets picked up by local media and Republican dogs sniffing the air looking for such stories, finds it & gets it backed by dark money or influence, who then campaigns to push the right buttons for ignorant, uninformed people. Soon the one or two people become 56% of a town not wanting a public library at all!
Clearly this is Fascism. They always go after books & education first. You cannot have an educated populace; educated people fight back,
If all it was about was a parent not wanting their child to read a particular book, (that they prob don’t know exists) the solution is simple: create an opt-out form so parents can ban it for their child! Simple. Instead, they are seeking to stop all parents choices and what ANY other child can read, not only in school, but in public now! Takes the choice away from adults as well. And takes away 10,000 books for students, for college students, for pleasure readers... and kill the jobs of Iberians, custodians, researchers, etc all because you don’t want your kid reading 3-4 of the books the library has?!! If that’s not pure Fascism, what is?
This is why people need to understand who they’re voting for in their local elections. Who would think this would be happening when they cast their votes or when they don’t vote at all at local and state levels...
I hope that the lesson being learned here by the general public is to get your asses out there and cast your vote before we are all living in a Republican dystopian nation.
Tiffany your last line is where my dreams go to die. They will absolutely not care and like everything else in this country, they won’t care until directly impacts their lives. Oh and that impact has to be felt. Everything else is a blip on their radar.
They don’t even know how or that it’s impacting their lives right now. Every time I’ve been involved in a campaign of trying to get eligible voters registered and voting, get so many shoulder shrugs and why bothers?
People do not understand the connection between their government and their lives. We control so much of our lives, but we are also restricted by the laws and rules, created by elected & appointed officials. We better get involved because by the time half of these people realize the impact on their lives it’ll be too late.
Holy Christian Cats BatMan. Where do all of these Prurient Pilgrims come from?
Well old chum, unfortunately, they were already here. Home grown if you will.
Just stick an AR-15 and a St James Christian Bible in the ground, water it with beer
(not Bud) or the after-water, so as not to waste the nectar of Gods and in 3 days, you
done grown yer own!
OK? That is the intent of a lot of what I post. Everything is so serious and nutty at the same time right about now. Humor helps chase away the blues.
PS: You should see me let loose on the Execrable Frank Lee. I crack MYSELF up sometimes roasting that miscreant.
Hahahaha! You know the phrase "may you live in interesting times?" That's a curse and we are in it! Smack dab in the middle.
PS: Thank you.
However, I have committed to at least trying to emulate the excellent Abraham Washington tutorial on how to deal with the FL's of the world. I must admit that it is a challenge to read the screed from whomever and look for points of commonality instead of my preferred method of breaking out the blowtorch and giving it to them (whichever RW idiot it is this time) real GOOD! This is a challenge, I must admit, that I am not at all sure I am up to.
But, like a nasty smell in the mattress, that blood stain on the carpet or the bill that remains unpaid, the Florida Lady keeps coming back. Right now he/she/useless thing is writing long, elegant screeds of nonsense that no one will read, hence no one will call him out on his nonsense. I've seen a few postings where his was the ONLY comment and you could feel him preening as you read the screed. Creepy making stuff.
Dailey Beast coincidentally published a piece today describing a person who is/was involved with Moms for Liberty in PA. Titled “Moms For Liberty Leader Allegedly Hijacked Dead Woman’s Facebook Page to Harass Foes”, you can’t make this up. My mouth dropped open at the chaos and damage this one woman has inflicted on people and organizations before people started pressing charges. Apparently this woman had a reputation for trouble before Moms for Liberty.
I read that piece as well. Seems to me she is, and has been for a long time, a very dangerous individual. Why she has not been prosecuted for harassment, battery, defamation or the like is unbelievable.
If Daily Beast is putting it out there, I believe her status could be changing.
Her publicity from the Daily Beast should awaken many in her neighborhood, and hopefully cause others to question hate-mongers elsewhere.
Wow. This is so discouraging and unsettling. I’m nearly finished writing a 400 page nonfiction book that is about gifted children now grown up. Case studies. It’s about what factors have some smart children end up socially, emotionally, and psychologically healthy as adults and others endlessly struggling to recover from the quagmire of typical childhoods in our schools and homes. Of course some of the subjects are gender divergent. Most interesting, of the approximately 60 people who weighed I. On what they think of the topic, only two stated clearly they think it is wrong to be or entertain the idea of a deviation from the Christian norm. The ages of these people who answered are from 20 to 45. Two of the youngest are the ones who think it is wrong. I sure hope my book doesn’t get banned. Thank you for your Terri I work, Popular Information!
Remember that the two youngest, if truly very bright, may eventually think beyond how they are thinking now.
Exactly! And that is especially likely to come about if access to libraries and the truth are allowed to exist. Both of these young adults were raised in Christian very conservatives households.
Please add me to the list of advance purchase of your book. We have folks of all those stripes in my family. it might turn out to be sort of a family portrait.
Me too!
Terrific work.
The problem with government is that there are far too many religious nut jobs in positions of power. It's on both sides but obviously more on the right. We need to elect more atheists and people who can use common sense when making a decision and don't base every view they have on the bible. This is so wrong on so many levels. Exposing kids to different ideas and viewpoints should be celebrated. But these christian psychos don't see it that way. It's their way or else. Seems pretty un-American to me.
The problem is that a major component of several religions is the spreading of the news and the harvest(aka religious conversion). This means removing the influences that would prevent or slow the harvest. Obviously, this conflicts with the major component of a plural society called mind your own business.
The battle going on is both sides are trying to push the other back into the closet...or worse. There are no winners in this battle. Any victory would by pyrrhic. We need to figure this out.
whoa! Lets defund schools while we are at it. They have this stuff called "Biology" classes. After all, Evolution is a Biblical issue.
They've been working that angle for years, in fact. Destroying the public education system has been a key fascist agenda item for quite some time now.
indeed. And one main approach to destruction is to give vouchers to religious schools in the name of "school choice."
"The people pushing to remove books from school libraries often argue that they are not pushing book "bans." Rather, they claim to be focused on ensuring schools have age-appropriate materials"
Righto. And Dobbs was just about states' rights in deciding on abortion laws. The camel's nose under the tent.
Can any of these cultists explain how a kid reading about a gay kid's sex life will lead to human trafficking? Is the kid going to traffic himself? Or become a pedophile in waiting, for when he turns 21?
There are some stupid mother lovers in this country. You can’t defund the police killing innocent people but those books are dangerous so let’s defund the libraries. Hey guns don’t kill people so make them more available to everyone. Are we number one yet?
We're tired of winning.
If a group launched on Facebook, less than a year ago, with fewer than 300 members, can have this much influence, we should ask ourselves: where are they getting their funding? A number of similar groups, crusading on so called “parental rights”, are funded by outside, Dark Money sources. They are radical-right, libertarians who actually care little about the latest moral panic, but are happy to froth up those prone to panic, if it leads to their ultimate goal: PRIVATIZATION.
Well said Adrienne. And privatization leads the way to Fascism.
Yes, the Mom's for Liberty and variations on that theme, are funded by dark money. googled it: https://buckscountybeacon.com/2022/10/the-right-wing-money-and-influence-behind-moms-for-liberty/
My question is this? Who is grooming who? Think about it.
Grooming is far more likely done by what one refuses to allow to rise to mention, than by anything that may be said. it is more often actions that trap the victim in cycles of guilt.