The culture wars next frontier: Public libraries

[mahatmakanejeeves]

NATIONAL

The culture wars next frontier: Public libraries

Conservatives are teaming up with politicians to remove books and gut library boards and censorship protections

By Annie Gowen
Today at 7:00 a.m. EDT

LLANO, Tex. — In early November, an email from a citizen dropped into the inbox of Judge Ron Cunningham, the silver-haired head chair of the governing body of Llano County in Texas’s picturesque Hill Country. The subject line read “Pornographic Filth at the Llano Public Libraries.”

“It came to my attention a few weeks ago that pornographic filth has been discovered at the Llano library,” wrote Bonnie Wallace, a 54-year-old local church volunteer. “I’m not advocating for any book to be censored but to be RELOCATED to the ADULT section. … It is the only way I can think of to prohibit censorship of books I do agree with, mainly the Bible, if more radicals come to town and want to use the fact that we censored these books against us.”

Wallace had attached an Excel spreadsheet of about 60 books she found objectionable, including those about transgender teens, sex education and race, including such notable works as “Between the World and Me,” by author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, an exploration of the country’s history written as a letter to his adolescent son. Not long after, the county’s chief librarian sent the list to Suzette Baker, head of one of the library’s three branches.

“She told me to look at pulling the books off the shelf and possibly putting them behind the counter. I told them that was censorship,” Baker said. ... Wallace’s list was the opening salvo in a censorship battle that is unlikely to end well for proponents of free speech in this county of 21,000 nestled in rolling hills of mesquite trees and cactus northwest of Austin.



Bonnie Wallace speaks during a county commissioners meeting on in March. (Sergio Flores for The Washington Post)

{snip}

Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.

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By Annie Gowen
Annie Gowen is a correspondent for The Post's National desk. She was the India bureau chief from 2013-2018. Twitter https://twitter.com/anniegowen

[Irish_Dem]

1. Their goal is to destroy public institutions.

Especially ones that educate and inform the citizenry.

[Grins]

7. Bannon, Feb 2017

“The third, broadly, line of work is deconstruction of the administrative state.”

Admitting it. WANTING it. WORKING to get it!

[Irish_Dem]

8. Yes. Everything will be run by the GOP authoritarian leader.

Like China and Russia.

[Ziggysmom]

2. The Bible has more salacious passages than the books she is afraid of! She looks like the

Kentucky kook Kim Davis who denied marriage licenses.

The Book of Genesis:

30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”

33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab[g]; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi[h]; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.

[Diamond_Dog]

3. In article:

“The danger is that we start to have information and books that only address one viewpoint that are okayed by just one certain group,” said Mary Woodward, president-elect of the Texas Library Association.

That’s exactly what these fascists want. Don’t cave in to them, libraries!!

[hermetic]

4. My state's repug-controlled legislature

recently passed the new yearly budget. They removed, from the libraries' share, any money for new audio books. To "protect" the children. Bastards, every last one of them.

[keep_left]

5. An old Finnish proverb: "The proud nail gets pounded down". That's what these morons need...

...a good punishing political defeat. Unfortunately, a lot of these people are voting for this crap. It doesn't bode well for the country if this continues. Civics education needs to return to every school, probably beginning by about third grade. It disappeared from most schools by the late '80s.

[murielm99]

6. The American Library Association

has always fought censorship. A lot of their policy came about because of the McCarthy era. I know they will continue to fight.

They have a clear policy against putting books behind the desk or labeling them. They gave a free speech award to Zappa years ago.

I know my daughter is still a member. I need to ask her about some of their current statements. They have more power than you think!