Silliness, sadly

Fear claims rationality yet again

Fearmongering over the content of books in school or public libraries is alive and well in Arkansas, which passed a law last spring that targets librarians and booksellers for criminal prosecution for “furnishing a harmful item to a minor.”

Oh, a harmful item. Exactly how does one define that in specific terms?

It doesn’t really matter. It turns out there are plenty of people around the state who are more than eager to suggest that a harmful item is anything they say it is.

Whether something is harmful or simply controversial is one of those eye-ofthe-beholder issues in constitutional Ameri- ca. Free speech, freedom of thought, these are core themes of the nation’s founding. But defending the U.S. Constitution isn’t as popular as it once was among the Founding Fathers. Just ask Mike Pence, who these days gets booed for having done so on Jan. 6, 2021.

Arkansas’ Act 372, which we referenced in the opening of this editorial, has helped create an atmosphere that encourages a variety of individuals or groups to comb through libraries targeting books they’re upset with, in many cases because the books feature LGBTQ people or themes of acceptance of them. Crawford County’s library system earlier this year removed from the children’s section juvenile books, such as “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” which involves a youngster witnessing a marriage of two men, or “The Big Book of Pride Flags.” Now the county is being sued over it.

The federal lawsuit alleges Crawford County “has acted to segregate constitutionally protected materials in the Crawford County Library, and its attorney defended the decision to segregate those materials with reference to its impending obligation under Act 372 to create an area inaccessible to minors.”

That’s an issue for another day, but it’s context for a recent discussion at Crawford County’s Quorum Court.

The Alma Public Library was recently awarded a $10,000 grant to replace its front doors so the building will be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In other words, this grant would improve access. But it seems access is exactly the issue causing heartburn for some folks.

Jayson Peppas, a justice of the peace for District 10, brought up a constituent who was bothered that the $10,000 grant was coming from the American Libraries Association. That constituent, Peppas said, believed the library would be “beholden” to the national group and be forced to accept those awful books the ALA must want to impose on local communities. “He sent me a link that had some of the same books that we’ve had all the issues with here before, that he says that this group is sponsoring,” Peppas said.

We’re not sure the word “indoctrination” was used, but if it’s good enough for the state’s governor, it wouldn’t surprise us if it got tossed around among fearful Quorum Court members.

The Quorum Court then voted 10-1 to remove the grant from the library’s budget, even though the library’s director twice denied there was any truth to what Peppas’ constituent alleged.

Peppas said he would gladly vote to restore the money in September after reading the grant. How reasonable!

This is absolute silliness. So eager to be seen as a fellow traveler on the book-ban bandwagon, Peppas stands ready to disrupt a grant — money given with no expectation of payback — to make a local library more accessible to people with disabilities. On nothing more than a fear-based allegation.

Well, we suppose it’s important nobody mistakes Crawford County Quorum Court members as being part of the liberal cabal seeking to indoctrinate the children.

It’s hard to imagine the secret plan of the American Libraries Association, whose leaders must sit around scheming like the despicable supervillain Felonius Gru, is to infiltrate the mind of children by (gasp!) giving libraries money for doors. It’s diabolically stupendous!

Or maybe it’s just doors.