Patty Hector: From library director to JP candidate

From Library Director to JP Candidate: An Interview with Patty Hector

Destin Davis

After spending the past seven months dealing with the controversy surrounding the Saline County Library, former library director Patty Hector was relieved when County Judge Matt

Bromley informed her that she was no longer needed at the library, after serving as its director for almost seven years.

“I was so exhausted that I napped every day and went to bed early every night,” she said.

After a couple of weeks of rest, Hector started working part-time at the Hot Springs Village Library.

“It’s very part-time, about 20 hours a week.

It’s very much a community meeting place, people come in, play the jigsaw puzzle, read the paper, and talk. It’s a great service, because how many places can you just go and not have to buy something? People are older here what they want is contact with other people so it really serves a purpose in the village,” said Hector.

Hector was fired by Bromley on October 9, and while she has enjoyed her time of relaxation, she’s now found herself running for Justice of the Peace in District 13.

“In a democracy, you have to have a choice for democracy to work. You can’t have some party having a super majority and being able to control the local government,” said Hector.

Hector was critical of how the Saline County Republican Committee and Saline County Republican Women have influenced the QC.

“I don’t think most people support their extreme views, defunding the library, paper ballots, ANTI-LGBTQ rhetoric, the billboards they put out. They are all about control. They want to control everything and you know what? They don’t get to

control your thoughts, your body, it’s just wrong, they don’t get to tell you what religion you should be or how to vote,” added Hector.

Expressing her worries about the current political climate, Hector cited examples from other regions, such as the City Elders group she said is taking control of

Crawford County government. She emphasized the need to resist extremist ideologies that she believes threaten the principles of democracy.

“It sickens me that they call people pedophiles, because there is a legal definition for that, just like obscene, and to the people who have been actually been assaulted, it’s so horrible equalizing what happened to them with some librarian having a book you don’t like,” said Hector.

The controversy surrounding the content of books in the Saline County Library began in March when members of the SCRW and SCRC began showing up at Quorum Court meetings and pressuring JPS to take action. Since the court has taken action, passing a resolution requesting the removal of books deemed “obscene from the children’s section of the library and an ordinance giving the County Judge several powers over the local library, few books have been challenged by residents, and no books have been challenged over the past two months.

“I’ve always thought it

Birthday

thing. Something is wrong,’” said Hern, and they turned around for the hospital to get in with the pulmonary clinic.

It wasn’t until four more heart tests that the reality of Halox’s condition became apparent. Halox had holes in his heart, and his aorta was trapping his mainstem bronchus, cutting off his airflow while his lungs were beginning to drown in blood.

Faced with limited options, Halox’s family, led by Hern’s motherly intuition and determination, discovered a trial surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital. Out of desperation and hope, she applied for the trial.

After having to put up yet another fight with their insurance agents that ended with the family’s cardiologist directly was just a wedge for the SCRW to get attention and fundraise. They don’t care about those books or children reading those books and the ones they said were ‘X-rated’ weren’t even children’s books, they were teen books, and they were sex-ed bucks. And now a bunch of them are running for JP,” added Hector.

Now, Hector is ready for her next challenge.

“I kind of feel like I’ve been through the fire and came out on the other end,” she said. “When Brumley visited me, I felt relief. I was relieved to be out of it. There was no way I was going to quit. They could torture me forever. When you’re in the right and you absolutely know you’re in the right, it gives you great strength. I was upholding my principles, upholding the principles of my career. One of the pillars of librarianship is do not censor, do not man books, do not let

calling the agency, Halox was being prepped for his trip to Boston.

The family arrived on a Saturday, Halox underwent tests on Sunday, and Monday Halox was taken to the cath lab to prepare for surgery. For infants, this is a particularly delicate and tedious process that meant more time away from her child for Hern.

“I knew that was the last time I might see him alive with eyes open and interacting,” said Hern.

On Tuesday, at three months old, Halox was ready for his 10-hour heart surgery.

Ultimately, all went well even though the situation was worse than doctors had initially marginalized people be taken out,” she said. “You can’t compromise when it comes to people’s rights.”

She’s running in District 13, the seat of long-time JP Keith Keck, who was one of the two court members to vote against the ordinance giving the County Judge powers over the local library. Keck has opted to not run for re-election.

“I thought long and hard because I don’t have any public administration or political background, but I started thinking of the skills I do have and I do feel like they are very transferable. I’ve been in libraries for 38 years and public libraries for 35 years,” she said.

Hector clarified her political stance, stating, “I’m not left, I’m middle of the road. It’s not left to support equal rights for people.” She urged for a middle-ground approach that upholds the principles of equality, regardless of political affiliations.

thought. The surgeon described Halox’s heart as looking like “Swiss cheese” and that Halox would not have survived another month without the surgery.

Since then, Halox has been living the life of any other little boy, only with the additional therapy sessions. The family opted out of additional surgeries for Halox’s hands and arms.

“After all of his heart issues, we were like ‘That’s so minimal at this point. This is the way

God made him, we’re not going to change it.’” said Hern.

For more information on Halox and his journey, visit his Facebook page at Halox’s Heroes.