Stand firm against erosion of rights

How would you feel about a group of self-appointed zealots taking on the role of monitoring governance in your community? What if your world view didn’t align well with theirs? What if their world view was informed by their religious beliefs, and those beliefs differed from yours? What if their stated mission was to impose their version of acceptable standards and behaviors on you and on everyone in your community?

What if they were self-described Watchmen on the Wall, infiltrating and influencing the structures of your community?

This is not a hypothetical scenario. It is real, and it is being played out across our state and our nation every day.

The most egregious local example is the heavy-handed manipulation of the Crawford County Library System, which resulted in the resignation of library board members and the coerced “resignation” of the director of the Van Buren Public Library/Crawford County Library System. In this unfortunate instance, a young woman dutifully doing her job was ousted because the “elders” and “those who know best” decided to violate her rights and our constitutional rights by forcing the institution to comply with their ideas of appropriateness. Similar library scenarios have played out in Jonesboro, Conway and other communities in Arkansas and in many states across our great country. Some group decides that they don’t approve of some books in the library and they make it their mission to have the books removed.

These powerful networks of “elders” — locally, the River Valley City Elders, but different names in different locations — organize, attend governance meetings, ingratiate themselves with local leaders, get elected to local decision-making positions and proceed to change the community to fit their agreed-upon ideals.

This arrogant and condescending position flies in the face of our constitutional rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, which state that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. (The free exercise of my religion or yours does not provide the right to “inflict” one’s religion onto someone else. What my religion instructs me to do or believe has no bearing on what you should do or believe.) The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Please, please let your voice be heard to stop censorship and provide for the continuance of the free expression of our constitutional rights. This what our Constitution guarantees, but we can lose the guaranteed rights if we’re not paying attention. Be involved! Let your voice be heard! Stop the march of censorship across our great land.

KATHY HUMISTON

Fort Smith