Attacks on libraries
Dear editor:
These past months have seen changes in the temper and tolerance of our nation that words can hardly describe. Laws once thought to be unassailable have been struck down; rights have been trampled. All genders, races, religions, and cultures that do not support White Christian Nationalism have been maligned and marginalized. Into this heated climate of withering human rights, the bigots who have taken as their goal the annihilation of Democracy, have tossed yet another “threat” against our children.
Libraries — the absolute definition of Free Speech, available to all, free of charge, always at the reader’s discretion to choose — have become inappropriate places for our children, apparently due to the appalling proximity of information that would lead them to make discoveries about the world they live in.
Word is out that the hard right is coming for our library, and by association, librarians, board members, and basically anyone who does not follow their agenda. Is this what we want, as parents, as young readers (our future leaders), as teachers, as readers, and as citizens dedicated to the true principles of this great experiment in Democracy? It should be fairly obvious that should we not support our community resources, of which the library is arguably the greatest repository of diverse materials for multiple uses, our country’s great experiment could fail, town by town, in our state and beyond. I cannot imagine not being able to check out material on almost any subject I could think of. Can you? Have you seen the list of books that these morality warriors want to ban? My suspicious mind whispers that those who condemn these books have never read most of them, didn’t understand what they did read, and only use these issues to march to ideological war against a changing world that terrifies them.
It doesn’t have to happen. We can stop it. This is a strong community of many like-minded citizens. No matter our differences, our strength lies in unity. We can’t let these misguided individuals claim our rights and freedoms. Start right here. Support our library, its employees, its board members, and our entire reading community. We can win this — together!
Dianne Rogers
Hot Springs