Open Meeting for Library Board Today!

 By Gretchen Garrity

The Fake News is busy building their narrative. You can read the latest HERE. First, the Springfield News-Leader reporter Marta Mieze labels the Christian County Commissioners as conservative, instead of concerned about age-inappropriate library materials--as are many citizens. The commissioners heard from their constituents and acted appropriately.

Second, a motion was made to investigate labeling of LGBTQ materials by Trustee Janis Hagen and it was voted on affirmatively by former Trustee Allyson Tuckness. That has yet to see any movement, and it has been several months. Here is the meeting in question--August 27, 2024:

Third, Mieze makes the same mistake that many make regarding the ILL (Inter Library Loan ) systems in question. Since MOBIUS, the expensive system now in place in the Christian County Library has more materials, it is assumed they are better than the Evergreen system. MOBIUS is primarily an academic library consortium, while Evergreen in a public library consortum. Big difference. Mieze might want to ask why most public libraries in Missouri use Evergreen.

Mieze finally does a decent job of writing about the search for a new executive director by quoting state statute: "While the same chapter of state law decrees that the board 'shall appoint a qualified librarian' to be the chief executive, what constitutes 'qualified librarian' is left undefined."

ON ANOTHER NOTE

Remember reporter Susan Wade, who recently stepped down from reporting for the Springfield Daily Citizen? You know, that media source that is dedicated to "unbiased coverage of the local news that affects each of us." Traditionally, reporters would not reveal their political bent and would try to stick to the facts regardless of their political affiliations. Well, it was really good of Susan to step down, because this is how she really feels (and no doubt felt) as she covered the Library for her media outlet:

If only there was a FAKE news boycott.

Is that what the lawsuit is about? Censorship?

EVEN MORE

Wait until you hear about the "nonpartisan" League of Women Voter members who've been attending library meetings. In a recent letter to the editor of the Springfield Business Journal (of all places), Emily Fessler and Liz Wertz -- co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri, opine on the importance of libraries to the community. As is usual with progressive-oriented individuals and organizations, the ladies assert their support for "access by all persons to public library services as a major source of knowledge and information necessary for informed, active participation in a democratic society."

 

This is the exact type of deceptive agenda the American Library Association (ALA) supports. No one on the current board of trustees is suggesting that the library should not be accessible to all. But, like commonsense people everywhere, not all materials should be accessible to all -- meaning there are some age-inappropriate and sexually explicit books that minors should be protected from. This has always been the crux of the matter.  But organizations and individuals like those detailed in this post want you to believe that citizens are out to ban and censor books.

 

Further, the co-presidents write, "We are seeing a growing effort to hinder libraries' ability to provide key and needed resources to our communities. This includes sowing distrust in public libraries as institutions and the American Library Association, a professional organization that has guided libraries for over 140 years. Worse still are the personal attacks on both board members and library personnel via social media or public comments."

 

How disingenuous of the ladies! If they truly cared about the community they would also want to protect the community's children from sexually explicit and age-inappropriate materials. But their decidedly leftist politics takes precedence, apparently. And their appeal to authority and accusations are logically incongruent with their apparent desire that libraries and tax-paying patrons support one another.

For more on recent events in the library, go HERE and HERE and HERE.

That American Library Association

 

By Gretchen Garrity

Amanda Jones of "That Librarian" infamy, is following standard ALA (American Library Association) lawfare tactics. She sued a citizen group and two individuals for defamation in 2022. She has also just sued Dan Kleinman of Safe Libraries and the World Library Association.

Kleinman's enlightening article, "How Chicago's ALA Co-Opts Local Governments: St. Tammany Parish Louisiana" details how the ALA's tentacles reach into local communities to impose their extremist agenda. From his article, "Governing bodies often hear from no one other than the community-organized multitudes ALA creates, funds, and empowers to create the illusion of local support and to provide a base for ALA to sue via surrogates anywhere across America."

 One can always tell when the awards and recognition and even films are lavished on individuals like Jones. That's how the hard Left rolls. It's part of their public relations (propaganda) tactics to bamboozle the public.

They do the same thing with the sexually explicit books they place in the libraries for minor children to access. Awards and accolades galore!

Here the Daily Mail does a decent job of explaining the situation with Jones' lawsuit against against parents in Louisiana. From the article:

"The controversial books involved in the argument include 'Dating and Sex: A Guide for the 21st Century Teen Boy' by Andrew P. Smiler and 'Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human' by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, according to Lunsford.

The lawsuit was dismissed that same year, but Jones' appeal reached the state supreme court who overruled the judgment on Friday - sending the case back to the court of appeals to reconsider.

'Before all this, I was just a school librarian, but they wanted to silence me, so I thought I would do the exact opposite and become an activist,' Jones told The New York Times.

'What we're seeing now is full-scale attacks on people's characters if they stand up for books. The hate level and the vitriol is unreal to me.'"

Here is information on the book "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human" HERE. From the summary: "This book contains obscene sexual illustrations and commentary; obscene sexual nudity; profanity; and alternate gender ideologies."

  

Groups like the local U-turn in Education collaborate with the ALA and its associated groups for resources and action items to oppose parents' rights (see graphic above). In their most recent newsletter, U-turn explains they "are not tied to any other organization." However, they do state they support the ALA and MLA: "We support THEM, but they do not support us.  We support them by upholding the promises the ALA makes for all free and public libraries, we help professionals attend MASL conferences, and we are partnered with a state wide initiative to collaborate with other organizations." [bolding added]

The toolkit from the group Unite Against Book Bans shares talking points, FAQs, actions items and so on. It's all done very professionally, but if you really think about what they are advocating for, their talking points don't make much sense. 

From: Daily Mail

 

Back to the article about Amanda Jones in the Daily Mail. The comments to the article are heartening. Commonsense adults know that sexually-explicit, age-inappropriate, pervasively vulgar books and materials should not be made freely accessible to minor children. It's a no-brainer.

From: Daily Mail

 

There won't be a January meeting of the Christian County Library Board of Trustees. The next meeting will be February 25 at 6 p.m., at the Nixa Library.