Perfected HB3005 is another Legislative Missouri Mess

David Rice has exposed how HB3005, a bill pertaining to public libraries is rife with errors. The bill was pushed through quickly and quietly and is awaiting a vote before the end of this year's legislative session. Here's a portion. Go read the whole thing HERE.

The Unconstitutional Library

A new library bill threatens parent and patron rights, supplanting the freedom to think by codifying ALA theories into Missouri law.

HickChristian News

Apr 6

From: Soviet Artefacts

We have expectations that the materials our sons and daughters read at the library, school or public, will be safe. Though many of us are waking up to the fact that these materials aren’t safe anymore. Books like the newly published Sibylline include a threesome with two young men and a woman [Right to Win Ozarks link], and one of the men (eighteen) was just killed. It’s necrophilia and the magic of sex and love bring the dead man back to life in the middle of raping his corpse.

Parents have demanded a rating system for movies, for music, are succeeding with an age-verification for porn sites across the US in many states (not Missouri though, thanks to our supermajority progressive Republicans). Yet, we can’t have a rating system for books? Except for Vendors and Publishers to recommend 12-17 year olds read a book about a corpse being raped?

This book is in our Christian County Library. It’s one of nearly 50 new books in the last six months that your child may be reading that is rated by the vendor for tweens and teens and the Library will allow anyone of any age to check out. In total, I have documented around four hundred books in our collection like this. If you have a precocious eight year old that can read above their grade level, the library won’t stop them from checking out books like this.

What is your duty as a parent? In this situation, you can go to the Library Board meetings, but that won’t help. You can write letters to your State Representatives. That won’t help either.

Our government in Missouri has decided they have an answer to our problems. Representative Doyle Justus (District 41) and Bill Lucas (District 115) have sponsored a bill, HB 3005.

The bill is only three pages long, but it has been perfected. In Missouri, that means it has cleared committee hearings, received public testimony, been amended and revised—in this case losing at least one significant protection along the way—passed out of committee as a substitute bill, gone to the full House floor for debate and second reading, and survived all of that. It now sits on the Informal Third Reading Calendar, which means it is one step from a final House vote.

All it takes is for Rep. Jon Patterson, the radical progressive Republican House Speaker from Lee’s Summit to bring it to a vote. He was so popular with the House Democrats, their radical progressive stepped aside for him like a coronation. He’ll bring HB 3005 to a vote with all the other bills at the end of the session when no one sees it coming.

HB 3005

HB 3005’s three pages reach for simplicity, but hide a complexity that will have to be unpacked. First, let’s analyze what sponsors will claim it does. Justus and Lucas will claim Libraries must now have a written policy detailing to patrons how to challenge books like Sibylline or Gender Queer. Libraries must post that policy in a public space. If a patron files a challenge, the material stays on the shelf during the review process. The challenger can only file a reconsideration if they have read the entire book or consumed the entire media (film or audiobook). If the challenger disagrees with the Libraries decision, they can appeal. The same material cannot be challenged again for two years. Library employees cannot be fired for refusing to remove a book before the process completes.

If you are a sharp reader, you’ll have already seen several issues with what it proposes. One of the individuals who testified, provided a blistering legal takedown of it. The sponsors were warned it was unconstitutional and they moved forward anyway. I emailed Representatives Bob Titus and Burt Whaley, notifying both of her testimony to ask them if they plan to vote on this bill. I also emailed Rep. Justus and Lucas asking if they will withdraw this bill.

Further, I emailed all five board members of Christian County Library so you can see what they think about losing their statutory authority over their executive director and their ability to affect change in their community.

So far, out of the nine people I emailed, the only Rep to respond was Lucas. I promise I was polite.

I should have signed with x’s and o’s. Dang it.

Lucas’s response deflected blame like a little brother caught with a baseball bat in front of a broken window. Justus pitched. Lucas swung and Justus ran.

Lucas responded to my email with one sentence: "The author and sponsor of HB3005 is Representative Justus." When I pointed out I have evidence he’s the co-sponsor (recorded on the Missouri House website), he did not respond further...

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There is so much more about HB3005 over at Hick Christian News. Again, read the whole thing HERE.

Counting the Cost

 

 Below is 'the actual cost of thoughts and prayers':

• Replacing the previous board of trustees
  
• Disassociating from the ALA
  
• Reworking the bylaws and updating policies to reflect proper governance
  
• Hiring of a new executive director
• Gaining dismissal with prejudice of a lawfare suit
  

The demons are howling and it is marvelous.

Dan Kleinman Interview

Excellent discussion about school and public libraries.

Hick Christian Weighs in on WAC

An exorcism from Très Riches Heures (1412-16)

 David Rice of Hick Christian comments on the ever-evolving accusations from the WAC blog. "Criminal intent" and "embezzlement" did not work out, so now they have moved on to other accusations. Read Rice's article HERE. A snippet:

"'We Are Concerned' wants taxpayers to believe that legal expenses are evidence of wrongdoing by the current board. The opposite is true. These expenses represent the cost of cleaning up years of institutional dysfunction created by board members who prioritized social approval over statutory responsibilities.

The current board could have chosen the easier path—continuing to let staff operate without oversight while collecting praise from progressive activists. Instead, they chose accountability, transparency, and legal compliance. That choice has a price, but it's a price previous board members forced on taxpayers by allowing the system to operate outside proper governance for years."

It isn't just the Christian County Library District that was ensnared in a system that allows for administrative government employees to govern rather than those publicly elected/appointed. This problem is in your school districts, your planning and zoning boards, your health boards, etc.

Allowing NGOs (non-governmental organizations) like the ALA and the MLA to determine policies and rules, to lobby our legislators, and to train our librarians means our taxpayer-funded entities have given up governance By the People. It is essentially Government by NGO.

Like a medieval exorcism, this usurping system is not going easily. Kicking, screaming, howling--it still must go.

Dan Kleinman of Safe Libraries explains it all

 If you know someone who needs to get up to speed quickly on why our library battle is so important, send them this video. He explains it all. A great primer.

Episode 5: Unmasking Marxism in Our Public Libraries

On this episode of Our Country Our Voice, Dan Kleinman discuss the alarming infiltration of Marxist ideology in the American education system, particularly through public libraries.

Chapters

00:00 The Threat of Marxism in… pic.twitter.com/m9vsxVZFaE

— Shoe (@samosaur) June 18, 2025

Why we keep fighting for Christian County's children and parents

 

And the incoming president of American Library Association is “nonbinary.” https://t.co/O4RBMu0hFz pic.twitter.com/bYPp0XKcTk

— Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries® (@SexHarassed) June 17, 2025

Returning Local Governance to the Library

From: Middle Earth Cinematic Universe

 By Gretchen Garrity

 Making libraries safe for children again is not as simple as one might think. There is a deeply entrenched far left political agenda that has subverted our libraries. It is nationwide, it is well-funded, and it has indoctrinated an army of librarians to carry out its agenda.

The American Library Association can be aptly described as Shelob, the monster that has quietly and in the shadows made state libraries, as well as school and public libraries part of a giant web that seeks to ensnare all who come within range of its territory. And it constantly spins new webs further and further afield.

The ALA has a plethora of resources and tools at its disposal with which to offer libraries. Librarians are even trained how to oppose citizens who work to restrict sexually explicit materials geared toward children.

From: American Library Association

It is not just obscene and age inappropriate books that are liberally shelved in libraries. It is Critical Theory, Queer Theory, Social Emotional Learning, Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Each of these agendas has one ultimate goal: to overturn the existing political and cultural norms of our nation.

The ALA has been extremely successful in its endeavors. Simply labeling a book will invite a lawsuit. Relocating a book will invite a lawsuit. The ALA and its many sister and spin-off organizations have even advanced the idea that once a book is shelved in a library it has certain rights to remain there. Yes, so-called First Amendment rights are being bestowed upon books.

A Federalist article just published explains the situation well. Mark Hemingway, author of "America's Librarians Became Militantly Political, And Now They Suffer The Consequences" says:

"This is once again, about kids. If ordinary people know anything at all about the ALA, it’s because of their annual list of the “Top 10 Most Challenged Books” and the corresponding celebration of “banned books week.” (Of course, when you get down to brass tacks, even the ALA concedes there’s no actual book banning in America – which is why they make a list of “challenged,” rather than banned books.) Every book on the list has explicit sexual content, with the list being heavy on LGBT themes, and every book on the list is specifically aimed at kids...Indeed, one thing that is characteristic of nearly all the censorship debates in recent years is the obvious unwillingness to discuss the specific nature of the work being questioned because it is almost always explicitly, graphically sexual, and devoid of defensible artistic context."

THE WEB IS STRONG

The ALA is so pervasive that a public library’s policy handbook is likely full of policies and bylaws that allow for administrative staff to have more control over the governing of the library than publicly elected or appointed boards. I have written about it HERE.

The current policy handbook in our library district has made it very difficult for the board to begin to cut through the ALA web in our own libraries. The board is currently working on updating the policy handbook, and their first bylaw subcommittee meeting can be viewed below. Staff did not attend, although they were invited to sit in, take notes, and offer suggestions:

 The difficulty is many of these policies have been in place since at least 2017. Staff has become accustomed to the arrangement whereby the board is merely a rubber-stamping figurehead. The proper government of the library—aside from the day-to-day operations that are the purview of the library’s executive director—is invested in the board of trustees.

Dan Kleinman, who writes the Safe Libraries blog and has founded the World Library Association, has just published an article that illustrates the difficulty library boards can have when their policies reflect an improper balance of power. He writes, “Why might a strong privacy policy be needed in your library? Librarians collude with American Library Association in Chicago, Illinois, to violate open government records. They even provide ALA with private information about their own citizens.” 

Kleinman illustrates with an example in Louisiana where a librarian admitted to turning over library records to the ALA. He says, “And all this to hide that the people being doxxed are complaining about access by children to explicit material the whole world thinks is inappropriate for children, except ALA, its member librarians, and the members of the hundreds of local groups it creates, like St. Tammany Library Alliance.”

From: ALA

It is a disturbing microcosm of what can happen when a radical organization is allowed to infiltrate and control libraries in our local communities. The St. Tammany Parish Library Board of Control ultimately passed a resolution that stopped their library from sending information to the ALA. Read Kleinman's article HERE.

It is important that library boards govern their libraries as constituted in state statute. A Chicago-based far left organization has no business governing any aspect of the Christian County Library. In a recent monthly meeting, the library board voted to disassociate from the ALA and its state chapter the MLA.

For their efforts to return the library to citizen governance via the publicly-appointed board, board members have been sued, doxxed, verbally attacked, misrepresented and defamed by local activists and an anonymous blogger. Cutting through the ALA web is sticky, unpleasant business.

Hemingway finished up his Federalist article thus:

"Whether public institutions, even those as humble as your local library, are subject to democratic accountability instead of controlled by unelected bureaucrats, is ultimately what so much of the sturm and drang of Trump’s second term has been about...but making local libraries more dependent, and therefore responsive, to local control seems like a step in the right direction – especially as a response to organizations such as the ALA overstepping into electioneering. 

I know there are some very good librarians who are doing their best to be attuned and responsive to the values of their communities, and I hope they are appreciated. But many other librarians, along with their various professional associations, are trying to make themselves into some sort of clerisy with unquestioned authority to use the libraries we pay for to dictate their values to the rest of the community."

Local government is about local control. Taxpayer-funded administrative library staff serve the taxpayers and should reflect community values in the operation of the library. Citizens should drop a line of thanks to the Christian County Commissioners for having the courage to appoint a library board of citizens who reflect the values of Christian County and who are determined to protect children. You can reach them HERE.