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.
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.
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.
"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.”
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.
"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.