Libraries, it seems, pose an imminent threat to our very way of life. They are destroying the minds and souls of our children, usurping parental authority, laying the groundwork for a (communist, Islamic, or Hispanic – pick one) takeover of our country.
Book banning is the only solution!
The hysteria is spreading throughout the local levels of government in America and you need to voice your opposition at today’s meeting of the Livingston Parish Council at 6 p.m. in the Parish Governmental Building in Livingston.
You never heard such rot in your life – at least not since the Joe McCarthy-spawned panic of the 1950s that produced those silly Americanism vs. Communism classes in high school and the asinine elementary school drills on how to duck under your desk in case of a nuclear attack.
Or the widespread phobia that when desegregation came to our lily-white schools, it would mean the end of life as we knew it. Why, who knows? They might even start dating our daughters (forgetting for the moment that it usually takes the consent of both to constitute a date). Of course, when we had a black running back who could power over the opposition or a point guard who could shoot the eyes out of the basket, we embraced him as “ours” – until his eligibility was up and then we conveniently forgot all about him, tossing him aside like yesterday’s newspaper.
My grandfather taught me that was the very definition of hypocrisy, as was the profession of Christianity on Sunday while donning a white sheet on Saturday night to burn a cross on someone’s lawn.
I remember when I first moved to Denham Springs back in 1981, we visited the Livingston Parish Fair. When a family parked next to us and exited their vehicle, I overhead the wife asking the husband, “Aren’t you going to lock the car? There’s a book on the back seat.”
The husband replied, “When we get back, the car may be gone but the book will still be there.”
We laughed, but his joke was closer to the truth than we would’ve liked. The parish library at the time was housed in a single, cramped room in the back of a medical complex and boasted an embarrassingly limited number of books.
We (Livingston Parish) were a standing joke at the local comedy club with the touring comics and I admit, as club emcee, I am guilty of my own pointed jabs at the prevailing redneck culture of the time. Such was the reputation of Livingston Parish 40 years ago.
I’d love to think that we’ve progressed beyond that. A population explosion caused by the availability of cheap land in more peaceful surroundings coupled with I-12 access to a Baton Rouge commute saw subdivisions spring up like mushrooms in a cow patty. New schools were built, we got a new courthouse and best of all, we built a parish-wide library system of which we can be justifiably proud.
Until now.
Now, the lunatics are trying to run the asylum as the movement to censor – and ban – books picks up momentum. It’s a favorite tactic of any totalitarian dictator: clamp down on literature that might be deemed offensive or perceived as threatening.
They just did it in Jamestown, Michigan, where the public library was defunded over the librarian’s refusal to censor or ban a LGBTQ book. They claimed the library was “grooming” children and calling library staff pedophiles.
Sound familiar? That’s what a guy named Michael Lunsford, head of a fringe outfit called Citizens for a New Louisiana, is attempting to do across the state. He’s already initiated similar efforts in Lafayette and Caddo parishes and now he’s weaseled his way into Livingston by launching a frontal – and defamatory – attack on a popular school librarian.
And now the Livingston Parish Council, in an obviously underhanded effort to conceal its actions from the public, has “added” a late “addendum” to its agenda for today’s meeting:
- Discussion and possible resolution of support for the reclassification of certain books in the Livingston Parish Public Library.
(Nothing like a late add-on to an agenda item to sneak through controversial actions.)
In a parish devastated by widespread flooding in 2016, it would seem the parish council would have more important matters to consider – like instituting flood control and dredging of the Amite River – than worrying about exposing innocent children to the dreadful poison of LGBTQ books. There’s an old Bob Dylan song that seems relevant today:
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
and don’t criticize what you don’t understand.
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly aging.
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand
for the times, they are a-changin’.
“Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command.” A most relevant line, one worth remembering.
Grooming? These narrow-minded bureaucrats are so locked in to what some book might contain, they’ve completely overlooked a thing called the Internet and cell phones.
Kids today all have cellphones and those cellphones all have Internet access and cameras. They can access all the LGBTQ literature and all the porn they can imagine – without your knowledge or your consent. And don’t think for a nano-second that some aren’t taking – and sending – explicit selfies to each other. It’s called sexting. And even more dangerous than any book, some are communicating with creepy adults who can introduce them to a much more dangerous world of drugs and sex trafficking.
And we’re worried about some book? C’mon, aren’t there any adults in the room? A book isn’t going to make a kid gay and no religious indoctrination is going to change a gay child to straight.
Book banning is wrong on every level imaginable. We’ve already seen math textbooks banned in Florida, for what possible reason I haven’t the foggiest. This may sound alarmist and it may appear to be some sort of scare tactic but remember where you read this:
If this effort succeeds, it will be just the first step to shutting down American history lessons that don’t agree with someone’s political agenda. It will be the first step toward censoring any literature about women’s rights (like the struggle for women’s suffrage, for example). It will be the first step toward abolishing any teaching about the American Civil War or about the struggle for civil rights. It could even be the first step toward reverting to not allowing blacks or women or even non-property owners to vote.
Drastic? Yes. Draconian? You bet. But once that first step is allowed, the second and third and subsequent steps will be much easier. Once it is decided what you may or may not read, it will be an easy matter to strip away the rest of your rights.
Please be in attendance at 6 p.m. at the Livingston Parish Governmental Building in Livingston to show your opposition to this new form of kneejerk McCarthyism and your crucial support for Livingston Parish librarians. It’s important.
Louisiana Voice 
Thank you. I don’t know why the news media is not paying more attention to this travesty.
I wonder what is next- going after school personnel perceived to be LGBTQ because they are not married, talk a certain way, mannerisms, rumors, “passive” grooming? Is it “Children’s Hour” redux? It is only a matter of time before “Moms for Freedom” goes statewide, the season is ripe with an election coming up in November. Remember, this all began in Virginia, propelling Youngskin to the governorship, fueled by DeSantis and Abbott.; AG Landry is taking note.
We’ve seen more and more in recent times how the kind of crap that we used to think was a bad joke can quickly become horrible reality.
Have you ever noticed how the people who scream the loudest about their rights – it’s a free country – I can say anything I want – I don’t want the government telling me what to do – are the first ones to try to dictate how everyone else should live, what they can and cannot read, say or express in public? They want total “freedom” to do whatever they please, while trying to deny others the right to love and marry whom they wish, express who they are, have the choices involved in issues of reproductive freedom (not just abortion care but birth control itself), on and on.
I once listened to a person who was ranting about all the things that other people choose being against their religion. I observed that saying that someone else’s marriage was against their religion was like berating someone for eating sweets while you are on a diet. Shut that rant right down.
If you don’t want to read a book or allow your child to read it, fine. But you don’t get to dictate to everyone else what they and their kids get to read. And by the way, the book banners might want to have a look at their kids’ cell phones, computers, notebooks, etc. It will probably curl their hair when they see the sites their own kids have been visiting, the porn they watch, and the photos and other stuff their exchange. Keep your kids in a vacuum if you must. The rest of us choose to breathe free – not your decision.
Looks like we had the same thought. After reading the previous articles about this, I couldn’t help but think about the house in our neighborhood that is home to a herd of small kids and displays a row of political flags, including one that says “trump 2024 f__k your feelings” (transcription edited/censored by me for public viewing). The flags have been there long enough to fade significantly. Three school buses pass in front of that place twice a day, but I guess that’s OK… let’s censor the library.
I didn’t react to the previous article because public libraries are, arguably, relics of the past. It’s a wonder that they have survived this long. Even school children know that the “good stuff” is online, and I’d bet that clown Lunsford knows it too. History shows that it never ends well for the book burners in the US, so… what is his real goal? There has to be some reason that he is stamping his name all over this. Public office?
great article and comments. will check the hearing results. There is a lot of dark money out to religious groups and by religious groups. Look at the millions trump gets from these (I can’t think of an acceptable word) thanks go Top Gun ron thompson