The Livingston Parish Council is the latest to knuckle under to the HYSTERIA being spread by those who would impose their version of decency and appropriateness while inflicting a potentially lethal blow to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
These are, of course, the same individuals who somehow hold the Second Amendment up as some sort of sacrosanct right, a beacon of liberty somehow etched in stone.
The Livingston council is the latest to cave to the wishes of the likes of Ron DeSantis and Jeff Landry in deciding what books shall be made available to impressionable children in public libraries.
Strange, I can’t recall a single incident of a library book killing anyone, which is more than I can say about the ease with which anyone may obtain an AR-15 and go on a shooting spree at some random school, shopping center, or night club.
The danger that literature poses to our children has somehow crept into the mindset of the Republican Party as a campaign issue more critical than say, deregulation of railroads, banks, and Wall Street (we do remember the failure of all those banks in 1988, don’t we?) and certainly more important than the wholesale slaughter of school children, Asians, gays, and anyone else who gets in the way of some demented nutcase.
Of course, the Republicans are quick to point out that it’s not a gun problem, but a MENTAL HEALTH issue. That being the case, then someone please explain why BOBBY JINDAL, Texas Gov. GREG ABBOTT, former Florida Gov. RICK SCOTT, and Republicans in Congress CUT FUNDING for mental health treatment? (Isn’t it ironic that upon leaving office, Jindal enhanced his personal bottom line by JOINING THE BOARD of a company that thrived financially on Medicaid revenue?).
So, as a diversionary tactic, library books are being made the villains in the never-ending struggle to force everyone to comply with some arbitrary code of decency by allowing a faceless few to decide what we are allowed to read – or more accurately, what our children are allowed to read.
It just seems to me that that’s a decision that should be left to parents, not to some bureaucratic body that answers to no one. It comes down to the question of just who will be the person or persons to make the final decision on what is and what is appropriate?
When we cede that responsibility over to government, isn’t that contrary to what the “less government” Republicans have been advocating all this time? After all, they’re the ones carping about “woke” this and “woke” that when in reality, it’s the Republicans who are actually the “woke” advocates in this equation.
I mean, after all, it was a Republican legislator in Missouri who introduced a bill that would have forbade female legislators to appear on the House floor with arms bared. So much for the women’s right to bare arms.
And Marjorie Taylor Greene, who wants a “national divorce” of red and blue states with the added stipulation that anyone from a blue state who moves to a red state will not be allowed to vote for five years – but without the same proviso for a red state citizen moving to a blue state.
So, bottom line, whether it’s in Congress, a state legislature, or a parish council, it’s all about control.
It doesn’t matter to these people that the kiddos can access porn on their home computers or on their cellphones. It doesn’t matter that they can take “inappropriate” pictures on their phones and send them to friends of the opposite sex.
Nor does it matter that there is a book chock-full of violence, adultery, genocide, disgusting practices and other “inappropriate” material for kids that is on the back of every pew in every church in every parish in Louisiana.
As just one example, read Ezekiel 23:20-21 carefully and slowly. Then go to Solomon and read chapters 1, 4, 7:7-8, and chapter 8, verse 10. Read aloud, slowly and deliberately and then tell me if that is “appropriate” for children.
You see, folks, this isn’t about decency. It’s about control – control of what we read, who can and cannot vote, who can marry, where we can live and go to school, and even what the news media may REPORT.
And that, folks, is the very definition of FASCISM.
Louisiana Voice 
I would like to see the following law placed on the books throughout all of the land.
Before any member of a Library Board or other state or local governmental body is permitted to vote to ban a book from a school and/or public library, each member of said body must swear to have read each book being proposed for banishment. No broad-brush subjective nebulous banishment should be permitted.
That sounds sensible and reasonable, but you have to appreciate the breed of alt right lunatic that has become the dominant strain in the last few years or so. Like Orange Hitler, they are delusional and lie most to all the time. Most would not read the books but swear they did, and even the ones who did would still want to ban them. Not to mention they ignore the laws they don’t like anyway. They’re fanatics.
I doubt they’ll stop with “protecting the children.” Like the fascists in Florida now attacking speech in the universities, their ideal reality is one where they can restrict what everyone can see and hear. Even if they have only limited success, these are major steps backwards. Awful.
Thank you for calling it fascism. Those who embrace it are fascists. It stems from the absolute certainty one is entitled to one’s prejudices. It’s characterized not just by a desire for control but the reliance on an propaganda-driven alternate reality which serves to justify their dishonesty and irrationality. It also requires an “other” who is to blame and is a target for righteous retribution. Currently that’s anything transgender but could just as easily be gays, refugees, or women. It universally applies to non-white-skinned people. Not everyone who calls themself “Republican” is a fascist but it could legitimately be as many as 50 million Americans. Add in the other 20 to 30 million who are willing to vote “Republican” anyway and the country has reached a critical mass. It is unsustainable. I don’t know what will happen but we have to stop ignoring the fact that something is going to.
Agree with Mr. Spillman. I have been glued to the reporting on the Ukraine War, which is such an inspiration. From Sputnik to today, we have been fighting the Russians/fascism. We must never give up. This crazy stuff by the Republicans/lunatics will not go away, but will not mean a WWIII. It is all about money, which is power. Better business than bullets. thanks and know that are a lot of young people top guns to protect us.! ron thompson