Louisiana Voice

At the risk of becoming redundant, saying the same thing over and over, and repeating myself (a line by Frasier in the Cheers sitcom), I will once more address parish councils’ growing trend of suddenly concerning themselves with the content of local libraries. Whether you patronize your library or not, you should be concerned over the creeping national movement toward censorship being pushed by right-wing conservative Republicans.

The Livingston, St. Tammany, and Bossier Parish Libraries are the latest to come under the scrutiny of parish councils which in at least two cases have apparently violated the state’s dual officeholding law by appointing council members to local library boards.

Bossier Parish was the first to do so and last week St. Tammany followed suit. This week, the Livingston Parish Library Director abruptly RESIGNED in the wake of the parish council’s passage of a ridiculous – and restrictive – RESOLUTION aimed at limiting access to objectionable material by children. These include any books with graphic content (not necessarily sexual) and drag queen shows held by some libraries.

During a meeting of the St. Tammany Council last week, one Fran Smith told the board, “My brother read books like these and hurt me very badly. Do you know how many kids have died because of pedophilia?” I don’t know her personal details, but I do know no book was responsible for any “hurt” done to her by her brother.

I would ask Ms. Smith if she happens to have a hard number on the number of children who have been killed by books versus the number who have been killed by guns. That would be an interesting statistic. I would also ask Ms. Smith just who the PEDOPHILES are who she claims are killing children. For that matter, I’d love to know if she also is advocating control over churches because of SEXUAL ABUSE within the confines of houses of worship? Church pedophilia has been found in the Catholic, Southern Baptist, and Mormon churches, to name just three. To my knowledge, not a single one these offenders is or was a drag queen.

Now, should there be a movement develop toward controlling churches because of sexual abuse, you will hear a howl of protest come up from the right wing evangelicals that will sound like Armageddon itself. And it would be no less vociferous if some effort was initiated to censor parts of the Bible because of violence and genocide (God instructing the Israelites to invade opponents’ villages and to bash babies’ heads on the rocks and rip babies from their mother’s wombs while saving the virgin women for themselves, for example), sex, adultery, and graphic punishment. It’s all in there.

And just to show how things come full circle, I can remember when it was the right-wing conservatives (read: white supremists) who protested the most vehemently when books like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Little Black Sambo were pulled because of racist content. I guess it really does depend upon whose ox is being gored (for the uninitiated, an expressing implying that the shoe’s on the other foot now) because it is they who are now advocating censorship.

I find it odd that these parish councils are looking to library content as a solution to deplorable roads and bridges that the parish council are charged with maintaining. I find it equally curious that library scrutiny is going to somehow solve chronic flooding conditions in Livingston and St. Tammany parishes.

Why the sudden attention to library content?

Simple: herd mentality. Just as the term “fake news” never seemed to cross anyone’s lips until we got a fake president, the sudden hysteria over library content is being pulled along by the tide of opposition to BLM, CRT, Antifa, and something called wokeism. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, plans to INTRODUCE A BILL declaring Antifa a terrorist organization.

Problem is, Antifa does not exist as an organization. There are no members, no headquarters, no mailing address, no letterhead, no nothing. It simply stands for “anti-fascist,” something that the U.S. as a nation proudly stood for in World War II, when many of our military personnel died fighting fascism. So now, MTG wants to declare anti-fascism a terrorist organization. Interesting.

That’s the same mentality we find with this growing hysteria over libraries. Whether you choose to accept it or not, it is a direct attack on the First Amendment that guarantees freedom of expression.

Don’t believe it? Well, just ask Florida State Sen. Jason Brodeur. He has introduced a bill in the Florida Legislature that would require all bloggers who write about any state official to REGISTER WITH THE STATE not once, but every single time a story is posted. At the same time, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to make it infinitely easier to sue reporters and media outlets – in direct contravention to established 1964 law called NEW YORK TIMES v. SULLIVAN.

That might not resonate with many who are disillusioned with the media, but if the news media is ever silenced, that will be the death knell for freedom. It’s true that democracy dies in darkness.

So far, we have two bills submitted for our own upcoming legislative session that deal with library control i.e., censorship.

Reps. Paul Hollis (R-Covington) and Beryl Amedee (R-Houma) have submitted HB 25, which would change library board membership from set terms to service at the pleasure of the parish council.

Sen. Heather Cloud (R-Turkey Creek) has likewise submitted SB 7, which would govern the “access to certain materials in public libraries.”

They are just part of the growing feeding frenzy being stoked by the Republican Party.

It wouldn’t surprise me if a few more bills are thrown into the hopper before the legislature convenes on April 10.