Louisiana Voice

I suppose you could say it’s official: State Rep. Kelee Hennessy Dickerson, who represents House District 64, which comprises part of Livingston Parish, is an official member of the bedbug crazy MAGAmites.

The freshman legislator has introduced three bills which appear to put her on the same moral equivalence level as one Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Cro-Magnon congresswoman from Georgia.

Here’s what Dickerson has offered thus far in her brief tenure:

• HB644 (authorizes students enrolled in home study programs to participate in public school activities)
• HB737 (prohibits a person from engaging in picketing at the residence or dwelling of an individual)
• HB777 (provides criminal penalties for certain use of public library funds)

Now, let’s look at each one individually.

HB644 would allow home study students to participate in public school activities. Sounds pretty self-explanatory. But taking a deeper dive, one of the driving forces behind home schooling is to avoid having to learn unpleasant topics like global warming, certain American history, i.e. slavery and the Civil War, and evolution. But this bill, while shielding home schoolers from such unpleasantries, nevertheless wants them to be able to participate in sports and, I suppose, certain club activities). So, Dickerson apparently wants it both ways.

HB737 would prohibit picketing of residences or dwellings (and all this time, thought the terms residences and dwellings were interchangeable) of an individual. Never mind the fact that Dickerson regurgitates the familiar Trumpian banalities and that Trump supporters had no problem disclosing the names and addresses of prosecutors and grand juror members in his Georgia criminal case. There’s something about this bill that just doesn’t smell right. Maybe it’s that thing called the First Amendment and something about freedom of assembly (on public property such as sidewalks and easements).

HB777 would subject a public employee (read: librarian) to up to two years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $1000 for membership in the American Library Association or for attending any of its continuing education functions. Are you kidding me? Jail time for a librarian attending a continuing education course sponsored by ALA? Has Dickerson gone completely batshit crazy? The entire legislative process, state legislature to congress, has devolved into a sorry one-upmanship game of who-flung-dung.

Bear in mind that literally dozens of legislators annually attend American Legislative Exchange Council (an arm of the radical-right Repugnantcan Party) on the state dime. Moreover, a large plurality, if not a majority, of legislators attend legislative conferences, all expenses paid by the Louisiana taxpayers. Several even fine creative ways to claim “official state business” as a means of having travel, lodging and meals provided by taxpayers so they can attend Washington Mardi Gras balls (I almost typed Mardi Bras, which might have been a Freudian slip).

There’s more. Several legislators get the nice little perk they don’t want you to know about in the form of fully furnished Pentagon Apartments across the street from the Capitol at year-round rental agreements the average tenant can only dream about (think 1950s rent rates). Here’s another perk. For the 85- and 60-day legislative sessions, lawmakers receive (in addition to their salaries, office expenses and travel) per diem payments. Per diem, of course, means daily and that’s just what they get. Daily payments for all 85 days in even-numbered years and 60 days in odd-numbered years – even though the House doesn’t meet on Saturdays and Sundays and the Senate takes Fridays off. Oh, and for those Fridays that 39 senators take off, add another $58,500 for 85-day sessions, a tad less for 60-day sessions.

That’s 20 extra days this year that they get paid but don’t work. Let’s see, at $175 per day times 20 days times 144 legislators, that’s a cool $504,000 per year for not working – or an extra $3,500 per legislator. And that doesn’t include special sessions.

And Dickerson has her britches in a wad over librarians? Get real, lady. The former TV newsperson (a-la Arizona’s Kari Lake) campaigned against a tax to finance teacher pay raises in Livingston Parish last year (though she now apparently wants public school teachers to take on the additional responsibility of monitoring home-schooled kids at public school functions) and before that, when she served on the Livingston Parish School Board, she was penalized by the State Board of Ethics for improper assistance in getting a buddy a contract job at Live Oak High School.

So, let me understand; in Louisiana, we have abysmal health, equally inadequate general health and mental healthcare, poverty, pollution, floods, shoreline erosion, cities with high crime rates and myriad other problems but we’re going to go after the librarians.

Got it.

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Yeah, I know I supposedly retired from this column some time ago. I did so because I’ve turned 80 and I’m tired and I feel as though I’ve mostly had my say and someone else can pick up the baton. I also know there are those who vehemently disagree with me and feel I should have packed it in years ago. That’s okay. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion and I understand – and appreciate that, even when they amuse themselves with personal attacks.

But on Tuesday, I received an e-copy of a book written by local school librarian Amanda Jones who wrote about her surreal experience with some very narrow-minded, non-thinking conspiracy nuts who only regurgitate what they are spoon-fed by equally mentally challenged people.

The ones instilling the community with fear and outright lies apparently have an agenda to sow as much discord and controversy as possible – supposedly to detract from real problems like politicians who would capitalize on division to usurp more and more rights from the very ones who keep electing them (keep an eye on your Social Security and Medicare).

Her book, That Librarian, was sent to me by her publisher so that I might review it. Her publisher, by the way, is the same publisher of the best-selling Harry Potter series. So, entrusted with offering my take on her book, I shall attempt to carry out my assigned chore – though, in fact, it is not a chore at all, but a privilege.

But to do so, it must first point out that the examples of the campaign waged against her by Michael Lunsford of St. Martinville, head of some wacko outfit called Citizens for a New Louisiana (of Lafayette), a local internet troll named Ryan Thames and their ilk give ample evidence that when you’re an a$$hole, you tend to talk out of your a$$.

What else could possibly explain an Aug. 14, 2022, email that said in part, “Continue with your LGBT agenda on our children cause (sic) we gonna (sic) put ur (sic) fat evil commie PEDO azz (sic) in the dirt very soon bitch. You can’t hide. We know where you work + live…you have a LARGE target on your back. Click, click…see you soon.”

Several observations must be made at this point. Ms. Jones is a librarian at a public school in Livingston Parish. “We know where you work” would appear to be a direct threat on a school and its occupants. Have we learned nothing of this kind of rhetoric? Threatening a teacher and by extension her students is nothing less than a act of terror. It was an anonymous threat, sent by a coward hiding behind a keyboard, but a coward nonetheless. The sender was also obviously mentally disturbed. No one but a sick, sociopathic person would post such a threat.

The second observation is where the hell was law enforcement on this? Ms. Jones, taking the threat seriously, reported it to both the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and to the FBI. Neither agency acted on this threat. God forbid, if this threat should turn in the worst-case scenario, then Sheriff Jason Ard is going to have some “Ard questions” to answer regard his inactivity. It’s easy to trace an anonymous email and Ard knows it. Yet he extended no effort to discern if it was a threat to be taken seriously.

And Thames, that tower of intellect, posted this incredible message on his Facebook page (as he hid behind his keyboard), “The reality is they are grooming an entire generation so that ‘they’ can feel comfortable and so children will be less resistant to inappropriate advances. ‘They’…are working in your schools and librarys (sic) to push this agenda.”

Well, Thames, perhaps if you had worked a little harder in your school, you’d know that the plural for library is libraries, not librarys.

As for “grooming” children, what the hell do you call it when Republican politicians pass legislation forbidding the teaching about slavery of blacks and genocide against Native Americans? These people, these online critics, are like a two-year-old who thinks if he covers his eyes, he’s invisible. But I digress.

Let’s talk about Mr. Lunsford, or perhaps his PR flak who posted this on Citizens for a New Louisiana’s Facebook page: “After Amanda’s testimony (at a library board meeting), her school was struck by lightning and portions of it burned down. Not Kidding.”

Well, Lunsford, we’re not kidding either. It was a different school, not the school where Ms. Jones serves as librarian. Talking out of your a$$hole again, are we?

I’ve pointed out only a couple of attacks on Amanda Jones. The hate and the lies spread by Lunsford and Thames were bad enough, but people Amanda had known all her life and parents whose children she had taught (the same parents who had previously praised her), also turned on her, feeding on pure BS spewed out on social media. It’s really amazing – and shameful – how otherwise intelligent people will let some half-assed blowhard influence their thinking as though they didn’t have enough sense to separate the wheat from the chaff for themselves.

Amanda’s book is a 288-page love story – a story about her love for libraries (did you get that, Thames?), her love for books and, believe it or not, her love for the one-time Republican philosophy (yep, she’s a registered Republican).

It’s also a story of just how low some people are willing to go to destroy a person’s reputation and to put her and her students in potential danger. It’s a story of an effort undertaken by a select few to dictate their morals and standards on everyone else.

Whether or not you agree with Amanda’s viewpoint is irrelevant. What you should take from this book is an understanding of how willing people can be to accept what is fed them on social media and how these same people are so eager to read some unsubstantiated rumor and run with it as if it were carved in stone.

It’s sad, really. And frightening.

Reserve your copy ($29.99) by emailing Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs at info@cavalierhousebooks.com

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