Louisiana Voice

The controversy surrounding the Livingston Parish Library, initiated by the unsolicited influence of a morals monitor named Michael Lunsford and his Citizens for a New Louisiana, has taken a much darker and more subtle and sinister turn at the hands of the library’s Board of Control.

And if you think events occurring in Livingston Parish don’t concern you, think again. Lunsford and his outfit have placed every parish and school library in the state in its crosshairs and it’ only a matter of time before similar tactics are employed where you live.

What am I talking about? Budget cuts. Not just routine belt-tightening, but the choking kind of cuts designed to eventually strangle our ability to enjoy the services of our local libraries.

Without elaborating, here are some of the cuts proposed by the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control:

• A 92 percent cut in advertising? All advertising accomplishes is the encouragement of people to read, to become more educated and enlightened. To slash this line item is to unconditionally endorse Donald Trump’s asinine “I love the poorly educated” pronouncement.
• Likewise, a 93 percent cut in marketing and promotions tells us that the library board would like Livingston Parish to revert to the backwater reputation it has worked so hard to overcome.
• Why would the board suggest a 62.5 percent cut in emergency repairs? This mentality smacks of the state’s abysmal performance in keeping physical plants on our college and university campuses inhabitable and functional.
• Summer reading cut by 83 percent? Well, let’s just drop all pretense and shoot for the state’s lowest literacy rate.
• In keeping with that goal, let’s just eliminate all funding for the digital library, adult literacy and the literary club. Oh, they did, didn’t they?

While we’re at it, let’ take a look up the local food chain. While members of the library board serve without pay, their appointing authority, the members of the Livingston Parish Council, do not. The maximum pay allowable under state law is $800 per month. Members of the Livingston Parish Council are paid…you guessed it, $800 per month.

With nine council members, that comes to $7,200 per month, or $86,400 per year. Why don’t we just lop a few dollars off their salary, say, to $100 per month. That would represent to a yearly savings of $75,600.

The Livingston Parish School Board is a bit more secretive in that there is no information online that reveals what they make. In fact, when you google it, you get this: “There isn’t much information about how much members of the Livingston Parish School Board get paid…”

But for the sake of argument, let’s assume they get at least $500 per month. With nine members, that’s $4,500 per month or $54,000 per year. So, let’s reduce their pay to $100 per month as well, bringing that down to $10,800 for a minimum savings of $43,200. That’s an overall savings of $115,800 for the two agencies.

I mean, if we’re gonna talk austerity, let’s make it an across-the-board proposition. After all, the members of the parish council and school board are supposed to be performing a public service, not using their positions as a second job.

What makes all this even worse is that there is not an original thought in this entire process. The furor over libraries in general is the result of some self-anointed protector of one person’s concept of decency and respectability. Not only is he probably ignorant of Chaucer, but he’d likely be outraged at the farting scene in Blazing Saddles. I have to assume that Michael Lundsford does not subscribe to television streaming services so as not to be exposed to such degenerate entertainment fare.

No one ever gave libraries a thought until some Republican morals policeman decided to make it an issue and then just like those who echoed Trump’s “witch hunt,” “fake news,” “stop the steal,” and various other catch phrases, mindless hordes just followed the noise, never stopping to think for themselves.

And folks, if they can come for the libraries, the books, the teachers and for control of decisions about women’s bodies, it’s only a matter of time before they come for our social security, our Medicare, our rights as workers (child labor, elimination of benefits, etc.), and our very freedom of speech – all of which will ultimately result in an ever-widening income disparity

And I’m not saying all this as a “never Trumper.” It’s already gone way beyond Trump. Just look around you and the other “leaders.” The Landrys, the Scalises, the Johnsons, the Musks, and the list grows each day. These are the people controlling our lives and they’ll be here long after Trump is gone unless we unite to defend women’s rights, civil rights, LGBQT rights, and the rights of every marginalized individual.

And the ultimate irony is that they’re doing all this in the name of freedom and Christianity – because those dog whistles resonate with us.