Louisiana Voice

The unbridled hysteria over books in our public libraries thought to be corrupting and rotting the brains of young people continues to ramp up with adults acting like children in efforts to protect youngsters from books like To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and Slaughterhouse Five.

There are others, many others. In fact, in the state of Tennessee, the number of banned books jumped from 350 to 1,252 in 2025. Texas had a more modest increase but still saw its list grow from 1,469 to 1,512—and I would bet everything I own (including my ample book collection) that the critics leading the charge for “decency” haven’t read 10 percent of those books.

But back to those mentioned in the first paragraph. In case you didn’t notice, each and every one of those titles deals with racial injustice, war, anti-feminism and dystopian societies after the despots seized control. To Kill a Mockingbird, for God’s sake! The do-gooders tsk-tsk and say it makes young readers uncomfortable. Hell, that’s the damn point, you idiots! It’s supposed to make us uncomfortable—and angry—over what people are capable of doing to those they consider beneath them (not exactly what Christ meant when he said “What you do for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

And by the way, it’s called empathy, a characteristic the Bible teaches us but which few evangelical preachers devote their messages to these days. Instead, it’s all about “saving souls” (numbers), increased memberships (numbers) and more money for the building fund (more numbers). And empathy, in case you haven’t connected the dots, is a big part of what has come to be called WOKE. So, if you are anti-woke, I guess the logic would necessarily dictate that you’re not a true Christian, no matter how much you drop into the collection plate.

That is precisely what is happening in St. Tammany Parish, beginning in May 2024 with the REMOVAL of all existing members of the library board of control and replacing them with puppets—exactly the way it’s been done in Lafayette, Livingston and other parishes, thanks to the meddlesome efforts of one Michael Lunsford and his Citizens for a New Louisiana.

One library supporter wrote to LouisianaVoice today to say, “I feel I can safely assert that we have the most restrictive policies, the most censorship, of any peer library in the state  (I polled those close in size to us and close geographically, including: Livingston, Lafayette, Calcasieu, Terrebonne, Caddo, EBR, Orleans, Jefferson, Tangipahoa, Washington and Rapides)—and on the 63 books recently (at its April meeting) put permanently into a “restricted section,” no other peer regional libraries had any in a restricted section and several of the titles were held in teen collections at libraries in states such as Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri.”

The driving force for censorship policies for the St. Tammany Parish Library Board of Control is its president, Charles Branton (Charles.branton@stpl.us). And lest you think I’m doxxing Mr. Branton, please know his email address is posted on the board of control’s web site for all to see.

Branton’s term as president ended on Monday and the board is scheduled to either reappoint him or appoint a successor in the person of COL JASON TREW, described by our writer as “a very impressive nominee.”

“Mr. Branton has been the absolute ringleader for censorship policies, told falsehoods concerning what the law is, squelches voices that do not align with his and consults with MS. CONNIE NICHOLS PHILIPS (seen here assaulting a library ally for which she later was charged and paid damages)..

“Ms. Philips sparked the chaos by submitting over 150 book challenges on books she had not read (in fact, she does not even have a library card!). Mr. Branton allowed her to create the job description for our new (as of 2/23/26) library director without one edit.”

Last month, she received an annual award from the East St. Tammany Republican Women for her library activism.

Attending that ceremony were the parish’s new library board chair and vice chair and of course, an original library activist-turned-parish-council-member, David Cougle. Cougle is the same parish council member who attended a parish council member last year PACKING HEAT.

But it’s all those library books that are polluting the minds of the youngsters, not the gun-totin’, rootin’-tootin’ parish council members and certainly not those who don’t even own a library card.

“Library allies are asking the council NOT to reappoint Mr. Branton for these and other reasons (see letter in letter-writing campaign at next link),” our reader wrote.  “We have a  PETITION AND LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN HERE.  We are hoping our parish council will listen to our voices and concerns about our library [and not] only the taxpayers they choose in our tax-funded libraries. We feel certain Col. Trew will be not only a better choice to serve the parish, but has the resume’ to be outstanding in public service. We are not convinced our council will make the wise and best choice based on past votes on appointments.”

The board’s meeting will be a t 6 p.m. on Thursday (June 4). The meeting is not shown on the parish government’s website but will be uplinked HERE.

“It’s hard to make any sense of all this, but it seems to be symptomatic of the times we live in,” she wrote.