Library Board Needs to Read Up on the Constitution – Flathead Beacon

The Board of Directors for the ImagineIF Library reminds me of another book: A Confederacy of Dunces. That novel by John Kennedy Toole has its critics. Some dislike it so much they want to censor it, as others want to censor A Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn. Its an old story. Small-minded, small-time autocrats reel from text and pictures that dont square with their world view. They tut-tut and call for purging the shelves of works they find objectionable.

Somehow, we Americans are slow on the uptake. We say we support the U.S. Constitution but then balk at the very First Amendment.

Heres my advice to the pearl-clutchers who object to the books on the shelves. If you dont like em, dont read em! If you dont want your kid to read them, then pay attention to what your kid reads.

In my opinion, there are publications on the shelves of every library that arent worth the trees that died for them. But thats my taste. Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions on their way to checkout. Thats the American Way.

Our current Library Board doesnt understand this. Their bosses, the Flathead County commissioners, are asleep at the switch. Meanwhile our gem of a library is bleeding talented staff. How will we ever attract quality replacements under this regime?

Pretty please, O commissioners, correct this problem before more damage is done. Clean house and appoint board members who understand that libraries exist to put materials in the hands of the people, not take them away.

Ben LongKalispell

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Library Board Needs to Read Up on the Constitution - Flathead Beacon