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. It’s an old story. Small-minded, small-time autocrats reel from text and pictures that don’t 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.
Here’s my advice to the pearl-clutchers who object to the books on the shelves. If you don’t like ‘em, don’t read ‘em! If you don’t 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 aren’t worth the trees that died for them. But that’s my taste. Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions on their way to checkout. That’s the American Way.
Our current Library Board doesn’t 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 Long
Kalispell