To the Editor:
Discounting the 400+ signatures on the pro-library petition by saying it is a mere fraction of Old Lyme’s population is merely social conservatives taking a swipe at those who did sign it and trying to say that the majority of townsfolk wish to have the library censored. This is a continuation of what the right wing group Moms for Liberty is doing and also sounds like the parents in the late 1960s, who opposed school desegregation. I hear echoes of Gov. George Wallace in the words of those seeking to ban certain books.
A town library should be a place where every book should be available to everyone. If you do not like a certain book or magazine, simply do not read it! Instead of ranting about the book selection, perhaps consider that if your child is seeking knowledge at the [OL-]PGN Library, perhaps you have not provided the information your son or daughter needs to move along in life.
One supporter of book banning mentions sexual positions which may be harmful. Really? If that does not sound like a Puritan dog whistle, I don’t know what does. Does anyone really think that starting a public outcry about this will squelch a teenagers/tweens interest in trying something new?
The library has these books partly because they provide a clearer explanation of behaviors, which one can easily see on the internet. This allows better choices. All you have done is attracted greater interest towards reading said books and enthusiasm for attempting the acts, which might be illustrated. Conservatives never learn.
The staff at the [OL-]PGN library are a group of amazing women. The two, who are directly involved in the lives of children and teens, Julie and Nikki, are brilliant, kind and have the best intentions towards their young patrons. What they deserve from all of us is respect and from those protesting about certain books, an apology. The actions of those advocating censorship are the reason why many of us are repelled by conservatives.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Wilder,
Old Lyme.
I am relieved after reading this letter. Book banning is absolutely a political tactic to give an illusion of control .
I am proud to live in Old Lyme.
Do you realize Gov. George Wallace was Democrat? Hallelujah, smart southerners can see through Democrat rhetoric.
Why yes I do! My late step-father was the southeastern Connecticut campaign coordinator for George Wallace’s two campaigns for president,in 1968 and 1972. We still have a large number of his campaign buttons and banners sitting in a drawer somewhere here. What does Gov. Wallace’s party affiliation have to do with the banning of books at the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library?
Perhaps you may not have seen the content of the letters to the library, the library’s policy nor the books identified by the library to review. This is not about book banning; it’s about reviewing the age-appropriateness of a few books available to young children. This is quite frankly embarrassing that people are writing extensive op-eds and letters to the editors without the facts. A few months ago, people were ridiculed for saying they care about parental rights. Today, they are being called fascists. Wow. It’s quite embarrassing that these name-calling people created a petition to promote pornography in the youth section of the library. In a normal world, people dropped their children off at the library and it was a safe place for them to spend a few hours. Instead, today, they’re being targeted in our town with books that say joining porn sites on the internet is a great way to learn about sex, children should be promiscuous and have multiple partners and sexually transmitted diseases are no big deal. These topics are not appropriate for anyone and they are placed directly in front of 9, 10, 11 year old children. Would you wholeheartedly support teachers if they were caught actively promoting pornographic materials to fourth, fifth or sixth graders in our school district? I would hope not and likewise our library should not be highly praised when they are promoting porn to children. As far as book banning, the only people talking about book banning are the Old Lyme DTC and the Congregational leadership as they call their neighbors fascists and claim that caring about parental rights is a dog whistle for book banning. If members of the DTC or the Congregational Church or anyone else in town want to expose their children to porn, that’s their parental right. But parental rights for some (I would hope most) of us is about protecting our children. I really would hope that the whole community would agree that exposing children to highly sexualized content at young ages is not OK. If you disagree, that’s fine but let’s not resort to name calling and spreading lies about the situation or each other. Imagine if people started calling the DTC and the Congregational leadership pedophiles for wanting to keep inappropriate sexualized content in an area for children? I would guess that the 130+ people (non-partisan) who politely and quietly expressed concerns over age-appropriate content would not start labeling all the petition signers as child groomers, but imagine if they did? They certainly could flood the media writing letters and op-eds about the sickness and devastating effects of sexualizing children. But the issue that the parents expressed was not about how disgusting it is that these books are grooming children. The issue is about reviewing the age-appropriateness of a few books with highly sexualized content marketed towards young children in our town library. So I would ask you and others to please review the full content of the situation before misrepresenting the situation and potentially slandering others in town in a highly political manner. Concerns about pornography and sexual content exposure to children is not a partisan issue – it should be a common concern that all parents, grandparents and community members can agree on. “Kindness Matters” in Old Lyme and if we are going to teach children they can be anything, the most important thing we should teach them through our own actions is to be kind.
This is more foolish nonsense. The staff at the library are providing the town with information which is pertinent to their own daily life experience. I have seen these books and no, they are not full of highly sexual images. Hardly. Time spent watching television bombards you with more sexualized material, whether shows or commercials. Perhaps if more souls in town listened to the music of Frank Zappa they would feel better. All of this stress is simply an offshoot of the phenomenon of white anxiety and the extreme Christian ideology which always seems to be wrapped up with it. Bob Guccione would have been rather bored with these books. Trying to turn back the clock to 1957 when Annette and Bobby were smiling at us on our TV screens is a nonstarter. That ship sailed.