I come at this issue with two very real conflicts of interest.
One turns five this month, idolizes her Little Britches barrel-racing cousin, and desperately wants a puppy. Her little sister, who turns three in November, rides shotgun in their noisy toy jeep, and loves snow cones. They both have red hair and blue eyes, and love to bake cookies with their grandpa.
Their innocence and excitement and wonder at the world around them have brought great joy to their grandma and me.
They live west of Gillette, where they have a nice pubic library. Last week the library board up there fired their librarian after a long-running dispute over sexually-explicit books in the children's section of the library.
Excerpts and depictions of sex in those books have appeared on Cowboy State Daily. It's stuff most of us never encountered in any school library, or public library, when we were growing up. (When I was a kid, the book “Candy” was the rage, but you had to find a paperback copy from some book store – certainly not in any school library, or children's section of a public library.)
The departure of the Gillette librarian is being described by some as a victory of government over our right to see depictions of oral sex, masturbation, gender options, etc. Those who don't want youngsters exposed to these things are sometimes seen as bossy puritans who want to deprive others of their First Amendment rights.
What we've seen in Gillette, however, has been an example of citizens with concerns going to their library board and county board, presenting those concerns, and asking their representatives to do something about them. It took a long time to get results, but what we have seen here is the system working, not a heavy-handed government.
(A parent tried to read excerpts from one of these books at a Cheyenne school board meeting, and was told it could get their telecast banned from YouTube. So, YouTube has higher standards than some of our schools and libraries. Think about that.)
The words “book banning” are used by some, as if parents who don't want explicit materials in the children's section of the library want the books banned entirely. No, they just don't want them in a public facility where kids might see them at a time in their lives when horses and puppies and being a kid are foremost in their minds.
If you buy the notion that not placing a book like “Gender Queer” in a library is a First Amendment violation, you must believe that every book that has ever been published must appear in every library. Baloney. Being a librarian includes deciding what will and what will not be on the shelves. It's part of the job.
The suggestion has also been made that those who object to children being exposed to books about these mature subjects are uninvolved parents. Be a better parent, we are told, and your kid won't be harmed by books in the library.
But, getting involved in what is available at a public library children's section is a fine example of being a good, concerned, involved parent. The parents of Gillette are to be commended for taking on this challenge and pursuing it to it's logical conclusion – the departure of a librarian who refused to follow the directions of the library board.
You have to wonder what has happened to us, in a world where we see depictions of sex in children's libraries, boys competing in girls' sports, boys in girls' locker rooms, educators keeping the gender choices of students from parents, teachers defending the right to discuss sex with children in Kindergarten through Third Grade, and some even supporting life-altering gender transition drugs and surgeries on young people who aren't even old enough to drive a car.
Have we lost our minds?
One of the downsides of getting old is looking back fondly on simpler times, and you have to fight that in our changing world.
The bottom line for this grandpa, however, is that I want something far better than this for my granddaughters.
Here's to the library board in Gillette for striking a blow for common sense.
