Dear editor,
As a parent of children who adore their public library and their school librarian, enough is enough with these ongoing assaults on librarians and educators.
At this point, far more people have been exposed to the alleged pornography by our representatives, Moms for Liberty, and Cowboy State Daily’s publication of one of the titles than were ever exposed to them in the library.
Heck, these people are the ones who keep bringing these books off the shelves to use as props in public meetings. I would venture to guess they have checked out and read them more than the combined teens and young adults in Wyoming communities.
I have still not identified a kid who has actually been harmed by a library book (except the cover of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). Has a kid come home offended? Sure.
Is it possible that they had questions that their parent was ill-prepared to answer? Yes, happens all the time. Can temporary confusion, moral challenge, and feelings of insecurity be used interchangeably with lasting trauma or tangible harm? No, that’s like 50% of teenage life.
And we all know where the real danger is! It is on the phones, tablets, and computers provided by their parents. It is on Discord, Roblox, Instagram, and any other website or app where we have proven unable to safeguard our kids.
It’s also in our own expressed values and public discourse. The border is all billboards for gambling and adult venues! I used to have to drive my elementary-age kids to school past two anti-Biden flags with the F-word on them!
How many dramatized murders happen during football commercial breaks? My kids are much more likely to be exposed to the sins we have legitimized than those they have to go out and find, much less get a ride to. And yet we still target the libraries!
Our kids will always come home with difficult questions. It is our job to help them navigate those challenges as our households see fit. It is how we grow ethically, spiritually, and morally.
The impetus for these bills is paranoia and insecurity. The fear that our moral constructs are no longer strong enough to face an age-old insult.
When Jesus was in the desert, the government didn’t step in and tell Satan to stop the temptation, and his faith grew from the challenge. Today, parents and grandparents need to be willing to take up that mantle, without the government’s help to shoulder the load.
We cannot legislate in denial of the fact that many kids may not be from situations as stable as our own. We cannot continue to pretend that there is not potential value in information we may find offensive.
We cannot continue to make education an even more thankless calling by putting those who choose to do it at the mercy of the offended few. We need to take responsibility for our own children and not keep finding the next scapegoat.
Sincerely,
Peter Howard, Cheyenne
