I had noticed this during the debate on House Bill 1239, the Librarian Lock-Up Bill, but in the debate over people objecting to books that they wanted declared as obscene, there was once again a reference to violence against librarians for checking out books.
First off, when this bill was first discussed on the House side in Committee debate, White History Month’s Rep. Travis Ismay:
Rep. Travis Ismay, R-Newell, suggested an arrest might be insufficient punishment.
“If a librarian rented this out to my son or daughter, you’d be lucky if you got hauled out of there in handcuffs,” Ismay said.
Those aren’t the words of a stable person.
And yesterday, we had the utterly awful (and now Senator) Taffy Howard actually call for librarians to be killed by hanging:
If somebody had knowingly given that to my children when they were little, I’d want them strung up from the nearest tree.
– Taffy Howard
They are calling for violence against Librarians because they don’t like words? (Literally.) Who does that?
Most of us would say “Ugh, where did you get that trash,” or “that’s not appropriate,” and send it back, with a note or a call to the person in charge not to allow my kid to check that sort of thing out.
But, you have idiots like Ismay or Laffy-Taffy elected to office, representing a segment of our population, calling for violence, or in Taffy’s case, death to librarians?
If someone had suggested those acts against either of these two boobs, they might be getting a call from the Division of Criminal Investigation. But when they call for violence against Librarians as part of committee discussion or debate? Nothing.
And we wonder why politics have gotten so toxic.
Throughout my life, I have never wanted to target librarians in anger; they always seemed like calm people willing to help and point me in the direction of an answer I was looking for. I think the hate is directed at knowledge; it isn’t that much different than the church condemning Galileo Galilei, or the Mongols attacking the house of wisdom and destroying all the books. It gets tough to control people when they can find answers that contradict your rhetoric.
And yet it still passed the senate.
Senator Jamie Smith who’s wife is a librarian described it perfectly on the senate floor. There are a number of safeguards already available. This was all imported bringing national politics to South Dakota.
Who should be the house and prime sponsors for the 2026 HB 1001
“We Seek Solutions To Problems That Do Not Exist.” to be inscribed in the stone block above the main entrance of our state Capitol?
There are so many SD legislators in the running for this. Either their legislative career is about this or pretty darn close.
Senator Wheeler did a great job again!
House and Senate prime sponsors*
I wonder if I should have been calling this the “lynch librarians” bill..
Will people be paying attention next election? Because these same two people (and many others) are ok with a teenager having sex with an adult if they have a legal document saying it’s ok. Where was their outcry on this?
When you can shout out on the Senate and House floor that you want to hang someone from a tree who hands a book to a child, but that same child can be an adult’s sex toy……you are an amazing actor.
There is a female population in Butte County
of approximately 5,000.
The Sheep population in Butte County SD is
approximately 38,000.
Just pointing out some facts.
Totally agree. Howard and Ismay may as well have brought Kleenexes and wore pearls. Because their acting, like AOC, is crap in the land of the living.
Now ask yourself, why are Republicans giving away local control and not solving these problems in their own communities. Local control is part of the Republican platform right?
The answer is: These are the people that hide behind their social media accounts and are keyboard warriors. Or maybe they are adults that aren’t involved in their local governments and aren’t sure how to make change in their communities. Maybe they have been dismissed previously? Why don’t they run for office or talk to other parents who agree with them. Why are they fighting in a silo?
This is government. Get involved.
While the “True Conservatives” (TM) are registered as Republicans, I really don’t think they subscribe to any particular ideology, or party platform. They’ll waste time on pretty much anything that will get people riled up and give them attention.
Even if they happen to support a popular issue, their legislation will inevitably be flawed and create more problems that whatever it is they’re claiming to solve..
They’re basically just narcissistic bullies that want to feel important and “be in charge”.
This bill is a nothing-burger and a distraction. Our recent local school board meetings have been library agenda driven from a charged up angry book mob, and even our state legislature is wasting time on this tasteless morsal.
Convince me I’m wrong with the following:
1) Most kids are not even going to the public library. My 4.0 H.S. son doesn’t even know the online library at school’s name, nor does he “check out” books from our school or public library. He’ll be just fine, like his 3 older 4.0 college graduated siblings who also didn’t partake in the libraries.
2) Card catalogue’s are a thing of the past very similar to traveling encyclopedia salespeople. No offense please to those who use the libraries, but this is the wrong fight location.
3) Inappropriate police officers- Want legit material to chase down and ban? Should start with Google, and maybe morph into multiple app’s and social media cites. Who is going through the hard work of a public library to find this tasteless morsal when its readily available on phone, computer, tablet, etc?
4) I must live under a rock, but have never met a librarian with an inappropriate agenda to mislead a child through words. Although I’m starting to wonder if Juliet was old enough for Romeo’s relentless pursuit, and if the Scarlett Letter was a bit too much for a Sophomore….That said, we seemed to all turn out OK.
5) This issue seems to be the one our lawmakers can all understand and get behind, while struggling to understand more of the complicated matters in front of our state. Easy to talk about at a cracker barrel, like motorcycle helmets, seatbelts, abortion, etc. of years past.
6) I could easily list a top 10 of real threats to our state budget, services to our citizens, and legislative priorities that really matter. But if you’ve read this far, you already know them:>
This bill is a nothing-burger and a distraction. Our recent local school board meetings have been library agenda driven from a charged up angry book mob, and even our state legislature is wasting time on this tasteless morsal.
Convince me I’m wrong with the following:
1) Most kids are not even going to the public library. My 4.0 H.S. son doesn’t even know the online library at school’s name, nor does he “check out” books from our school or public library. He’ll be just fine, like his 3 older 4.0 college graduated siblings who also didn’t partake in the libraries.
2) Card catalogue’s are a thing of the past very similar to traveling encyclopedia salespeople. No offense please to those who use the libraries, but this is the wrong fight location.
3) Inappropriate police officers- Want legit material to chase down and ban? Should start with Google, and maybe morph into multiple app’s and social media cites. Who is going through the hard work of a public library to find this tasteless morsal when its readily available on phone, computer, tablet, etc?
4) I must live under a rock, but have never met a librarian with an inappropriate agenda to mislead a child through words. Although I’m starting to wonder if Juliet was old enough for Romeo’s relentless pursuit, and if the Scarlett Letter was a bit too much for a Sophomore….That said, we seemed to all turn out OK.
5) This issue seems to be the one our lawmakers can all understand and get behind, while struggling to understand more of the complicated matters in front of our state. Easy to talk about at a cracker barrel, like motorcycle helmets, seatbelts, abortion, etc. of years past.
6) I could easily list a top 10 of real threats to our state budget, services to our citizens, and legislative priorities that really matter. But if you’ve read this far, you already know them:>
No. When people use extreme rhetoric it is an attempt create fear, anger so they can manipulate people.
Extreme Rhetoric is a sign of ignorance meant to scare people and get clicks.
DUH
🤦♂️
solid story here. kelo shows good taste in their borrowings.