There was a press release from the so-called Freedom Caucus earlier this week that didn’t really seem related to freedom as I’ve heard it defined.
What they were seeking attention for was about going after South Dakota Libraries, because the national library association is pushing some ideas they don’t like, so they want to stop “collaboration with organizations deemed inappropriate.” Or at least, collaboration with organizations that they deem inappropriate, as they believe themselves to be the umpires of what’s acceptable and not acceptable in society.
In their release, the Free-dumbers are going after South Dakota libraries in collaboration with several groups/co-conspirators that they identify in a letter including street evangelist Matthew Monfore, “Toni” Weaver with Citizens for Liberty (who needs little introduction), and Elkton election conspiracist Rick Weible.
Seriously? These nanny-staters think they are qualified to be the arbiters of what people should be reading in our libraries and want to be the censors what people should expose themselves to? Are they kidding? When he’s not getting kicked off the rez for distributing hate materials, Matthew Monfore’s sense of oppressive and smothering evangelism has had him in the past harassing women in bathing suits in public beaches as being immoral.
And with Elkton resident Rick Weible, his latest cause has ginned up some opposition locally here in Brookings as he leads a book burning movement as described in this flyer making the rounds on Facebook:
The group behind this anonymous flyer opposing Weible’s book burning effort seems to have drawn their line in the sand at the September 11 Brookings School Board meeting, and is encouraging Brookings residents to show up en masse to oppose the group pushing for the book bans. While both sides are given to hyperbolae, the group opposing book bans does have a point.
When people such as Weible wants to organize the removal of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “the Diary of Anne Frank” (yes, they are on his list) from school libraries, people should be concerned. Because they are substituting their own judgment for ours as parents. Maybe, as in To Kill a Mockingbird, it’s a proper lesson to teaching good versus evil, and the value of justice. Or as is found in the Diary of Anne Frank, living and hiding under an oppressive regime (who also burned books), that the Director of the Holocaust Museum cited the lesson as tracing the author’s “emotional growth amid adversity.”
Ultimately, as the parent of a child in the school, if there is something I object to, I consider it MY JOB to determine what might be appropriate or inappropriate for my child. It’s called being a parent. And guess what? I refuse to abdicate that role to a group of nanny-state zealots any more than I would abdicate that role to the school.
Having the ability to determine myself what is appropriate for my child. That seems to be a lot closer to the definition of freedom as it has been taught to me than the “big government freedom” some want to impose on South Dakotans.
If these groups claim to be actual advocates for Freedom, maybe they should actually trust people to judge for themselves, and for parents to be parents.
Unless they’re not about freedom, and just want to tell people what to do.
So you are against laws banning porn books from children?
Are you against parents making decisions on what they deem appropriate for their own child to read?
Some people think Harry Potter is among books that should be banned because it has concepts like ‘witchcraft and sorcery’ in them. If I think it’s inappropriate for my child, it’s my call and my decision. Not yours.
I know of at least one porn book that they’ll have to remove from libraries, with filthy passages.
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.“ Romans 1:26-27 (NIV)
Are these Authoritarian Fascists going after libraries in other SD cities like Watertown and Aberdeen?
Amen
Porn books in the hands of kids are just plain wrong. They do not belong in public libraries. Yes, parents should have the final say. Allow those parents to buy those books for their kids if they feel the need but no public funds should be used to buy them and supply our children with material other parents would object to. Politically motivated “Social books” should have no place in schools. Kids do not need to know about these things. Parents at home can expose them if they feel it is appropriate. It is “grooming” kids to fill their heads with sexual things until they are older. But book burning?? Maybe that is a little overboard. We need to have common sense. As far as their stance on Covid lockdowns…they were spot on. We need to keep our freedom!! No more lockdowns, censorship, bullying, mandates, and government bull crap.
Freedom? You only like it so long as you get to define it. And when you don’t, you and your ilk hate it.
I remember as a kid reading “MAD” Magazine. It published a Lighter Side of “Censorship”, where a group of people were burning books. Two teenagers commented as they watched the rally…
Student 1: They’ll probably burn our History textbook next!
Student 2: Why do you say that?
Student 1: Because it says Nazi Germany got its start by burning books.
Here we go again with the nut jobs. Totally agreed with the need for people all over the city to support our schools and libraries. It is about parenting. Parenting is not being practiced when all their time is spent rabble rousing. Our new superintendent gave them a good solution of opting out of the books they find offensive for their children. This opt out keeps these “bad” books away from their children but not those of others. Passing out hug coupons doesn’t hid which group you belong to. Wow.
out of curiosity I watched the Youtube video of the August school board meeting where it was brought to the board’s attention that a book in the school library not only had sexual content, with illustrations, it also had images and descriptions of how one can slash his wrists and commit suicide and a lexicon of words that if a kid said them out loud in a classroom the parent would be called in for a parent-teacher conference.
Is this supposed to be literature? And how are the parents supposed to decide if a child should be allowed to check out a self-destructive how-to book based on the title? It’s not like any of these books are titled “Suicide For Dummies.”
No, they have titles like “The Turner Diaries,” “The Bell Jar,” “The Bluest Eye.”
Unless you have the time to read every book your child has access to, you aren’t going to know if this is something you should allow.
It’s called being an active parent and having a good enough relationship that your kid can tell you what book they’re reading. Take for Puritanical Big Government Outlook somewhere else.
I’m guessing you don’t have the time, nor the willingness, nor the ability, to read ANY books.
most parents work full time jobs, or multiple part-Time jobs, their kids spend most of their waking hours with other teachers and caregivers, and families seldom even sit down to take meals together, because the parents are lucky to get home before the kids go to bed. So let’s be real about these imaginary conversations. They aren’t happening. Telling parents who have to work 60 hours a week that they should do a better job of parenting isn’t helpful. They are doing the best they can.
Then let us also be real about your grift. It is no different than liberals that want to keep parents in the dark about their children’s genders at school. You and them seek to eliminate and weaken the family unit by strengthening the authority of the state. GK Chesterton saw the writing on the wall more than a hundred years ago with your ilk.
This is a new conspiracy. Please tell us more.
the family unit doesn’t need to be weakened any more than it already has. 26% of children under 18 are living in single parent homes. Only 18% of children have a parent who is a Stay-at-home Mom (or Dad)
Children in single parent homes are lucky to have a conversation with their parent over a pile of laundry or a sink full of dishes. Children in homes with both parents rarely see both of them at the same time..
The parents are not negligent or lazy; they are doing the best they can.
No, single parent here putting in 60-65 hrs a week.
If you don’t know what your kid is reading that’s 100% on you. If your kid doesn’t trust you enough that they hide what they read from you, that’s 100% your failure too.
Taking the personal responsibility to parent your kids as you see fit use to be the norm, now supposed conservatives are demanding nanny-state nonsense.
It’s pathetic.
instead of burning or banning books, perhaps they should take the opposite tactic of BUYING books, like “The Turner Diaries,” and “Every Knee Shall Bow; The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family,” and donate multiple copies of these books so that they will be available in the school libraries.
Does this group include the group that falsely names itself Mom’s for Liberty?
Another anti-public school group of nutty home schooler parents and quoting Hitler.
“Opinions are like A-holes. Everyone has one and mine stinks!”
AI generated ~ fully curated & edited by PH-V
Once the nut cases kick in the door, they never leave the room.
Isn’t forcing others to conform to your way of life “foundational” to the GOP policies? If you can come up with some justification like birth control is murder, then it should be banned for every living human…..am I right?