Kentucky’s public libraries now punching bags and piggy banks for politicians
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Pages and ‘pitchforks’
Over the last 3 years, the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives tracked 42 incidents of materials being challenged at 19 public library systems around the state. This is how libraries and politicians are responding.
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“We’ve gone from being public servants to villains living off the public dime. It’s very strange how that all happened.”
These words are from a former Bullitt County librarian who has since left Kentucky over a nauseating debacle over a book, well described by Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves in his special report. It is very strange. It’s very strange that some of the most precious public institutions we have — our public libraries where we can learn, be entertained, open our eyes and ears and worlds — are now a target for politicians and pusillanimous public citizens who are scared of the written word.
It’s very strange that what I’m about to say sounds like an old school Republican: If you don’t want your kids to read a certain book from the library, then don’t check it out. You don’t even have to go to the library if you’re scared of what you might find there. Surely this common sense resonates with the party of small government, free markets and freedom? But no, thanks to the muddled thinking out of Frankfort, we have Senate Bill 167 which puts local politicians in control of library boards, library finances, and no doubt library books. The bill was faulty enough that it failed, only to be revived in some sort of Frankfortian chicanery. (And if you haven’t seen the video of Senate sponsor Phillip Wheeler doing the Nixon V for victory signs when the bill passed, only to have his arm pulled down by Senate President Robert Stivers, then you really should.)
It’s just more dumbness. Control of libraries give people the illusion of control. Why are they not more worried about the dark worlds their children can encounter with just a few touches on their phone?
Our public libraries, like our public schools, were once indispensable linchpins to U.S. democracy. Now they both are punching bags and piggy banks to people who may not be sure exactly what authoritarianism is, but they like it. Politicians stoke our fear with one hand and grab the till with the other.
As many have noted, trying to ban books is like trying to stop the flow of water, and it’s usually a sign of cultural change that’s already here. In this case, it’s anti-racism and transgender issues as evidenced by the fact that those books are the ones most commonly requested for removal. Oh, and “The Night Before Christmas” and some Edward Gorey illustrations.
A few months back, I and many others wrote about a school district in Tennessee that banned “Maus,” a prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. Amid the national hubbub, a few people organized a community-wide reading of the book just to see what the problem was all about. Reading and talking is all we can really do.
Plus voting. Thanks to Senate Bill 163, libraries are part of the political process. So if you love your library, then you need to choose a judge executive who loves it too, who will pick good people to support it, rather than those who want to steal its resources and control its book-buying. If you love your library, vote against the legislators who supported this bill. It’s a long and convoluted way to protect one of our public resources, but for now it’s all we’ve got. As ever, it’s ironic that the state that needs libraries quite a lot has got them lined up as a target.
This story was originally published May 19, 2022 at 10:09 AM.
