Wood County WV Library Levy
Written by Carey Clevenger:
Hello there. It's me again. Time for some more personal statements that shouldn't be considered the official statement of anybody else. (And let's be honest here: I would hope someone else would do a better job of getting to the point with more brevity.)
It's been fifteen days since I shared my initial post about the censorship push against the Library. Boy howdy, things sure did take a turn!
Just to get everyone up to speed, the MOVCAC have now taken their case to the Parkersburg City Council. During the meeting Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl announced she would not be supporting the library levy. On November 1st, Parkersburg City Council will vote on an official resolution to censure the library for having available to minors "obscene and pornographic material." The election -- including the levy -- is on November 8.
A lot of the places to get photocopies in town have gone out of business. We lost NOE Office Supply sometime during COVID and Office Depot went under. I've been told the recently relocated Sir Speedy is now charging some ridiculous amount for copies. ($10 minimum, maybe?) We've been one of the only remaining options for FAX service, but we've seen a lot more patrons coming in to make copies now that there are fewer places to get them. We can also print stuff from people's phones for as little as ten cents a page.
I have no idea where else anyone in this town would go to use a computer if they don't have one. I can't remember anyone offering PC & Internet access other than us, which we provide for free. "Internet cafes" were never a thing here, as far as I'm aware. Job applications are almost entirely online now. You have to use the Internet to apply for HUD or government benefits. And this is assuming these people know how to use a computer in the first place, because many of the people who come in to use our services will straight-up tell us that they have never used a computer. I've had to explain to people how to click mouse buttons.
We offer free notary service. There used to be notaries EVERYWHERE. People come in all the time and tell us banks and hospitals won't do it anymore. You have to have a notarized bill of sale to transfer a vehicle title in West Virginia. Good luck finding someone to do it. They probably won't do it for free, either.
I can almost guarantee you that at one time or another we've provided any of these services to some of these same people who want to shut us down. As I think I said before, that's what we do as a public library: we provide services to everyone.
Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl does her constituency a great disservice by announcing that she does not support her Library. Our South Branch is in her district! You probably have even fewer options for any of these services in South Parkersburg than you do on this side of the river.
The levy makes up 30% of our funding. If the levy that Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl does not support fails to pass, many of Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl's constituents might be a little unhappy with Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl if the Library Branch in her own district has to close due to a budget shortfall and people have to drive all the way across the river and pay $10 for a photocopy.
This is ultimately what's at stake. We're looking at severe cutbacks to crucial services to this community because a vocal minority is offended by two illustrations in a single book.
As for "obscene and pornographic," these words have actual legal meaning thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in Miller v California (1973). You're welcome to throw those two words around at your leisure, but when it comes to the government (say, a city council, for example), there's an actual legal definition which requires burden of proof. This definition also applies to the supposed criminal conduct these legal experts are always so keen to accuse us of.
If the city council chooses to censure the Library on these grounds, I have absolutely no doubts whatsoever that it wouldn't hold up in court. But with a week before the levy vote, the negative press from such a foolish decision could do serious damage to our efforts to serve this community.
It's incredibly frustrating for me personally as a native West Virginian. My entire life I've grown up aware of the stereotype of people in this state being ignorant, uneducated hillbillies. We're now living in the 21st century and people here want to cut funding for education and libraries. It's hard for me to imagine why anyone would think making the people in the state less informed would be a great long-term plan. Or even a great short-term plan, for that matter.
"Gender Queer" is the most challenged book in the country right now, and a circuit judge in Virginia just threw out an obscenity case against the book in August, citing both Virginia state law and the US Constitution. If "Gender Queer" met the federal definition of "obscene and pornographic" as established by SCOTUS nearly five decades ago, you better believe it would have been banned at the federal level by now with all of the opportunities to do so. It's laughable that a handful of goofs in Parkersburg really think they've got the edge on much smarter people elsewhere with actual legal training. It's also totally unsurprising.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Anyway, this evening, I watched portions of the livestream of the political meeting held at The Rock Church.
I learned several interesting things:
1. They like our Library website! Kudos to us. 😎 They also talked about how easy it is to find similar books through the catalog search, though this was presented as A Bad Thing. They claim they aren't out to censor or ban anything, but it seems clear they'd prefer it weren't so easy to find out books like "Gender Queer" exist at all. Don't say "gay," kids!
2. They saw my initial post from October 13. 😮 I'm Internet famous!
3. They shared my post up on their big projector screen. 😮
4. Only a portion of what I wrote was read. 😒
5. The follically-challenged man was able to correctly pronounce my name! 😲 (Dude, what is your secret? Where were you when my family was being bombarded by telemarketing calls in the 1980's?)
6. I was accused of "spreading lies." 😭
I'm not the least bit surprised that they chose not to include the parts of my (admittedly very lengthy) screed where I mentioned how their actions violate free speech guaranteed by the Constitution or parallel the "dangerous ideas" of religious figures.
They said I was a liar for calling them "would-be book banners" because they never said the word "ban," but the definition of "ban" according to Merriam-Webster is "to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of." Considering their demand was to place "Gender Queer" somewhere where children would not have access to it -- and that their entire argument is about the distribution of what they claim is "obscene and pornographic" -- I stand by my statements.
Maybe they want to defund the Library because they hate dictionaries.
There are a lot of other things I could comment about, but there's really only one instance that I want to mention, where what was supposed to be a gotcha moment turned into a great self-own:
(quoting my post from two weeks ago) "'...likely carry around in their pocket a smart phone which gives them easy access to materials more offensive than anything in the entire building.' You know what? He's right. Samsung is a private company. I can buy consumer goods and control them for my children. I can put parental controls on a phone..." -- our bald friend
Parental control is what we, as employees of the Library, have been stressing from the beginning with regard to Library materials. Thank you for making our point for us, sir.
If you don't want your child to read something in the Library, take some personal responsibility over what your kid does inside the building. Pretend the Library is a smart phone that you have to install your parental controls on if you have to.
On at least two occasions, I've heard the same argument about how movie theaters restricting audiences should be a model for the Library. Film ratings are set by the Motion Picture Association of America. And what is the purpose of these ratings, according to the MPAA website? "Established in 1968, the film rating system PROVIDES PARENTS WITH THE INFORMATION NEEDED TO DETERMINE IF A FILM IS APPROPRIATE FOR THEIR CHILDREN." (Emphasis mine.)
Nobody enforces restricted access at our local theater cineplex: they can't. They're minimally staffed. I've gone to the theater when so few people were working that they sold me pre-torn tickets at the concession stand and it was up to me to find the right screen. Unless I'd ended up sitting in someone else's seat, there was nothing to stop me from buying a ticket for a PG-rated family comedy and then sneaking in to see the latest R-rated torture porn gorefest instead. Kids used to talk about sneaking into the wrong movie all the time when I was younger and I'm pretty sure it would be a whole lot easier now. So if you're relying on some lone teenager making minimum wage to guard your child's delicate moral sensibilities, I have some bad news for you.
But if we're really being honest here, "protecting children" isn't what their group is about. MOVCAC's Facebook page has more posts about voting against levies than about protecting kids. They're using children as their excuse to push their political agenda in the last few weeks before an election. It's easy to claim hypothetical children need to be protected, but the actual children who come into the Library couldn't care less about "Gender Queer." None of them paid any attention to what was on display because nothing on there had anything to do with Minecraft. Now that the book has returned to the adult nonfiction stacks downstairs, it may as well be the Ark of the Covenant at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Back in September at the Library Board Meeting, these people were claiming that the images were obscene and then shoving them into people's faces without asking consent to show them first...while claiming that the Library was breaking the law by distributing obscene content. It's absurd.
During the livestreamed meeting, a woman complained about children having access to Harry Potter books (described as "witchcraft"
and the meeting ended with a rant from a guy encouraging everyone to work together to stop the gays. The group FB posts include a good number of conspiracy theories: lots of stuff about the 2020 election being stolen, and even a meme claiming (without any evidence, of course) that THE DEMOCRATS PLAN (all caps) is to impose a digital currency on everyone. Their Facebook appears to be toned down a good bit from what's on their website!
So, yeah, these are the people organizing against the levies, and they don't like being called "extremists." The end.
(As again, please share if you're so inclined. I think people need to know what's going on.)
= new reply since forum marked as read
I'd post in WV & GD if it were me!
I've mistakenly posted things in wrong group & thought perhaps you'd made a similar mistake. 