More outrage over Fresno County plan to screen children’s books at libraries | Opinion
No issue has energized letters to the editor of The Fresno Bee like the proposal to create a panel to screen children’s books at Fresno County libraries for age appropriateness.
More letters came into The Bee before the county Board of Supervisors gave final approval to the plan on Nov. 28. Here are those letter-writers’ opinions, as well as several others on different topics.
— Tad Weber, opinion editor
Trust the librarians
Fresno County has decided they know better than our trained librarians. Master’s degrees mean nothing when a couple of young moms show their ignorance regarding the library and how books are chosen and displayed.
The library is a place for all and has rules regarding supervision of young children. These parents should review the books their children pick, but they don’t have the right to review the books my grandchildren pick. That’s my job.
If you don’t like the public library, please go to your church library, but remember the Bible has some really inappropriate passages and as a parent maybe your kids shouldn’t be allowed to read those pieces.
Trust our librarians — they are highly trained, and from what I can tell, no one on our Board of Supervisors has ever taken a class in library science.
Paige Addington. Clovis
Book bans equal dictatorship
This is how it starts, a book ban here, a restriction there, this is how freedom of ideas, freedom of thinking, freedom of will begin to die.
Do you know who else has book bans ... dictatorships like North Korea. Do you know who else hated books? Hitler, Nazi Germany burned books that it didn’t agree with. An open mind, understanding, and patience are a better tool to bring people together, but instead the Fresno County supervisors are choosing fear and alienation to rip apart the community instead of bringing it together.
A select group of parents who watch Fox News and are being poisoned by bad Christian values, they need to open their hearts as Jesus did and actually love thy neighbor and not live like in hypocrisy.
Choosing understanding, open heart, and tolerance is how we get through the next century together. Choosing to hate each other for having a difference of ideas, and banning other forms of thought, will only keep us fighting with each other.
Choose paradise on Earth by loving thy neighbor, or create a new hell by picking up that rock like Cain did against his brother. Choose paradise.
Francisco A. Velasquez, Fresno
Opposes ‘Parents Matter’ resolution
I strongly oppose the “Parents Matter” resolution — rash, reckless government overreach, solving no problems while creating many.
Fresno County already has an established “Request for Reconsideration” process. We also have a vast, acute need for public health and social service improvements that our supervisors are failing to prioritize while they direct time toward this misguided resolution.
The resources required to create a new government committee; ensure its compliance with the Brown Act; and defend the county from resultant litigation are significant, making this resolution fiscally imprudent.
Fresno County residents expect supervisors to direct our tax dollars toward improving public safety and well-being — not toward setting up new committees restricting freedoms.
It is indeed a freedom for parents to choose what media their children access. As stated on the Fresno County Public Library website, “Parents, guardians, and caregivers have the right and responsibility to restrict their children’s access to Library resources.” Our libraries are not nannies. Our government agencies are not babysitters.
Parents concerned that their children may encounter content they deem inappropriate — about guns, religion, sex, or another topic — are the ones responsible for restricting their children’s access, and for supervising their own children accordingly.
Erika Leonard, Fresno
Outraged with supervisors
I am outraged with the Fresno County Board of Supervisors taking an approach in reviewing age-appropriate children’s books in Fresno County libraries.
I thought librarians were hired for this; they’re the ones with degrees and knowledge as to what is appropriate and what isn’t. Even so, parents and guardians are the ones who should take on this responsibility — not the Board of Supervisors.
There are plenty of other ways to “help” the children in the Valley — including asthma and poverty, just to name a few.
The supervisors need to put their attention to issues that are critical for our health and the environment and leave the librarians alone so they can do the jobs they’ve been trained to do.
Brenda Markham, Fresno
1st Amendment violation
I am proud to say I am against the Parents Matter movement.
First, libraries have licensed and trained individuals to make decisions about the books within it. Second, David L. Hudson Jr., a professor at Belmont University College of Law and a First Amendment law expert, stated “Book bans violate the First Amendment because they deprive children or students or the right to receive information and ideas.” We can trust individuals to make their own decisions about what they read and believe.
Libraries allow parents the right to guide their children’s reading. Parents should not be making decisions for other parents’ children. Specifically, a small group of parents should not dictate what books other people’s children are allowed to read based upon their own values, interests, cultures or religions.
Books are tools for understanding complex issues. Limiting young people’s access to books does not protect them from life’s complex and challenging issues.
Removing and banning books from public libraries is a slippery slope to government censorship and the erosion of our country’s commitment to freedom of expression.
Please reject any efforts to ban books and allow individuals to make the decision about what they can read and believe.
Andrea L. Reed, Clovis
Editor’s note: The following letter is being republished. It originally appeared with a link to an unrelated story.
Militarization biggest threat
What a mess. At a time when we should be desperately trying to save the planet, we just go to war instead. Makes total sense on the screw-it-all scale.
Let’s face it, militarization worldwide is the greatest threat to our environment and global health and well-being.
But we love our guns and bombs more than ourselves, so grab your AK47 and a martini and party on.
Keith Seaman, Fresno
Got her mammogram
I’ve delayed making my annual mammogram screening appointment for weeks until I read Francine Farber’s column in The Bee. I’ve got one now thanks to her revealing story.
Her name always catches my eye. Thanks, Francine.
Barbara Moats, Fresno
Fake study on EV cost
I rarely use the phrase “fake news” and never about The Bee. But the article, “Study finds the true cost of owning an electric vehicle equates to $17 per gallon,” by Ian Krietzberg fits the definition.
The research behind this “study” was funded by Texas-based oil industry money from a political group that denies the climate crisis. It is part of an aggressive anti-electric vehicle (EV) propaganda effort that fossil fuel companies and lobbyists who care more about their profits than their descendants’ or humankind’s future.
Behind the article is the misleadingly named the Texas Public Policy Foundation, in reality a conservative think tank in Austin. James R. Leininger, its founder, promotes public-school vouchers, the Right on Crime project, and Fueling Freedom. The latter claims to “explain the forgotten moral case for fossil fuels,” as if such exists. TPPF rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change.
Articles and videos with accurate information on EVs from reputable sources can be readily found. An animated video that compares the total pollution, health, and energy costs vs. benefits of internal combustion engines (ICE) and EVs can be found online at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oVrIHcdxjAvideo comparing actual costs of ICE vehicles vs Electric Vehicles.
Kim Leslie, Clovis
