That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America

by Amanda Jones

You only mock people who have awards when you have no real accomplishments of your own.

I wondered how people could believe whatever they saw on social media and think it was true. I wondered if they even thought it was true or if it just made them feel good to spread hate.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. —MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

no one on the right side of history has ever been on the side of censorship and hiding books. I said, “Hate and fear disguised as moral outrage have no place in Livingston Parish.”

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. —AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

“Libraries are not daycare centers.” A parent shouldn’t just drop off their child at the local courthouse or Walmart, just like they shouldn’t be dropping their minor children off at the library. Public libraries have adult sections because they also serve adults. If you don’t want your child near adult material, you should monitor your own child.

One of my biggest frustrations is that the same people who are so hyperfixated on our libraries will allow their own children unfettered access to phones, tablets, and devices where actual pornography is just a click away. If you point that out to them, they don’t deny it. They’ll just scream all the louder about taxes and libraries. I know very few parents who have parental filters on their children’s devices or monitor their usage.

How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. —JUDY BLUME, TIGER EYES

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay—and rise! —MAYA ANGELOU

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. —“INVICTUS,” BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Running your mouth on social media is weak, but collecting knowledge is power.

It comes to a point where you have to ask, do they even care?” I don’t think that these politicians do. Power and influence matter more to them than the actual welfare of human beings.

Politicians, especially our local ones, tend to lie and pander as if their constituents were idiots. Unfortunately, few seek out the truth and instead fall for the nonsense.

not sure i'd narrow this down to just the local ones

Parents have a personal responsibility to monitor their own child’s reading and nobody else’s.

I will remind board members that regardless of your own beliefs on the topic of book content and location, to think about this: no one on the right side of history has ever been on the side of censorship and hiding books. In the words of author Stephen Chbosky: “Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.”