Saving the libraries

By K.L. Huntley
Reader Contributor

It is high time for everyone to sit down and quietly come to their senses. Eons ago I wrote a bad song (all of them fall a little flat) inspired by my less-than-stable family. I titled it “Fault Lines — or Fault Lines…  Whose fault or the San Andreas?” The word itself is fascinating because it can be a noun, as in blame, sin, mistake; or it can be a noun, as in fractures in the Earth’s crust that allow blocks of rock to move. The meaning all depends on the use of the word in a sentence. 

The fault line in my family went right down the living room floor and tore it all apart. I hesitate to blame whose fault House Bill 710 is or was, but it has the potential of tearing apart access to our public library and bankrupting our school system. Two birds with one blow.

Courtesy image.

House Bill 710 states that it “amends and adds to existing law to prohibit certain materials from being promoted, given or made available to a minor by a school or public library, to provide for a cause of action, to provide for damages and to provide for injunctive relief.” 

In short folks, as of July 1 of this year, any family who believes “certain material” is inappropriate for their child can sue our school district and/or our libraries for $250 in “statutory damages,” “as well as actual damages and any other relief available by law, including but not limited to injunctive relief sufficient to prevent the defendant school or public library from violating the requirements of this section.”

Furthermore, who is to define which “certain materials” are inappropriate? What is appropriate to one may be deemed inappropriate to another. There are those walking among us who deem anything with rainbows inappropriate. Have you ever met a child who doesn’t love rainbows? Whose face lights up in awe when they see one arching across the sky? How silly is that?

Make no mistake in thinking this “doesn’t affect you.” It affects us all, as these public institutions are supported by your tax dollars. Going to court is clearly an extremely expensive undertaking. Our library and school systems could be quickly bankrupted. And whose fault would that be? 

Gov. Brad Little signed the bill on April 10 of this year and it goes into effect Monday, July 1. He signed the bill in spite of almost 3,750 more citizens contacting him in opposition than those in favor. 

This is not a partisan issue. Intelligent folks on both sides of the fault line — including the independent thinkers — can clearly see this. I think Thomas Jefferson, the father of the Library of Congress, is probably rolling over in his grave. 

Monday, July 1 there will be a gathering at the Sandpoint library parking lot to show support for the Bonner County library system. It will be held from 1-3 p.m. Please attend to be supportive and contemplate how to overturn this Machiavellian concept of suppressing public access to the written word.

And for those who do not want their cherubs to read something they don’t approve of, may I suggest they consider taking (rather than sending) their children to the library. I did!