Hey folks. There sure is a lot of Everything going on, and I'm sorry to be mentioning another piece of it.
But I want to call your attention to beautiful Palm Harbor Library, which is currently being singled out by a member of the county's board of commissioners. The supposed area of concern is "promotion of inappropriate materials and ideologies in the children's section," and though the discussion is largely focused on gender identity, there's also a complaint in his statement about children being exposed to the concept of abolishing prisons. Buddy, there are children 0-12 who have loved ones in prisons. They have every right to be educated about that just as they have every right to be educated about identities.
Vince Nowicki's proposal in the meeting suggests that he's only concerned with promotion of these materials and that his resolution won't lead to banning or removal of works... but the language in the current written proposal suggests otherwise, granting the right to remove materials deemed inappropriate.
Another member of the board speaks very casually about "getting their attention through the budget," which is a pretty thinly veiled threat against staff and resources, which negatively impacts the community he claims to be interested in protecting. There's also a mention of the previous director having "retired or left or whatever"... take your guesses about whether it's a coincidence 🙃
So what can you do? Currently, there is a petition against that resolution, which hasn't yet been pushed. It's worth sharing to try to keep that resolution from moving forward to the point of being enforceable! But remember, these people are going to try to get their way through other means (budget) even if the resolution is never passed.
So the things you can do about that are:
Call them (and others) out on those threats. They willingly admit in the meeting linked about that they're not receiving complaints from the community about materials in the library and are instead acting on their own opinions. They have seen a place where they can exert power and just want to kick over someone's sandcastle because they can.
Spread awareness. Any response to this situation is better coming from members of the impacted community, but they might not yet be aware of the the situation, and you might be able to bring it to their attention.
Check in with your own local institutions! Libraries all over are under fire to different degrees, and they're not the only ones. There is a lot happening, but we can make a big difference by focusing on strengthening local protections.
