Sunday, December 29, 2024

How Chicago's ALA Co-Opts Local Governments: St. Tammany Parish Louisiana

I have published steadily on how American Library Association co-opts local and state governments to drive its Chicago Way across America, by any means, whatever it takes.  Governing bodies often hear from no one other than the community-organized multitudes ALA creates, funds, and empowers to create the illusion of local support and to provide a base for ALA to sue via surrogates anywhere across America.  

Locals and taxpayers are often not even aware there's any "sustained messaging" nor "long-term inoculation" going on to pressure a government into acting as ALA would if it only had real power.  ALA needs to get the locals to pull the switch.  And ALA's approximately 60 year goal has been to take away parental rights to better indoctrinate and s[]xualize school children.

As a result, given I'm being sued twice for defamation by a Louisiana school librarian, I've become aware St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana is suffering from the above fate, basically by reading the librarian's book.  She also seems to gloat about ALA pressuring St. Tammany Parish Library in the past:
Therefore I wrote to its governing leaders to open their eyes that Chicago's ALA was about to get its way there via some local groups it created, to the detriment of everyone, but especially the children.  I wrote to give them some balance.  And I provided hard evidence from reliable sources, not just slogans like children have to be able to see themselves in libraries or kids will get it on their smart phones anyway so they might as well learn how to do it right from a trusted and professionally trained source, or books provide windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.

Here is what I sent, and I'm republishing it because basically it applies to everyone, everywhere.

Dear St. Tammany Parish Council,

St Tammany Library Alliance [ALA's STLA] is an organization created and funded by the American Library Association [ALA] in Chicago, Illinois, to give the appearance that it is a local group in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.  It is not.  It is an astroturfed group created by ALA, initially funded by ALA, currently empowered by ALA, to carry out the work of ALA, such as by inundating library boards with hundreds or thousands of emails to give the appearance that local citizens support ALA goals instead of local law, common sense, and community standards.  Do not be swayed by this bullying campaign.  Its website says, "The St. Tammany Parish Library Alliance is a grassroots group of people and organizations defending our parish libraries."  That's false.  It's astroturfed by ALA, and it's a lie to make people think it's grassroots.

ALA has worked for about 60 years to take away the rights of parents so that their children are more easily manipulated.  See: Koganzon, Rita. “There Is No Such Thing as a Banned Book: Censorship, Authority, and the School Book Controversies of the 1970s.” American Political Thought 12, no. 1 (January 2023): 1–26.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PZ2pDhKhRAtlNgR7gek_1kcdGFoskHpa/view?usp=sharing.  ALA has more recently began creating, funding, and empowering local groups to give local boards the appearance that local citizens support this or that when it is really ALA.

In Louisiana, for example, ALA has created, at a minimum:
ALA even brags about its ties with ALA's STLA. ALA holds up ALA's STLA as an example for its entire 48,000 members.  ALA's President Emily Drabinski gave a speech to ALA members saying:
I met yesterday with a pair of activists in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, to learn more about what was happening on the ground uh in Louisiana, which has been a a hotspot for book bans and getting to know uh the organizing work that they were doing, which included the legislative active, ad, you know, advocacy work that we're all familiar with, as well as more direct action on the ground kinds of organizing.  And those tools that people are using to pull people together in their local communities, making sure that we surface those stories and share them is my priority uh in the member leader spot right now.
Source: a 60 minute video of ALA President Emily Drabinski and ALA Interim Executive Director Leslie Burger (a former ALA President) saying the quiet part out loud, on March 19, 2024, at an ALA Town Hall meeting for members only:

So I am writing you this email to say how much you are being or will be manipulated by ALA's STLA, and now you know why I call it ALA's STLA, but I am providing you with hard evidence directly from the President of ALA to prove it.  It's the ALA President talking about St. Tammany Parish Library, about "the organizing work that they are doing," about "those tools that people are using to pull people together in their local communities, about "making sure that we surface those stories and share them."  Right from the horse's mouth you are hearing about how you are being manipulated, and your manipulation is setting an example for librarians across the nation.

This "organizing work that they are doing" completely drowns out locals and local interests.  That is by design of ALA to get the Chicago Way into libraries.  There are no groups creating, funding, empowering locals who wish to follow Louisiana law and St. Tammany Parish community standards.  They are essentially voiceless.  The few who do get involved are then labeled as "extremists."

Louisiana school librarian Amanda Jones recently gave a speech at a meeting of ALA's STLA, I've been told.  She wrote a book about her defamation case against Louisiana parents that she's lost four times in the courts, so far, with a final appeal before the Louisiana Supreme Court.  In full disclosure, she is currently suing me for defamation as well while her other case is still proceeding.  In her book, Amanda complains about "St. Tammany Parish Library Accountability Project" and people in the Parish like one who "put on her tinfoil hat to inundate the librarian snitch line."  She also wrote about the Parish about two dozen times, talking about "the pro-censors were working overtime spreading moral panic."  So ALA's STLA can work to organize people but locals are "pro-censors."  This is the person who ALA's STLA invites to give a speech to motivate people to write to you to manipulate you.

In Amanda's book she makes several acknowledgements.  These include, "John Chrastka and EveryLibrary--you swooped in and offered support right from the get-go.  None of my success would have happened without you.  Your help to librarians and citizens all across the country, real plans of action when we need it, are vital.  Thank you."  ....  "To all of my friends in ... St. Tammany ... Parishes who refuse to see their libraries go down without a fight.  They won't because of you.  You matter and you're making a difference."  To me, that means she's telegraphing how ALA's EveryLibrary "offered support right from the get-go" with "real plans of actions," and the St. Tammany Parish Library employees are fully on board with ALA's Chicago Way.

Above, I wrote about ALA having created ALA's STLA and other local groups in Louisiana.  (It's nationwide, actually.)  Now I'm going to back that up.  Here is the leader of ALA's EveryLibrary, a hidden ALA organization:
Um, we put to work our value system right now in a couple of key ways that we help, we hope people who who can join us can do. We have a, an a, [00:20:30] uh, a platform called Fight for the First. Uh, fightforthefirst.org is a, uh, it's basically change.org for libraries. You know, we, we've set this up so that if there's a problem, thank you for putting that out.

(20:42):
There's a problem, uh, in a local community. Somebody can, can say, we have a problem. We'd like some, some assistance. Here's what our problem looks like. We can platform that call to action very quickly. What we do is, uh, train, coach and guide and support the good people who are in that community who wanna [00:21:00] stand with either the library or for the First Amendment, depending on how things are going. Um, and then we need folks who are outside of the zone. You know, if you're in it, man, if you're in, if you're in the trenches on this, it's exhausting. It's hard. It is, uh, it's community organizing. It's union organizing. It's the, the fights are akin to the anti-nuclear, you know, uh, reproductive justice, um, you know, civil rights fights. I mean, these, these people are in it. So, if [00:21:30] you're outside of that zone, what we do as a national organization is we put money to work from donors, from vendor donors, individual donors.

(21:38):
We've kind of a Bernie Sanders model for our donor base, and we help them, we help them, yep, help make their voice heard. Uh, we spend money on every single campaign advertising on social. Um, nothing goes viral anymore. You know, if anybody's doing marketing knows, you gotta be able to put that out in front of folks, you know? Um, and we, we show up. We, we show up, uh, sometimes with, [00:22:00] uh, direct donations. Right now we're doing a, a fundraising drive in Prattville, Alabama, where the, the library director and four members of the staff quit rather than implement unconstitutional, bigoted policies on the part of that library board. I mean, these these, this is how we do it when there's, when, when you're in a, when you're in a green zone, like, like a San Francisco. If you're in a hot zone, though, like a Prattville, what you can do if you haven't, if you're just coming around to understanding this situation, [00:22:30] is, again, a Fight for the First kind of flight framework. Join in, you know, join in. We've got opportunities for people to articulate, you know, a, a value system when it comes to the watchdog work. We've got our opportunities for people to be guard dogs for the First Amendment and for the library and for the schools. That's really, you know, hardcore activism. Um, there's, there's a chance for people to bird dog this digitally. Uh, and Jim, we're trying to give 'em different pathways to, to put their role [unintelligible] to work.
Source: "ALA Details How It Controls Communities Nationwide: The Quiet Part Out Loud Now In Transcript Form," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 4 June 2024. https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2024/06/ala-details-how-it-controls-communities.html

ALA's EveryLibrary's leader John Chrastka is so confident that his "hardcore activism" is a success that at the School Library Journal's 2024 Summit he provided librarians with "a playbook for statewide strategies to prioritize and protect school libraries and librarians."  "Advocacy, he said, is co-creation; activism is about crisis and seizing opportunities."  Regarding the groups like ALA's STLA that ALA is building, he said, "Coalition work:  Disciplined engagement among library organizations and stakeholder groups has overcome anti-library legislation."  He's literally crowing about how ALA has bulldozed over local populations and he's promising to make it more widespread.  

Source:  "Time to Turn Talking Points to Policy, 2024 SLJ Summit; EveryLibrary Executive Director John Chrastka Spoke at the 2024 SLJ Summit, Providing a Playbook for Statewide Strategies to Prioritize and Protect School Libraries and Librarians," by Kara Yorio, School Library Journal, 17 December 2024.  https://web.archive.org/web/20241218124641/https://www.slj.com/story/Time-to-Turn-Talking-Points-to-Policy-2024-SLJ-Summit

He wants "municipal momentum to push against where things are going in other states."  Is the Chicago Way the future for St Tammany Parish Library?  Is ALA's STLA pushing the "municipal momentum"?  Are you going to allow that?

And Emily Drabinski has promoted St. Tammany Parish another time as a model of how to take control of local communities:
We sure are. We've got a campaign right now called Unite Against Book Bans that includes, uh, tools for people, everything from uh yard signs that you can print out and have have printed and and put in your yard, uh, proclaiming that you oppose book banning and censorship in your community, talking points for talking with the media, uh, as a concerned citizen, guidelines for how to show up at a school board meeting, how to show up at a library board meeting, um, lots of tools like that that you can use, uh. Mostly we’re wanting everybody to get involved. This is an issue that has been right on the, for the front line library worker front and center for the past couple of years and it’s been really really intense. And what, what we’re seeing is that when community members and people who believe in their public library use it, which is the vast majority of us, right, uh, uh, toolkit also include statistics about public support for libraries and the pat, it’s a minority of people that want books out of the collection, and so we need the majority to show up and stand up. And the strategy is, right, for how we're going to win is, um, they’re they’re different and they change every day, and we never know in advance, right, and so we’re asking the toolkit there’s lots of ways for people to get involved. We’ve seen cases in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, where community members have banded together to support the librarian. Really really effective ways, uh, we’ve seen in, uh, Lincolnwood, uh, in the Chicago area, uh. People organizing to ensure that the library board members represent people who care about the library and promote the library as a way of keeping people who want to ban books from taking over those kinds of positions. And so the toolkit gives lots and lots of information about how you can do that organizing in your own community.
Source: "Emily Drabinski Threatens State Library Commissions After Montana Drops ALA Membership: 'There Are More of Us Than There Are of Them,'" by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 20 August 2023.  https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2023/08/emily-drabinski-threatens-state-library.html

A third time ALA used you as an example:

"And in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, extremists attacked a library director, claiming she conspired with me to peddle p[]rnography to children in the community. (That director and I do not know each other, have never met, and, indeed, have never even corresponded.) In the hands of extremists, I am a weapon. The project for me now is to find out how I can be a tool."  

Source:  "The Fight for Libraries; Libraries and Higher Education Face a Shared Battle," by Emily Drabinski, American Association of University Professors, Spring 2023.  https://www.aaup.org/article/fight-libraries

You see, anyone who opposes ALA is an "extremist."  The leader of a group from Chicago, Illinois, that's been working for about 60 years to ensure children have access to inappropriate material, complains that locals in St. Tammany Parish who oppose ALA are "extremists."  If you yourselves oppose ALA, you to will be labelled "extremists."  But who do you serve, the public, or some group from Chicago working for decades to harm children?

ALA's EveryLibrary has even come to the aid of ALA's STLA in a legal case: "Statement in Support of Dismissed St. Tammany Library Trustees in Lawsuit Against the Parish; EveryLibrary Stands in Support of William R. McHugh III, Anthony Parr, and Rebecca Taylor, the Plaintiffs in the Lawsuit Against the St. Tammany Parish Council in Louisiana," by ALA's EveryLibrary, ALA's EveryLibrary, 21 May 2024.  https://www.everylibrary.org/statement_st_tammany_trustees_lawsuit.  Naturally, ALA's EveryLibrary is also based in Illinois, only in a suburb of Chicago.  Yet somehow all the way from Chicago it knows, "plaintiffs have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to their roles and to upholding the values of inclusivity and intellectual freedom."  Coming from ALA's EveryLibrary, that means plaintiffs have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to Chicago's ALA.

And it doesn't help that the St. Tammany Parish Library employees report directly to ALA.  Do they work for ALA or for the citizens?  On 20 September 2022, Sally McKissack, MLS <sally@stpl.us> emailed Tanya DiMaggio <tanya@stpl.us> asking, "Have we reported our challenges to ala or everylibrary?  Just curious," and the response was, "Yes."  Why is anyone reporting anything to ALA or ALA's EveryLibrary?  Might that have something to do with why both ALA and ALA's EveryLibrary repeatedly bragged about how ALA got its way in the St. Tammany Parish Library?

STPL reports to ALA.jpg

That's why I'm writing.  Seeing the manipulation in action, I am writing to say you have been or are about to be played so you'll be maneuvered into imposing the Chicago Way and think you're doing it of your own free will.  I am showing you the evidence of manipulation directly from the ALA President and others to prove it.  ALA doesn't have the power to force you to do anything, but if it can get you to think what it thinks, then you'll do what it wants without even realizing it.  That's the whole purpose of the "hardcore activism" and the "community organizing."

When the ALA bullying begins, you'll know to ignore it and instead do what you know is right, even if your local citizens who support you aren't community organized enough like ALA's STLA to say so.  ALA created St Tammany Library Alliance.  ALA's STLA is not to be trusted for anything, except for revealing what is ALA's Chicago Way.  Consider doing the exact opposite of what ALA's STLA wants, and when the bullying deluge of emails comes in, like Amanda Jones got about 44,000 emails to the Louisiana legislature, just ignore it all.  It's all fake astroturf.

Thank you for your consideration and I hope this helps you.

--
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Dan Kleinman, Owner of SafeLibraries® brand library educational services


Dear St. Tammany Parish Counsel,

I wrote yesterday about ST. TAMMANY LIBRARY ALLIANCE [ALA's STLA] and how it is a stalking horse for AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION [ALA], as shown in detail in yesterday's email shown below.  

Now I wish to add additional evidence, even more outrageous but true.  And I add some CCs given the seriousness of the threat of subversion of local governments by some organization from Chicago, Illinois, and I ask the CCs to read yesterday's email as well as today's.

Here's another direct quote from "That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America," the new book from Louisiana's school librarian Amanda Jones: 

"One thing I love about the St. Tammany Parish Library Alliance is that the members of the alliance show up very early to pack the front of the meeting space as much as possible."

So this is a Chicago ALA created and funded and empowered local group, of which most local citizens likely aren't even aware, absolutely bulldozing over the unprepared public to mislead boards into thinking the locals want what Chicago's ALA wants.  As Amanda Jones puts it, the thing she loves most about ALA's STLA is how they get to public meetings a half hour early to be sure to crowd out anyone not associated with ALA's STLA.  She's just coming out and revealing the manipulation.  

This is an ALA tactic used in many places, now including St. Tammany Parish.  I attended a public library meeting in Glen Ridge, NJ, where so many ALA people showed up early and with professional signs have ALA slogans like "United Against Book Bans" and organized coordination to crowd the room and crowd out others from speaking that the locals seeking relief from the government didn't even get a chance to speak.  I was the only person to get a chance to speak from the locals side since I knew of the tactic ahead of time and made sure I was there first.  Even then the ALA crowd pushed past me without a care since I wasn't one of them.  And when I finally spoke, the NJ ACLU publicly shamed me for being the only speaker to side with the locals who brought the complaint in the first place.  To see the results of the ALA tactic as applied in Glen Ridge, watch here, because it's coming to St. Tammany Parish: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/essex/glen-ridge/2023/02/09/glen-ridge-library-nj-ban-lbgtq-books-protest/69889598007/

Besides the above and what's in yesterday's email it gets even worse.  There's a Louisiana school librarian currently on a national tour with her book that I quoted above.  She just appeared at a meeting of ALA's STLA to talk about her book.  In her book she exposes how St. Tammany Parish gets steamrolled by ALA's STLA, again, as quoted above.  

Lest you think this is no big deal, just idle talk, Amanda Jones will be the central character in a film called "The Librarians" to be revealed at the Sundance Film Festival in January, according to the film's executive producer, Sarah Jessica Parker.  Yes, the famous actress.  Yes, Amanda is the central character.  So how ALA's STLA steamrolls over St. Tammany Parish may be an example for the lead character in a worldwide film produced by a Hollywood superstar.  That's how serious this is and how much pressure is going to hit you in waves.

ALA, building and community organizing for about 60 years, is gathering all tools available, even Hollywood stars, to bulldoze over local communities.  St. Tammany Parish is patient zero of the mind virus.  I'm trying to activate your antibodies now to help you prepare for what's coming.  

Here's a quote from Variety about how Amanda Jones is the central character of a film to be shown at Sundance:
The documentary’s central character is Amanda Jones, a school librarian in southern Louisiana, who recently wrote “That Librarian — The Fight Against Book Banning in America,” published in 2024 by Bloomsbury. “It’s a fantastic book, and we follow her struggles,” explains Parker.
Source: "Sarah Jessica Parker on Producing Sundance Doc About Librarians Fighting Book Bans: ‘They Have Put Their Lives at Risk,’" by Martin Dale, Variety, 12 December 2024.  https://variety.com/2024/film/global/sarah-jessica-parker-the-librarians-sundance-executive-producer-1236246900/

I have informed you how ALA bribes locals and funds them to create local library alliances: "ALA Details Bribes to Convince Governments to Sell Out Children," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 12 March 2024.  https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2024/03/ala-details-bribes.html.  
We'll support your campaign against book bans with:  
1) Up to $1k in funding 
2) Pro-bono consulting 
3) Digital tools like http://fundlibraries.org
4) Media attention 
5) Training and resources for the skills and knowledge that you need to win.  
And more!
I have shown you that ALA set up ALA's STLA in yesterday's email.  Now I just found a new ALA site: "Help Fight Against Censorship in St Tammany, LA," by ALA's STLA, https://www.fundlibraries.org/SaveStTammanyLibraries

I have shown you Amanda Jones holds up ALA's STLA as an example of how to pressure communities.

I have shown you multiple ALA leaders bragging about how ALA pulled the wool over the eyes of the local government in St. Tammany Parish.

I've shown you Amanda Jones who makes St. Tammany Parish ground zero for ALA meddling is herself the leading character in a Sarah Jessica Parker movie to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival.  I'll bet St. Tammany comes up in that movie at least once--to benefit ALA, not St. Tammany Parish.

I've shown you St. Tammany Parish Library employees are working directly with and for ALA and ALA's EveryLibrary to oppose "book bans."

Now you know.  Now you must stand up to the bullying of ALA and the locals like ALA's STLA that ALA has accreted with thousand dollar bribes, free counseling and fundraising and community organizing tools, and media attention.  

When the email deluge occurs and the people show up in crowds with professional signs to crowd out the few locals who might show without any community organization like the ALA does, what will you do?  Will you bend to the pressure?  Will you stand strong and apply local law, common sense, and community standards?  Do your ethical standards allow you to be swayed by out-of-state influence even if it is designed to appear as in-state?  Will St. Tammany Parish children be protected from outsiders having a 60 year plan to take away parental rights?  Or will ALA's St. Tammany Library Alliance overpower the Board?

Time will tell.  At least now you have reliable sources in this email and yesterday's to truly understand that ALA's STLA is not your friend--it's created by and subservient to ALA.  And it's metastasizing.  And it is children who are the target.

Thanks again for your consideration.
--
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Dan Kleinman, Owner of SafeLibraries® brand library educational services



NOTE ADDED 30 DECEMBER 2024:

Already, based on the above, the coverup by ALA's STLA and now apparently St Tammany Parish Library employees themselves is underway with cleverly worded responses to continue to hide the truth in the face of the evidence.  

They talk about the present tense, not the past.  They talk about ALA, not ALA's EveryLibrary.  They say no documents exist, they leave out the training by ALA and even by Amanda Jones to use phone calls instead of documents precisely to evade FOIA, then claim innocence or that no documents exist.  They leave out that they are trained to provide evasive answers intentionally to deceive, just as Amanda Jones trained them at the recent Louisiana Library Association meeting.  And on and on with the deception:



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