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| Gering Public Library |
- "Father Outraged After Son Sees Porn at Public Library," by Kenna Nash, KOTA Territory News ABC, 8 June 2013:
I have written so much on how the ALA misleads libraries that then lie to communities to mislead them to allow the libraries to act outside the law, and how local officials are totally bamboozled and expose their communities to significant liability. ALA was recently listed, for example, as one of the nation's leading porn facilitators. So I won't repeat all the details now. I am just noting that this story from Gering, NE, really provides a perfect little example of what I have been reporting is happening, complete with a smug smile from library director Diane Downer when she cites the ALA porn policy:
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| Smug Library Director Diane Downer Touting ALA Porn Policy |
- Parent Michael Onstott, contact me for how I can help.
- Mayor Edwin Mayo, contact me for reliable sources showing that you have been misled and your town is exposed to significant liability.
- Library Director Diane Downer, contact me if you have an open mind.
- Reporter Kenna Nash, contact me for what may be even a bigger story than just this one library porn incident.
For educational purposes in line with Section 107 of the US Copyright Act, here is the unedited text of the article:
by Kenna Nash
KOTA Territory News ABC
8 June 2013
A panhandle father is fuming after his son catches a glimpse of a man watching pornography at the Gering Public Library.
"They were on the computers, checking out books, doing whatever, and my wife had noticed and my son had also noticed, that another person in the library was using one of the computers to view pornography," says concerned parent Michael Onstott.
Onstott's wife approached library staff about what she and her son had witnessed but was told the man wasn't breaking library policy.
"She was basically dismissed, saying there's nothing that they can do about it," says Onstott. "He wasn't doing anything illegal and that it's within their current policies not to do anything."
Library Director Diane Downer says the Gering Public Library's policy follows the American Library Association's guidelines.
"It doesn't specifically say 'no pornography'," says Downer. "Obscene? Yes, but what's obscene to someone is not always obscene to someone else."
Mr. Onstott wrote a letter of concern to city council after learning about the library's policy.
Mayor Edwin Mayo says he's sympathetic to the issue but says his hands are tied.
"On the adult side, the adult used computers, they can not have those filters on," says Mayo. "They are Supreme Court rulings that say you can not prevent someone from having access to these types of materials."
Onstott says he will do whatever it takes to get this policy changed.
"If I have to go to the state to get a law changed, I plan on riding this to the end,"
says Onstott. "I'm in it to win it. And I think everyone that has any values for their kids, their grand kids, nieces, nephews... they're going to understand. This has to be changed."
Mayor Mayo says this is a tough situation because if you block all access to all materials that people deem inappropriate, then they get complaints on the other side of it too.
NOTE ADDED 14 JUNE 2013:
More stories on this issue, likely because everyone knows the library director is wrong:
- "Porn in Nebraska Library - Man Speaks Out Against Policy That Allows Porn...," by PornHarms, YouTube, 10 June 2013.
- "Gering Father: Library Internet Policy In Need of Change," includes VIDEO, KOTA Territory News ABC, 12 June 2013.
- "Gering Library Director Defends Policy on Web Porn," by The Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 June 2013.
- "Library Director Defends Web Porn Policy," by The Associated Press, The Omaha World-Herald, 13 June 2013.
- "Gering Library Director Defends Policy On Web Pornography," by The Associated Press, WOWT Channel 6, 13 June 2013.
- "Gering Library Director Defends Policy on Web Porn," by The Associated Press, The Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE), 13 June 2013.
- "Director Defends Policy After Complaint About Man Viewing Online Pornography at Gering Library," by The Associated Press, The Republic (Columbus, IN), 13 June 2013.
- "(Neb.)- Gering Library Director Defends Policy On Web Porn," by Jeremy Anderson, AM 610 KCSR, 13 June 2013.
NOTE ADDED 15 JUNE 2103:
Here is one local media source ignoring the facts and the law to side with the porn facilitators, exemplifying the work Michael Onstott has cut out for him in deprogramming the ACLU/ALA propaganda:
- "OPINION: Censorship; It Won't Be an Issue If People Behave Responsibly," by Steve Frederick, Editor, Scottsbluff Star-Herald (Scottsbluff, NE), 14 June 2013.
URL of this page: safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/06/SmugSmile.html
Freedom is watching whatever you want to watch in the walls of your private home. Whatever happened to the freedom of children-- to be children? Self absorbed adults are trampling all over their freedoms in sooo many ways. Those at ALA whose establishing these policies and recommending as well awarding salacious material which then gets picked up by public and school libraries should be ashamed, but then that would require some morals. STOP pushing your beliefs on the rest of the world. Libraries were once controlled locally, when librarians protected children from inappropriate material, and NEVER considered purchasing porn for them. We need to get back to local control and kick ALA back to Illinois where they belong.
ReplyDelete"Those at ALA whose establishing these policies...." It's not "those." It's one person. The person was for three years on the Board of Directors of the Illinois state ACLU in Chicago, IL. And she used her new position at the ALA to take the ACLU policy and insert it into ALA policy, then used Chicago-style means to push the ACLU/ALA policy into local libraries. And it was a magnificent success. To this very day, over four decades later, even after the person has died, librarians still fear to speak out in support of protecting children from harm because if they do, they are ridiculed and/or targeted for job extinction. So when library directors like in Gering Public Library so obviously care less about children viewing porn in their libraries then smirk about ALA porn policy in response to media questions, they are promoting ACLU/ALA interests over local interests.
DeleteAnd they get away with this. In all my years doing this, I have never seen a single community ever want their children to be able to access and view porn. Not even one. Never. It is only the ACLU policy now absorbed into as ALA policy and the long term efforts to force librarians to fall into line that make this happen.
"Whatever happened to the freedom of children-- to be children?" The ACLU took that away with respect to libraries by cleverly inserting its policy into the ALA. And very few people are even aware of it, let alone speak out to oppose it. And if citizens do speak out, they are ridiculed as censors or racists or the like. It's a propaganda technique called jamming. And it's working, for the most part.
As the Gering case shows, the ACLU/ALA porn facilitation policies are so effective that library directors promote the ALA with a smirk and show they could care less about the children harmed by the porn, and the government goes right along with that, and the media reports it as if the ACLU/ALA policy were actual law instead of being 100% the opposite of the law.
I predict Gering, NE, will do nothing about the library director violating the law, going again community standards and common sense, and smirking that the children are getting porn in her ACLU/ALA library. It will only get worse and worse.
I wonder what will happen if I show up Naked at the Gering’s library?
ReplyDeleteProbably Nothing because “what is obscene for someone is not always obscene for some else…”
Stupid Moron Librarians, Mayor and the Supreme Court can kiss my ‘beep’, what is the difference between someone having sex in a public place and someone having sex on a screen in a public place? None, same thing…So why it is illegal to have sex in public places? Let’s make it legal….after all “what is obscene for someone is not always obscene for some else…”
Did you show up naked, Alex? Or just yap? More OUTRAGE over nothing that went nowhere. Comical.
ReplyDelete