Ashamed of What Our Library Has Been Doing

Here's a published letter to the editor opposing child porn in a public library and exposing how the library wins awards for protecting it, "I don't think it's something to brag about that the [Illinois Library Association] gave our library an award for allowing guys to watch porn on library computers":

'I Am Ashamed of What Our Library Has Been Doing'

Dear Editor,

I have lived in Orland Park for most of my life and hate that we are now (and perhaps forever) known as the place where people are allowed to watch porn at the library.  I hate that we're the town where child porn was accessed at our library but the mayor and police really don't seem to care, and nobody feels compelled to do anything to stop that from happening again.

Why hasn't our village leadership ever stepped in and demanded to know why the library looked the other way when things like child porn were accessed in that building?  If ever there was a time for the Village manager to intervene, it is when somebody is not calling the police when child porn is being accessed in a public building.  For crying out loud.

It makes me sad that when I meet new people and they hear I am from Orland, that the first question I get asked is why our library lets people watch porn when there are children in the building.  Nobody I have ever talked to about this thinks it is OK.  Porn belongs at home, on people's personal computers, and not out in public.  Not even the most liberal people I know in New York or California think what our library does is OK.  Absolutely no one agrees with the library that it should be a place that's packed full of little kids but also should offer an X-rated good time upstairs.  People think we are out of our minds in Orland Park to condone this.  And I agree.

I don't think it's something to brag about that the [Illinois Library Association] gave our library an award for allowing guys to watch porn on library computers.

That's not something that deserves an award.  It instead warrants an industrial-strength disinfecting.  It is shameful.  I never knew that porn access in a public building was such an important "must-have" for these board members or that they think it's OK to allow child porn to go unreported in a public library.

They're still talking about it on the news.  I just heard it again on WLS today.  When will someone pay a consequence for this?

I am ashamed of what our library has been doing.

Jean Morrow

Orland Park resident

Source:  "Letters to the Editor April 2, 2015," by Editor, Orland Park Prairie, 2 April 2015.  Republished with permission of Story Time Digital Media.

• See also: Letter to the Editor Supports Sexually Harassed Librarians

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