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Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Biggest Mistake Ever: Codifying the Library Bill of Rights

The biggest mistake is codifying the American Library Association's so-called "Library Bill of Rights."  

As previously reported, the Library Bill of Rights incorporated Marxist ideology that it's "age" discrimination to keep children from educationally unsuitable and pervasively vulgar material in schools.  Now such materials have spread to schools nationwide via school librarians and only school librarians.  See:

Kleinman, Dan. “Librarians Attempt to Legislate 1960s Radical View That Age Is Not Morally Relevant.” SafeLibraries® (blog), April 10, 2023. https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2023/04/librarians-attempt-to-legislate-1960s.html.

Even Librarians Agree Codifying the Library Bill of Rights is Wrong


The effort to codify the Library Bill of Rights is so wrong, so egregious that even progressive librarians are reluctantly forced to agree with me:

Babbitt, Jeffrey. “Why We Should Never Stop Materials Challenges, But Never Lose Them Either.” Sisyphus in the Stacks (blog), May 13, 2023. https://sisyphusinthestacks.wordpress.com/2023/05/13/why-we-should-never-stop-materials-challenges-but-never-lose-them-either/.
Even so, in the final analysis, I agree with Dan that challenges should not be completely forestalled and I find the legislating of a professional code like the Library Bill of Rights to be curious and unnecessary.  The permanent ban on challenges to library materials silences the voice of dissent in the library’s community.  It is a bully move by the ALA, it seems to me, and seeks to unbalance the scales in favor of a professional class deemed to know better what children need than parents do.


Finally Getting Media Attention


Well I'm happy to see this issue is finally getting some media attention.  Church Militant has just published a scathing report on ALA's efforts to codify the "Library Bill of Rights," picture top right, and I highly recommend reading the whole report:

Moyski, Martina. “Illinois Radical Dems Fundamentally Transforming Public Libraries; ‘The Biggest Mistake Ever.’” Church Militant, May 22, 2023. https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/illinois-set-to-push-porn-on-kids.

Here is the report in its entirety—because it is that good (hyperlinks in original):

Illinois Radical Dems Fundamentally Transforming Public Libraries; ‘The Biggest Mistake Ever’


SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (ChurchMilitant.com) - Illinois is set to enshrine the corruption of children into law, thanks to its collusion with the Marxist-led American Library Association.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 2789, has passed both the House and the Senate and is now awaiting the signature of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Among an array of legal amendments and declarations, the bill requires that all public libraries must adopt the so-called Library Bill of Rights or be denied state funds.

Pritzker and the radical Democrats running the state frame the bill in glowing terms, spinning it as an anti-censorship measure to advance the so-called ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion.

"I look forward to signing HB2789 to fight back against book bans," the governor recently said. "Illinois children shouldn't be kept from learning about the realities of the world."

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who also serves as state librarian, drafted the bill. The card-carrying member of the ALA referred to the passage of the bill as a "triumph for our democracy" as well as a "great victory for future generations to come."

Giannoulias, who has been assisted up the state's political ladder by Barack Obama, added, "Unfortunately, a scourge of censorship is polarizing and disrupting communities throughout our country; it has also threatened the safety of our amazingly dedicated librarians, the likes of which they have never seen before."

The Library Bill of Rights is a sort of ALA manifesto, declaring that seven basic policies should guide the services of public libraries and librarians. Adopted in 1939, the document is now being used to fundamentally transform the public library system, which is now under the leadership of Marxists.

Deborah DeGroff, a homeschooling mother and an authority on children's literature, has been puzzled by the increasing influence of the ALA's bill of rights.

The author of Between the Covers: What's Inside a Children's Book? told Church Militant, "I have questioned this for years. Who penned this list of rights? Which power gives them legitimacy?"

Critics of the Illinois bill and the ALA's bill of rights point to its dangers and deception.

Library watchdog Dan Kleinman has been scrutinizing the ALA's decades-long maneuvers to corrupt children.

In an article posted on his blog, SafeLibraries, Kleinman exposes article VII of the bill of rights as radical finagling of the ALA to establish age as a morally irrelevant issue.

Article VII states, "People, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use."

Kleinman comments: 
A small group of librarians just decided to add the word "age" to their "Library Bill of Rights" that they had previously made up. They were enamored with the anything-goes-at-any-age views of a 1960s radical sociologist named Edgar Friedenberg who wanted equality of rights between adult and child library uses. So they added the word "age." You see, before then, everyone knew you don't allow children school library access to inappropriate material. We all know it now too, we just let the librarians bully us into thinking it's a First Amendment right when it isn't.
Kleinman, whose blog is dedicated to raising "public awareness of crime, sexual harassment in libraries, and inappropriate books and websites in schools due to American Library Association policy," sounded the alarm about the dangers of Illinois House Bill 2789. He told Church Militant:
Codifying the Library Bill of Rights into law is like embedding the Marxist viewpoint that children and adults should have the same sexual rights in order to pervert the children. [It] will be the biggest mistake ever when it comes to parents, and their children being sexualized in public schools. The Library Bill of Rights is a "camel's nose under the tent" situation for sexualizing children. It's because it basically says anything goes. ... If that becomes a law, it's going to be awful.
The firebrand also had a lot to say about ALA's leadership pushing sexually inappropriate material for children under the guise of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion:
They know this material is sexually inappropriate for children, but they are trained by the director of the [ALA's] Office for Intellectual Freedom [Deborah Caldwell-Stone] to "reframe" (that's her word) this material as diversity, equity and inclusion. So they know the material is inappropriate. ... And the law says that you cannot remove material because it contains diversity, equity and inclusion. That means you cannot remove any sexually inappropriate material whatsoever—that's the goal of the law. These people have been sexualizing kids for over 50 years.

One piece of so-called children's literature taking center stage in discussions in Illinois and elsewhere is Gender Queer. The book was given an Alex Award from the ALA in 2020 for its appeal to teens aged 12-18.

The sexually graphic, comic-book-style memoir includes depictions of sex acts and vulgar language, befitting Pritzker's plea for books "about the realities of the world." It is just one of the thousands of such books that Illinois libraries will have to keep on their shelves to receive state funds.

DeGroff points out that it's not just sexually inappropriate pieces that the Marxists are promulgating to corrupt children. The author points to Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909, a book suggested for 4–9 year olds that teaches young children to be social justice warriors.

Another example DeGroff points to is I Look Up to Ruth Bader Ginsberg, which is intended for children ages 1 and up. A blurb for the board book on Amazon reads, "It's never too early to introduce your child to the people you admire! This board book distills Ruth Bader Ginsburg's excellent qualities into deliciously illustrated little baby-sized bites, with text designed to share and read aloud."

DeGroff asks, "Whether someone is a fan or not of the former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is not the issue. But why are we reading this to the youngest children?"

Once Gov. Pritzker signs the bill, HB2789 will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. It will provide a template for other states to follow or resist.

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