ObamaCare Pushing Librarians Out of Work; What Goes Around Comes Around

As a direct result of ObamaCare, librarians in Brevard County, FL, may be losing their hours:

• "Brevard County to Cut Back Hours for Some Part-Time Employees," by Bob Opsahl and Melonie Holt, WFTV 9, 23 July 2013 (hyperlink omitted):

  Brevard County has over 300 part-time workers, many of whom are in the library and parks systems.
  
  While officials don't necessarily want to reduce hours for those employees, they'll be forced to unless the county wants to pay for full-time health benefits.

Librarians had been ordered by the American Library Association [ALA] to push ObamaCare, that is until it cut back on the severity of its message to make it appear optional after librarian push back, as only I reported, and the self-arrogated censorship police voluntarily agreed to suppress President Obama's speech to #ALA2013 and the video has not yet been made available:

• "Librarians Refuse ALA Obamacare Push; Wanted: Video of President Obama Speech at ALA Conference; Lenny Kravitz's Message for Librarians," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 5 July 2013.

ObamaCare is a larger invasion of privacy than the National Security Agency [NSA] scandal:

• "Obamacare Data Hub a 'Honey Pot' for ID Thieves, Warn Critics," by Paul Bedard, The Washington Examiner, 22 July 2013.

• "Obamacare's Branch of the NSA; Community Organizers Will Use a Federal Data Hub to Sign Up People for Subsidies — and Even Ballots," by John Fund, National Review Online, 22 July 2013.
• "The NSA Programs and the Federal Data Hub," by Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review Online, 22 July 2013.

Although ObamaCare is a worse invader of privacy than the NSA, ALA is exhorting people to oppose NSA on privacy grounds:

• "Ask Your Representative to Vote YES on Amash Amendment," by Action Alert, American Library Association, 23 July 2013:

  On Wednesday, July 24, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Defense Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2397).
  
  Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has introduced an amendment to the bill that would stop funding for the NSA's warrantless surveillance programs.
  
  Please ask your Representative to vote YES on the Amash amendment.  This amendment is a strong vote against the NSA's warrantless surveillance programs and bulk metadata collection.
  
  Click "Call Now" for calling information and talking points.

• "Act Now: Support the Amash Amendment to Stop Funding NSA Surveillance," by Jazzy Wright, American Library Association, 23 July 2013.
• "Act Now: Support the Amash Amendment to Stop Funding NSA Surveillance," by Choose Privacy Week, American Library Association, 23 July 2013.   [In full disclosure, Choose Privacy Week has a single major donor who paid for and enabled the work the ALA does to give the impression ALA cares about privacy while promoting Open Society Institute messages the public would not otherwise accept.  That person is George Soros.  See "Know the ALA" for details.  The Choose Privacy Week site is basically a wholly owned subsidiary of the Open Society Institute, though it is not promoted as such.]
• "FTRF, ALA Join Efforts to Protect Privacy and Increase Transparency Around Surveillance," by American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, OIF Blog, 18 July 2013.

As to Brevard County, its library already bowed down to the ALA's demand to allow pornography into its public libraries:

• "NCAC Pushes Porn on Libraries; Fifty Shades of Grey Propaganda: Brevard Buckles, Harford Holds," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 13 June 2012.

Now it is bowing to the ALA again, this time on ObamaCare:

• "Local Libraries To Help Feds in ObamaCare Outreach," by Charles Parker, Brevard Times, 4 July 2013.

So librarian hours are being shrunk by ObamaCare, the so-named Affordable Care Act.  Not for Brevard County librarians it's not affordable.  They supported ALA's porn push and more recently ALA's ObamaCare push, and now they may lose work and medical benefits as a direct result.  Sad to say, but what goes around comes around.

URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/07/ObamaCareHurtsLibrarians.html

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Public Libraries: Their Potential to Improve Sex Education, by Kristin Davis, Guest Writer

Public Libraries: Their Potential to Improve Sex Education

by

Kristin Davis
Teen and Women's Health Care Advocate

16 November 2010

Unfortunately, with public schools no longer a source of unbiased, true information regarding teen sexuality, it rests on other institutions to educate teens about the dangers of irresponsible sexuality.  As purveyors of unbiased information, the public library system should fulfill its obligation as an institution of public service and offer teens and young adults the opportunity to learn about the dangers of irresponsible sex.  Particularly for young women, the risks associated with these unhealthy decisions run high, making it particularly imperative libraries fulfill their role in the facilitation of learning.  Few other topics carry such substantial consequences, making the open discussion of reckless behavior particularly important.

This past March, President Obama renewed the $50 million per year funding for abstinence-focused education over the next five years.  Based on this legislation, programs receiving funding must "teach that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems," according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

In addition to this incomplete curriculum, some critics feel this renewal of funding is unwarranted, pointing out that no conclusive results showing the education’s value have been found.  While abstinence is indeed the best method of avoiding unwanted sexual consequences, it remains unrealistic to believe all teens will choose to refrain from sex, especially with the brazen attitude regarding sexuality today and the hormonal surge that accompanies adolescence.  With the continued failure of schools to present this vital information, it then rests upon another public institution, libraries, to effectively educate teens with unbiased information.

Even if teens do find the unbiased information regarding responsible sexuality and contraceptive use, a serious lack of information about their effectiveness and safety remains.  In particular, oral contraceptives present a danger to young women.  While tempting to trust the heavy marketing manufacturers produce, these products often mislead young adults into believing they are safeguarded against sexually transmitted disease as well.  While pregnancy rates for unmarried young women in this country are seeing a welcome decline, sexually transmitted disease rates continue to grow.  Frighteningly, these drugs might actually be a contributing factor to this trend as teens protected from pregnancy are emboldened to have unprotected sex.

However, manufacturers of these contraceptives also fail to provide real information regarding their products.  Indeed, they actually contribute to the rampant misconceptions surrounding their products, regularly failing to point out important details regarding safety.  One oral contraceptive producer, Bayer HealthCare, was cited by the FDA for its misleading television advertisements.  Because Bayer HealthCare labeled its product a total quality-of-life aid, the FDA found it advertisements further misled teens with unproven claims.  Furthermore, Bayer was cited for substandard conditions in a plant in which its ingredients were manufactured.  However, the drug company's annual multi-million dollar advertising campaigns continue to overshadow these revelations and make its drugs the most popular form of contraception on the market for young women today.

Although Bayer HealthCare's lack of corporate integrity is disturbing, the severe physical consequence of these drugs is even more striking.  Oral contraceptives are hormone-altering pills and can actually lead to permanent side effects, like the possibility of infertility.  Originally introduced in the 1960's, evidence today links the growing use of these drugs with the rise of cancer seen in U.S. women.  Although easily dismissed by their harmless appearance, these drugs literally upset numerous significant aspects of women's physiology.

In fact, the growing number of complaints against oral contraceptives, exemplified by the common Yaz lawsuit seen in many courts today, indicates that the short-term safety of such birth control options is far from certain.  Users of this particular oral contraceptive have seen serious, and sometimes fatal, side effects including heart attack, stroke, blood clots, pulmonary embolisms and gallbladder disease.  However, because schools refuse to recognize anything but abstinence as a legitimate lifestyle and companies remain unwilling to risk their profits, these facts are rarely discussed with teens.

Because few establishments address these important issues, the public library system should embrace this opportunity to inform young adults of this danger.  Indeed, the American Library Association (ALA) already possesses a division dedicated to educating teens, called the Young Adult Library Services Association.  This group regularly supports events tailored to address specific concerns of young adults, including topics like social networking, cell phone use and podcasts.  Because this division within the ALA has an established history educating teens, including this vital topic of teen sexual health concerns can be accomplished easily and effectively.  Few issues today carry as much magnitude as teen sexuality, undeniably making this topic deserving of the ALA's attention.

With so many sources of inaccuracy and misinformation regarding safe sexuality and contraception, our country needs an institution not influenced by government dollars or profit to give them real facts regarding healthy sexuality.  Fortunately, the ALA's purpose is to facilitate learning, help young adults reach their full potential and better their respective communities, with which responsible sex education does indeed coincide.  The ALA's governing and policy manual even addresses sexual education for youths, stating that the organization possesses the right to present "comprehensive, sex-related education, materials, programs, and referral services of the highest quality."  With those policies already in place, the ALA needs to decide whether it will stand aside as these dangerous trends regarding reckless teen sexuality continue or utilize its role as a respected institution and work to influence this country in a positive way.

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NOTE FROM SAFELIBRARIES:

Libraries can be safe libraries when they provide access to information that will help keep people safe.  Access to sexual health education is an important public library service.  Therefore, SafeLibraries has presented the above excellent guest blog post by Kristin Davis.  She is an aspiring freelance writer and a Teen and Women's Health Care Advocate.  She is passionate about these issues and the need to spread the word to educate others.  SafeLibraries is happy to bring you this guest post by Kristin Davis who is solely responsible for the content therein.  All graphics were obtained and inserted by SafeLibraries.  All guest bloggers are welcome.  By the way, modern Internet filters allow sexual health information.

© 2010 Kristin Davis; published by SafeLibraries with permission.

KRISTIN DAVIS WILL BE HAPPY TO RESPOND TO YOUR QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!!  Enjoy!

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