Here's what I wrote, and it applies everywhere, not just in NJ, and anyone may copy this without need for any attribution to me:
Greetings Lebanon Township Committee:
This is a notice of outside influence regarding the closing of Bunnvale Library. I, myself, do not take a position either way nor do I even know the circumstance/reasoning nor have I ever even heard of the library before.
This email is to advise that if you see a sudden bump in interest relating to the library, particularly with respect to the decision to close the library, particularly in opposition to the closing of the library, it is likely astroturfed by someone from outside your community who is American Library Association [ALA] affiliated and trained to pressure local boards and commissions into thinking the majority of the public wants the governmental body to decide what ALA in Chicago, IL, would decide but doesn't otherwise have the power to force such a decision.
Martha Hickson, a former school librarian at North Hunterdon-Voorhees High School, is the community organizing ringleader. She gets the bullying campaign up and running in multiple New Jersey communities, and now in yours. For example, she attended Roxbury NJ BOE meetings where she handed out placards for the large audience she attracted to wave with an ALA trademark, namely, "Free People Read Freely." As if children in schools have a First Amendment right to read what NJ 2C:34-3 proscribes or what the US Supreme Court in Board of Education v. Pico ruled they did not have a right to read.
Regarding Lebanon Township, on March 22 she sent out a message on social media (Bluesky), one of her primary means of community organizing, the following message, "Hunterdon NJ is an anti-library region on par w Florida. LGBTQ+ books have been attacked for 4 years. Now town fathers are closing Bunnvale Library, a vital resource for educational programs, access to books & a safe space for all ages. E-mail the Lebanon Twp Comm before 4/2 to save the library." She then adds a graphic saying, "The Library Staff had NO WARNING!!" and listing all your emails and phone numbers. She follows up with an additional post of hers providing just your emails. Indeed, that's where I got your email addresses and even learned of this issue in the first place when someone alerted me.
In a subsequent post dated today, March 23, she adds that she is hopeful the people she has already community organized in other of her campaigns will again spring into action, rent-a-mob style, "To be fair, though, a segment of the N Hunterdon community has risen up time and again to support libraries and push back against the anti-library MAGA crowd. Let's hope they show up for the Bunnvale Library."
I'll save you all the details about how Martha Hickson is so good at rabble rousing that ALA leaders publicly praise her and have adopted her work as their own, New Jersey passed ALA's Right to Read Act because of Martha Hickson, and she's now in a Sarah Jessica Parker film called, "The Librarians." Suffice to say she is one of ALA's top agitators, she lives in New Jersey, and she rabble rouses across the state.
Hence, if you see a sudden outpouring of interest in your public duties, and if that sudden interest vehemently opposes you, it is likely astroturfed, meaning fake grass roots, whipped up by a professional community organizer seeking to mislead communities into imposing the will of Chicago's American Library Association.
By the way, the BOE where she used to work did indeed adopt the will of ALA instead of NJ citizens seeking application of obscenity law 2C:34-3, so that likely violated school board ethics laws, so I filed an ethics complaint and it is pending. (I've now been called "intolerable" by Guy Citron for filing that ethics complaint. I say this because I bet he will get involved in your local matter as he is another one bullying BOEs and commissions statewide, spurred on by Martha Hickson.) Martha Hickson was able to get about 400 people to show at meetings versus two parents who opposed obscenity (as defined in NJ law) in the school library. The massive bullying effort worked. The kids retain access to obscenity in violation of NJ law and US Supreme Court precedent.
The point is some governmental bodies are indeed pressured so greatly that they fold to the braying mob. Don't be like them. Fortunately, you now know ahead of time that the community organization manipulation campaign for ALA has already started. Hopefully that knowledge will help you see through the miasma to ensure compliance with local law, common sense, and community standards, instead of being bullied into accepting what Chicago's ALA would have you do if it only had the power.
Notice too it's not only what ALA would have you do but it's also with the bullying method of name calling, like "the anti-library MAGA crowd." It's ad hominem argument, not honest debate. It's bullying. I don't know you but I bet you are not "anti-library" and are likely pro-library, as it were. As to "MAGA crowd," that's projection for her ALA crowd and it implies undue influence, also projection. As to MAGA, that's now proven to be the majority of the country. Most people now want to make America great again and stop giving social security benefits to people who are older than the USA itself. Martha Hickson opposes that. She doesn't realize yet that she's now in the minority, or maybe she does and wants us to live in the past because it suits her political goals. She doesn't realize people are done with the bullying tactics that she's employing, like she is now in Lebanon Township.
ALA itself has been greatly trimmed back by having its "book ban" hoax be exposed by the US Department of Education, a hoax it itself engendered in the first place with "long-term inoculation." There's no more need to be intimidated by ALA or any local acolytes, no matter how much outside pressure you receive.
So please make the decision that's best for Lebanon Township, not the one that's best for Chicago's ALA that's using bullying tactics and name calling via local community organizers to try to force its way.
Thank you and good luck. Should you wish me to provide primary sources for any statement I made, please let me know.
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