by Scott Buttram, publisher
Opinion
TRUSSVILLE — On Monday night we witnessed a pretty common occurrence in Trussville. Even if you were in the room, you may have missed it due to the circus surrounding an otherwise routine library board meeting.
You see, the Trussville Library Board meets monthly and has been doing so for decades. And decades and decades.
On Monday night they did what library boards have been doing since before most in Trussville were born – their job.
And they must be doing a pretty good job because the issue drawing crowds lately stemmed from a complaint about some of the books in the library. The first such complaint that anyone can recall since the Trussville Library opened in the 1930s.
Governor Kay Ivey, months ago, instructed public libraries in Alabama to put a process in place that allowed citizens to voice concerns over specific books and a process to review those books or risk losing state funding.
The Trussville library board had already complied with the Governor’s request before any of this became a local issue. To be clear, Ivey did not ask or require libraries to ban books.
In December, a Trussville resident provided a list of 41 books that she was concerned with. It’s basically the same list that has been circulating on the Internet for months. While library board policy says books for review should be submitted individually, the board accepted the full list and went to work reviewing all 41 titles.
Eleven of the books were already slated for removal for a very simple reason. No one was checking the books out. Any media outlet insinuating that the books were removed due to the complaint is intentionally misleading their audience.
Five of the books were left in their original places, seven books were moved to the adult department, and 18 books will be moved to a new mature teen content area within the adult section.
The citizen that raised concerns over the books was then notified of the board’s decision.
In February, she spoke at the library board meeting and expressed dissatisfaction with the board’s decision. She demanded all 41 books be removed from the library and she brought friends with her. Among them, political activists and preachers.
In fairness, not everyone concerned with the books were demanding a book ban. There were reasonable people within the group who were open to reasonable solutions.
On Monday, another organized group descended on the library board meeting. Despite the fact that they were fully aware that the decision had already been made and there was no book ban, the “read freely” group decided to show up and oppose a book ban that doesn’t exist.
Evidently, reading freely and reading comprehension are completely unrelated.
In fairness, not everyone who spoke on Monday was interested in political showboating. Comments from Maria Knowles, a longtime Trussville resident, were especially heartfelt, reasonable and supportive.
There are good people on both sides of the issue. Thoughtful people. Unfortunately, they’re too often drowned out by the political parroting crowd that always seem to insinuate themselves into every group or issue that arises.
There is nothing wrong with a citizen expressing concerns with certain books for any reason. It is not unreasonable for parents to expect books be placed in age appropriate areas. It is also not unreasonable to oppose removing books based on religious or political objections.
It’s been said that banning books in a public library is a slippery slope. It’s not. It’s a cliff. Fall off, there is no coming back.
I’ve seen most of the 41 books on the list. While the content isn’t my cup of tea, other responsible adults may view them differently. They have that right. That should be their decision, not mine.
Had the Trussville Library Board agreed to ban the books, what precedent would they have set? What would happen when the next list of books raising concerns includes the Bible, books written by Billy Graham or C.S. Lewis? Would precedence require that those books be removed if citizens complained, too?
Library board meetings should not be political battlegrounds. In fact, they should be apolitical.
While I will readily admit that there are some public libraries that placed themselves in the line of fire with bizarre programs and events, the Trussville Public Library did not.
I’m grateful to live in a town where people can express concerns, have disagreements, and move forward with workable solutions. I’m grateful for a volunteer library board and a library staff that do their jobs, thankfully, in anonymity most of the time.
Mostly, I’m grateful to live in a town where cooler heads prevail.