State Media Lies about the Library, Part 1
Springfield News-Leader is famous for writing fiction. So, to help correct their narrative, I'm giving context to their misinformation about what happened at the Christian County Library Board.
The Truth over Fiction
Marta Mieze from the Springfield News-Leader wrote an article on Sept. 4th about the Christian County Library Board of Trustees’ last meeting. It’s full of misleading or outright false information. Her sources have given her incorrect information, and she only spoke with the most progressive members of the community about the Board (outside of Lynn Morris, who is the Presiding Commissioner of Christian County.)
So, let’s balance it out and try to speak to the truth of what is happening in Christian County Libraries.
I underlined everything that was an issue in the first screenshot. When I realized that I would have to do that for every sentence throughout her article, I decided not to do that and address the claims.
Appointments rather than Nepotism
Yes, the County Commissioners did follow the legal mandates they had in place to appoint the Library Board. This is their legal responsibility. Previously, the county commissioners allowed the library staff and trustees to vet and recommend candidates for the board.
No taxing entity should be asking its best friends to be the people to sign their checks and make sure that anything they want is rubber-stamped. A Library is a taxing entity like a School, a Health Board, or an Ambulance District. The current Commissioners corrected previous failures by previous Commissioners to bring in line a $4 million entity.
Labeling Books
The Labeling Issue is a little funny. The Liberal board members brought it up and asked that the categories be “LGBT” books. If you don’t believe me, watch the video here.
Janis Hagen is the one who proposes, and when the conservative board members suggest Critical Race Theory or Sexually Exploitive Material in the Children’s section only, it is finally decided that LGBT labels are best. And the Liberal Members of the board, Janis Hagen and Allyson Tuckness, vote for it. It’s almost a setup.
As someone who has been doing this for a year, I don’t think the problem is being gay or lesbian in general. I think the problem is minors being able to access Sexually Exploitive Material or Critical Race Theory (which teaches racism.) Unfortunately, much of this material is found in a majority of LGBT books, which have been captured by radical Gender and Progressive Marxists in Publishing and the American Library Association.
Here is a photo of books at Christian County Library. They do already label books. Do you see the Christian Cross? They label Christian books, but they do not label Muslim or Jewish books. They also label fantasy and horror books.
What does this mean? They can label books. They can use the staffing resources. I worked as a cataloger. It’s not that hard. Librarians often have a lot of downtime. I worked in two different libraries over five years. There is always time to pull books and work on them.
The Scary Bible
Let’s talk about the Bible. The Bible has been a founding document for our faith and our nation. The Bible was quoted over 30% by our Founding Fathers when they wrote the documents and letters that would make up our Nation’s intellectual heart.
Janis Hagen, one of the liberal board members, argued with a public commenter that the Bible had almost no effect on the founding documents, demonstrating Hagen is not qualified to speak on issues of labeling books nor in matters of what our nation is supposed to look like either. She probably shouldn’t be speaking on how our country should be governed.
White Christian Nationalists
On the issue of Public Stigmatizing, there is a public commentator who stands up and speaks constantly about her triumphs and then turns to face the crowd and calls them Christians and Whites and Nationalists as if they were slurs and insults. The News-Leader ignores this behavior but is happy to point out there are Christians there reading the Bible.
For my part, I read Isaiah 26. I usually read passages from the books that are offensive, or I talk about the library's finances. Sometimes, I talk about the librarians being one step removed from being groomers. I felt led by the Holy Spirit. I rely on God to lead me.
Violating Sunshine Laws
Last, we would need to talk about the board seeking counsel. The Library’s lawyer is an advocate for the American Library Association. Harry Styron doesn’t work for the Christian County citizens. He gives legal advice for the ALA.
In June, they met with their lawyer in a questionable closed session that may have violated Sunshine Laws [they have a history of violating Sunshine laws and requests]. Because there was concern they didn’t have legal justification for it, they shared the lawyer’s opinions in the open session in August. His opinions weren’t reasonable. There are dozens of other cases siding against Libraries and many libraries who do label books, for example, including Christian County Library.
CCL had their hands slapped. The lawyer’s views are not legally binding. He’s just saying what the ALA wants him to say. The News-Leader won’t tell you that.
Application and Appointment Process
I’ve talked to the board members and the commissioners who have completed the application process. Each commissioner interviews them separately. They have nine or ten questions, each like a job interview. Each candidate receives the same questions. The point of the interview is to make sure each applicant is qualified.
The last applicants were John Garrity and Haylee Anderson. I was at the Board meeting when the decision was made for their appointment. Executive Director Renee Brumett was there also.
Hosea Bilyeu voted for Ms. Anderson. Bradley Jackson and Lynn Morris voted for John Garrity. Everyone complimented Ms. Anderson and spoke highly of her qualifications. Hosea, to be seen as working with his other commissioners, changed his official vote to John Garrity.
John Garrity is not a pastor. He is a Christian and has worked in ministry areas. His qualifications for his appointment were because he has worked in IT Security with Fortune 500 companies and is over-qualified for this position.