Xenophobia and Racism is Alive and Well in Baldknobber Country

Liberals continue to espouse a spirit of hatred and intolerance in our community. Are we ready to don hoods and burn crosses because our ideas are being challenged by outsiders?

For a much better article than mine, please go here to Gretchen Garrity’s coverage of Susan Wade’s lack of journalistic skills. For my coverage, continue reading.

The recent reporting by Susan Wade, Springfield Daily Citizen, and the following article by Chris Drew, KSMU Ozarks Public Radio, quoting her because she had the honor of being first, demonstrate the problems with telling a story without the facts.

Drew's article admits, "The Library Board has struggled to respond to almost two years of calls to label, restrict and/or remove certain materials."

So, if the lifelong Missouri resident board members had not solved that problem for two years, the Commissioners were tasked with appointing candidates who could.

Since County Commissioners are voted in by citizens, this is the most accurate reflection of what the majority of the citizens want. This is reflected in the Sunshine Requests I have seen. These Commissioners have the citizens' backing (they have been re-elected to serve more than once), and as Commissioners, they appoint candidates to do a job.

This is a system of checks and balances working correctly.

Worse than rushing the story before having all the facts, a review of Wade's reporting reveals multiple instances where claims were made without primary source verification, raising questions about journalistic standards and potential bias. I don't know if her editor shares her narrative that protecting children is bad.

Still, I can’t imagine any article getting published for a new organization without not only approval but whole-hearted agreement.

What Wade is telling us in her article is that Libraries having sexually explicit books for minors is good, and parents having the right to protect their children is what is evil.

Not only that, but Springfield Daily Citizen tacitly and explicitly agrees with her; otherwise, they wouldn’t write the story to make the Library Board Trustees appointed by the Christian County Commissioners look so “monstrous.”

They are outsiders. They want to ban books. They speak out against librarians and schools. They dare to question the authority of the system. They attend meetings. They are activists. They aren’t part of our community. They are radical Christians in the minority. They won’t respond to my emails.

In Wade’s article, which she published late Thursday evening (December 12th, 2024), she doesn’t cite a single source of information about Mary Hernandez de Carl’s actions at the Nixa School Board. Wade doesn’t quote her, nor has she gathered the details about how often Hernandez de Carl has spoken at the Nixa School Board. She gives her opinion and expects you to accept it as fact.

Hernandez de Carl, who I interviewed last April, indicated that she spoke once at the Nixa School Board (not multiple times) and she only once called to remove one particular book (Something Happened in Our Hometown) at a public school because the standards of decency and appropriateness are different for a library than they are for a school.

As Hernandez de Carl stated, “Now, I have never asked for books to banned at a public library because the community standards at a library are different from those of a school.”

For full disclosure, I have known Mrs. Hernandez de Carl for over a year now, and I have never heard her state a desire to ban books.

Something Happened in Our Hometown was an elementary book placed in a High School library aimed at stating white cops were racist and black men were always going to be victims.

Mrs. Hernandez de Carl grew up in a large city, comes from a family of immigrants, and is brown-skinned. She is an outsider who is usually celebrated by the Left.

She could claim all the accouterments and protections of modern race identity politics, but she’s more concerned with truth. This book defames police officers and creates a false and dangerous narrative that white men want to harm black men because they have the power to do so.

Removing a book from a school does not remove it from all public spaces. That is not a book ban so let’s discuss our terms and get something straight.

Book Ban (Defined)

Banning a book would prevent anyone, anywhere, from purchasing, owning, or obtaining a book from a public or private source. There are no degrees of book banning. Since the left likes to quote Fahrenheit 451 (though it doesn’t always appear as if they have read the book), let’s use this analogy.

It’s like burning down a home. You either burn it down or you do not. You cannot burn a home down by degrees. There are no nuances here.

Without putting words into Mrs. Hernandez de Carl’s or any Trustee’s mouth (unlike what Wade is attempting to do), I advocate for a sane look at books with sexually explicit material being removed from children’s access, and I feel others want the same sane common sense community standard which is based on this ethic—Children ought to be protected from harmful material and people which will corrupt their moral and spiritual development.

If I cannot give a child a Playboy magazine, then a librarian shouldn’t be able to either. A librarian doesn’t gain a special right to Freedom of Speech that I do not have simply because they are a librarian. It does not matter if the Playboy magazine has an article about how to save money in it and invest in your future, it’s still not appropriate for a child because of the sexually explicit material.

When Wade tries to dodge this moral issue (and when her publisher allows her to do so by pretending these books don’t exist, which I have documented extensively, such as this one), she ends up looking like a cheap magician on a stage attempting to fool a savvy audience. We see through the trick, Mrs. Wade. The book is still there. It hasn’t disappeared behind your magic wand or your clever words.

Missouri Law

Library Certification Requirement for the Protection of Minors

In Missouri Law, it is clear there are restrictions in how a library can develop its collection regarding the sexually explicit material which is available to children. Every library funded by Missouri taxpayers must create these policies and follow them or they are in violation of this law.

What many of us are arguing is that our library in Christian County is doing in the development of its collection is purposely violating these laws and ignoring them believing they will not be held to account. However, the community can hold them to account through the appointment of conservative Library Board Trustees who will follow the law and implement policies which comport with lawful practices. Ms. Wade may not know about these statutes as she has never referenced them in her articles, but ignorance of the law is no justification for breaking the law.

(A) The library has or will adopt a written, publicly accessible collection development policy addressing how selections are made in considering the appropriateness by age of any minor, as defined in 15 CSR 30-200.030;

(B) No funds received shall be used to purchase or acquire material that constitutes "child pornography," is "pornographic for minors," or is "obscene," as those terms are defined in section 573.010, RSMo;

If you want to claim these books are not obscene or pornographic for minors, you must take it up with the state law.

Out of Touch

Wade is out of touch with the community (and so is Springfield Daily Citizen).

Springfield Daily Citizen page in Response to article

How Does Ms. Wade Conduct Research

This is how Wade, the journalist, seeks out information. I have only been doing this for a year. Yet, I know better than to do make a post in a public forum.

This isn’t the first time Wade has used this tacky tactic to find out information concerning Christian County Library. The proper procedure would be to contact Renee Brumett, Executive Director, and ask for the new email, which will be provided to Hernandez de Carl in due time.

In an email to trustees, Susan Wade also wanted to know how long the trustees had lived in Christian County. I spoke with Mr. Garrity about the emails recieved by Mrs. Wade.

“Thank you, John. That is helpful. A couple other questions. How long have you lived in Christian County? Are you currently employed? If so, where and for how long? If retired, when did you retire?”

Mr. Garrity inquired why it was important how long he lived here.

She said, “If you don’t want to answer that, that’s okay.”

John replied, “Thanks. I prefer that.

She has pointed out in previous articles that Echo Schneider is from a different state. This is an attempt at casting Schneider and the other trustees as “other.” Wade wants to marginalize their efforts and is demonstrating Xenophobic writing and behavior.

It seems Wade is being fed information from an outside organization, which has links to the American Library Association, called U-Turn in Education. I have covered them here and here.

You can see Wade is being encouraged to contact U-Turn about her post concern Herndandez de Carl by someone who has spoken on behalf of U-Turn in the past (though I cannot confirm Ms. Coburn is a member, but is only associated with their known members.)

Xenophobic Liberals

The result is certain members of the community are starting to circle the Xenophobic wagons because of Wade’s articles along with U-Turn’s efforts. They call conservatives close-minded bigots, but bigotry belongs to the people who are willing to reject other people simply because they “ain’t from around these here parts.” It feels as if the Baldknobbers spirit is still alive and well in Christian County, and our liberals are keeping it going.

These comments, the reporting, and U-Turn’s efforts seem to show a coordinated effort to undermine the Library Board’s authority not because of their actions but because of who they are.

They might as well be saying Hernandez de Carl has brown skin, or Schneider is a woman, and these qualities disqualify them. What if they decide that their religious beliefs disqualify them?

They have intimated as much in some meetings, and the former library board president who is aligned with them called people like Hernandez de Carl a book-burning Nazi when she threw a tantrum and quit, creating the opening that allowed the commissioners to appoint Hernandez de Carl.

The liberals can’t complain that a seat is open on the board when it was created by their liberal heroine, Allyson Tuckness, quitting in a temper tantrum and insulting everyone for their religious beliefs. Here is a link to that video.

When people who knew the truth about Hernandez de Carl called Wade out for her carelessness, hearsay, and possible hidden racism, Wade made a passive-aggressive post on her Facebook page. She’s more than willing to troll and misrepresent the truth as a journalist.

Susan is also not upfront or transparent about her activism.

As a journalist, it it's important to disclose her persoanal activism when she is covering a story. However, Wade wants to pretend she is objective when she is engaged in participating with an activist group who makes false claims about book restrictions at public schools and libraries.

However, when confronted with facts, she hides behind mantras and digital flowers. Let’s hope none of those flowers have bees that carry the truth that stings.

Wade and the Springfield Daily Citizen rushed to publish without facts in the hope of being first so they could influence the conversation. My belief is they are hoping to affect any future legal court cases that may come against the County Commissioners or the Library Board of Trustees, but they aren’t telling the full story or the truth. They need to issue a redaction and an apology.

Here is the whole article from Wade.