CHARLESTON — The West Virginia House of Delegates debated the merits of removing protections for public librarians and school librarians from criminal prosecution in the off chance a minor encounters books and content some consider to be obscene.
My wife is a public library administrator. We are in Indiana, not West Virginia, but I could absolutely see the same thing happening here and I’m terrified. Between this, me being Jewish and having a queer daughter, I feel like my whole family is so fucked.
I am so sorry this is off topic. You’re not a woman? (I ask because you said wife and only specifying your daughter as part of the LGBTQA community)
Seriously was convinced you were a woman because everything I ever see you say is much more aligned with a woman’s perspective than I’m used to seeing on the internet.
That said I’m sorry you don’t feel secure and safe in your home state. I hope this backsliding ends soon
I live in Ohio, my husband is a librarian in a small-ish town. He’s had to start looking for jobs in Columbus and out-of-state, which sucks because he really loves his community and knows most of the patrons by name. It’s maddening watching people actively campaign and vote against things like library funding, then turn around and complain that programs are being cut and service quality is dropping…
It really is. My only hope is that the library board in this town really cares about the library and freedom of speech, so maybe they will help shield the employees. I hope your husband finds something that works for him and you. Good luck!
We can’t afford to. We also both have elderly mothers who are still living on their own but may not be for long. My mother is 82. Hers is in her late 70s and has lupus.
Effingham, Champaign/Urbana, and Bloomington/Normal are not that much further. I would personally pick blono as cost of living is cheaper with better job prospects than Champaign/Urbana. Effingham is going to be much more like Indiana.
Further enough that if there is an emergency, it would take way too long to get to our mothers. They’re already a 70-minute drive in the opposite direction.
My mother is a librarian past retirement age in Iowa. She’s the director and has been running the library for probably around 30 years. The state is working on killing library boards and giving all control to local government. It would be absolutely terrible for libraries. My mom won’t retire because she’s standing up for the library and can’t do the same in retirement, and she can’t find a replacement with the same passion to fight.
Republicans are doing everything in their power to hurt people, take away freedoms, and keep the population poorly educated. They are literally the worst thing for this country. I’d say pedophiles are worse, but they’re the same thing, so…
I'd encourage your mom to consider retiring and then running for local office.
We need the custodians of the public good to be in positions of authority. It's scary to give up control you know for a long shot, but at the same time, if enough people make the leap and give us solid options in every jurisdiction, we might be able to get out ahead of the regressives' next attack.
I think the library would die in the amount of time it would take to maybe get a local position. Further, she’s pushing 68 this year which imo is too old for something like that. Lastly, it’s a small Iowa town, and while it’s not as conservative as Western Iowa, she’s far too liberal to get mass support for a vote. That and her house is surrounded by family farm land that the city keeps trying to develop and she is fighting tool and nail against that. They wanted to build a massive horse arena right across the street some years ago, which would drastically lower her property value and qualify of life. The city keeps pushing forward trying to get things done and keeping her out of the loop like planning and land surveys for roads and shit. If I inherit some of that land when she passes, out of spite, I will ensure that the city never touches it because of how shady they’ve been. I’ll have it converted to protected prairie land before letting them ruin the area.
Entering the Cool Zone of history, as my nation’s state legislators start doing the kind of things that end up as footnotes in the “Decline of The Empire” chapter.
The US is going to need some kind of second reconstruction era and de-nazification once it gets out of this insanity. IF it ever gets out of this tailspin.
My halfway-optimistic view is that fascism is doomed to fail. It’s just too stupid not to, and the stupidity is core to the entire movement.
…but the half-way pessimistic part of me has to bring up that they’re going to do as much damage as they can on the way down. Hopefully that’s kept to a minimum.
Some part of every generation reacts with panic to changing culture, politics, media, etc.
It’s also why it’s fucking stupid to be conservative, because recorded human history is literally ten thousand years of conservatives panicking about some stupid shit and getting proven wrong.
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