LIBRARY NETWORK ELECTION: Concerns about some candidates

I am very concerned with the race for the Community Library Network trustees. Two of the candidates, Plass and Hanley, are in favor of removing books from the library. Removing books from the library is a nice way of saying banning books. In our society, people complain about too much government in our lives, yet, many are in favor of letting the library monitor the books their children read. You can’t have it both ways. It is the parents’ responsibility to monitor the books their children read not the librarians nor the library trustees.

Remember, the library doesn’t just do books. If we allow people to ban books, aren’t the DVDs, CDs, newspapers and magazines far behind? Are we willing to have Plass and Hanley come up with the guidelines of evaluating books and telling us how to think? Why should we be at the mercy of two people’s views.

When people say there are hundreds of books having “explicit accounts of pedophilia along with child drug & alcohol abuse” (from an ad on the front page of the May 3 Press). I want to see the list. Many times, people say hundreds when in reality it is only 20. Will Homer, Shakepeare, Tennessee Williams or Faulkner books/plays be removed from the library? Obviously, we have not learned from history because it seems McCarthyism (Joseph McCarthy) is repeating itself, instead of Communists it is books.

JUANA PERLEY

Coeur d’Alene