LIBRARIES: Give assurances that diverse voices are valued

I would like to know, now that Rachelle Ottosen and company have removed and repudiated DEI language on the CLN’s website, what actions they are then willing or intend to take to protect the civil rights of and ensure that the voices and perspectives of our patrons and citizens are valued, desired and respected, especially those who may typically be underrepresented or vulnerable.

Those who are 2SLGBTQ+, who are women, who are Black, who are Latine, who are Indigenous, who are Asian, who are Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, who are disabled, who are neurodivergent, who are homeless or in precarious housing situations, who are food insecure, who are low or no income, whose faith practices are other than Christian or of no religion at all — I would like assurances from our board of trustees that these voices and perspectives are valued, respected and desired at our public libraries (and vicariously through that, in all our public spaces and institutions). Or I wonder if indeed it really is only voices that conform to a white, proscriptively narrow and patriarchal Christianity that they value and desire and respect.

I also find it deeply interesting that Ms. Ottosen, chair of Plass’ team “surveillance cameras and keys and signatures on our notional adults-only restricted section of the library” also claims, in public comment elsewhere, that “We need to get rid of the Big Brother surveillance cameras that we already have, not add more.” So that’s weird, right?

JOSIAH MANNION

Coeur d’Alene