ENDORSEMENT: Vote for Lippert

Michelle Lippert has been a professor, served on the Post Falls School Board and is a “lifelong supporter of public libraries.” She wants to restore parental rights, and access to books for all walks of life. Those facts alone make her more qualified to represent library patrons than the current trustees. Taking books out, and restricting which books are purchased based on someone’s determination of what is obscene is the definition of a ban.

The CLN has taken it upon themselves to tell parents which books are available to their children on the premise of “protecting” the children. The CLN has proposed discontinuing access to a library card for anyone under 18, discontinuing their ability to borrow books from other libraries and using electronic sources. It’s ironic that Mr. Plass is calling CIN the bullies when it’s the CLN dictating what the CIN is allowed to do, such as checking out books to minors. The CLN has told the CIN that unless they follow the same restrictions and bans imposed by the CLN, they are pulling out of the shared access policy in current use with the CIN.

Mr. Plass said fiction, “… has no academic, scientific or cultural value to minors …”  A person who feels that way about books has no business representing the library. A library’s purpose is intellectual freedom, to provide literature and resources to all walks of life freely with no political or religious agenda. Quoting Michelle Lippert, “Libraries are … essential hubs for learning, connection and innovation.”

GERI HAGLER

Coeur d’Alene