Writer’s Note: Yes, this piece has been reviewed. Yes, I am aware that it may not be the most journalistic piece because I use potty mouth words and point out someone’s lack of qualifications due to the choices they have made in the past… guess what… I DON’T CARE. I know what I’m talking about!
-Kimberly
Huntington Beach is under fire for promoting stupidity once again.
There comes a point where enough is enough. Sure, you have the right to have a say on how your government is run… but do you know how your government actually works? That’s the scary part. You may be voting away your rights and not even know it. Actually… THEY don’t even know that they are voting MY rights away.
As an educator, I am intelligent enough to decide what books the children in my care can read. I am not a public nor a private school teacher; I am a concierge educator whom parents know and trust with their children’s education and intellectual well-being.
Measure A seeks to repeal a City Council ordinance that created a 21-member panel to oversee children’s books in the public library—an unelected, unqualified review board given power over highly educated librarians with degrees such as Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS). Yes… We have a movement that says formal education isn’t everything. But when it comes to educating our children… YES… it is everything!
Measure B protects the library system from privatization, requiring voter approval before city leaders can outsource this essential public service. Actually… it doesn’t “protect” anyone or anything.
If you want to “protect” YOUR child… that’s YOUR right. I, however, don’t believe in raising a generation of children in a censored world. Go ahead and make the decisions for your child, but don’t tout signs with the words “PORN” in large all over the city and talk about protecting kids. Now we have kids asking their parents, “Mommy… what’s porn?” Good call on that, by the way… As I have said before, if you think a picture of a child showing his shoulders playing with a boat in the bathtub is porn… then maybe YOU’RE the one with the problem.
There are intelligent parents who want the best and brightest future for their children, and they know that censoring and “protecting” their child from literature, current events, history, and knowledge is NOT the best for their children. Do what you want with your kids, but leave the others alone. If the public library, with free books to educate children, no matter their racial or economic background, is too controversial for you… go buy your kids their own damn books. Be careful at Barnes and Noble, though, they might have those spicy romance novels for all you soccer moms out there… you know, the ones with about… the plumber and his “little buddy” helping the mom find her “pussy cat” while daddy’s at work?
Okay… let’s say the library respects the education and experience of our librarians, but you still think your child needs to be protected. I’m sorry… do YOU not know how to read? Clearly not… especially if you think Boats Afloat and Everyone Poops is pornographic.
Shame. If anyone needs this library, it’s you. If we’re going to be so quick to judge the intelligence of other people… I am NOT trusting a high-school dropout teen mom (not mentioning names) decide what’s best for the kids of Huntington Beach.
I leave you with the words of a 19th-century poet, writer, and literary critic (whom your child will know if you don’t ban their books)
“Those who burn books will in the end burn people.” -Heinrich Heine
19th century… he really called it, didn’t he?