FROM MIKE RAY
PRATTVILLE RESIDENT
Editor’s Note: We welcome letters to the editor on issues within Autauga or Elmore County. Email them to editorsarah@yahoo.com. Please include full name, town of residence and a phone number for verification.
Dear Editor,
I am writing about an August 22 letter to the Editor penned by Angie Hayden. I would find her over-dramatic depiction of the Prattville Public Library book controversy comical if it weren’t meant to deceive. Nobody is burning books, like Nazis, nor are they staging public tribunals, like Joseph McCarthy, at the Prattville Public Library. Her smoke and mirrors antics were written to deceive the public and to make villains out of heroes. Please allow me to clear some of the smoke so your readers may get an accurate picture of the issue facing the citizens of Prattville.
First of all, the citizens Ms. Hayden is trying to demonize are parents, grandparents, and former parents of children who patronize our public library. An organically formed coalition was created around a few parents who stumbled across some sexually explicit books targeting our youth. In spite of the many requests to relocate these offensive books to an area requiring parental permission, they remain where they can accidentally corrupt our minor children.
To give your readers an idea of how vulgar these books are that target our youth, readings from these books are banned at Prattville City Council meetings, the governmental body that appoints library board members and funds the facility. The contents of the books are so obscene they violate our obscenity laws regarding minor children. The only reason charges have not been filed is because of a loophole found in our laws exempting libraries. The LGBTQ community is taking full advantage of this defective law and using it to corrupt our children with their offensive and often sexually explicit books.
So here we are today with a library full of filth targeting minors. We have a library board that refuses to protect our minors from accidental exposure to the obscene and offensive books. Many of us feel a responsibility, as adults, to protect our minors from these books, in the absence of a state law that should. With our proposed solution of placing the books in a protected area, any parent can expose their own child to this material, if they are so inclined. However, that compromise is not good enough. Our parents want authority over whether their child is exposed to these books. The library board and the LGBTQ groups promoting these books want that authority for themselves. To me, that action by the board is suspicious and predatory towards minors. This behavior by the library should not and will not be tolerated by the responsible citizens of Prattville and Autauga County.
I hope my offering creates greater clarity regarding this issue. I thank you for allowing me to respond and for your excellent news outlet.
