Remove library books harmful for children

To the Editor: Children’s books are being published that contain reading material that is harmful to children. It is difficult to politely describe the content of these books, so I will give this example. One of my friends purchased an ad in a local newspaper to make citizens aware of the nature of these books. The ad featured a copy of a page from one of these books. The newspaper insisted on blacking out much of the content of the copied page, because it was too offensive to publish.

Public libraries are meant to be one of the safe places where people of all ages, backgrounds, economic classes, races, genders, and ideologies can gather to quietly go about their business, enjoyment, and research. It is the epitome of community, where people of all different ages and backgrounds can come to follow their own interests without fear or harassment. Parents should be confident that they can take, or send, their minor children to the library without fear of exposing them to reading material that is harmful to children. However, libraries, like fire and guns, can be used for good or for evil depending on the intent of the people who control them.

There are people in our community, portraying themselves as gallant defenders of public libraries, who insist that public libraries must expose minors to reading material that is harmful to children in the name of the right to free speech, diversity, democracy, freedom, and denying the poorer segments of society the right to advance themselves through access to free public institutions. They portray those who wish to protect impressionable young children as “extremists”, and falsely accuse them of book banning. They oppose moving these books from the children’s section to the an adults-only section. They even oppose placing a warning label on these books, which are designed to appear as harmless children’s books, to make parents aware of the harmful content.

When conservative local representatives attempt to send a message to the recalcitrant library board by slightly reducing their budget, they accuse the officials of “library defunding.” However, they have no problem with threatening the libraries with expensive litigation, if the libraries do not expose children to reading materials that are harmful to minors.

Wisconsin statute 948.11 makes it a felony to expose minors to reading materials that are harmful to children. When the Wisconsin state legislature created this statute, it exempted public libraries from the law to protect libraries from expensive litigation. However, some people in our community are now threatening libraries with a lawsuit, if they choose not to offer materials harmful to children to minors. Let me emphasize this remarkable point. Public libraries cannot be punished for breaking this law, but they can be punished for obeying this law.

Please let me emphasize this point. I am not seeking to ban these books. I support the rights of adults who desire to read these books, as long as the do not violate Wisconsin law by giving them to children.

I am politely insisting that the Marathon County Public Library take appropriate and effective measures to protect innocent young children from exposure to these books. If you agree with me, please make your county board supervisor aware of your opinion. Bruce Bohr Marathon