The Land of Cheese and Fascism

A city council in West Bend, Wisconsin, has recently dismissed several library board members because they didn’t share the board’s “ideology” toward “[affirming] traditional heterosexual perspectives.”

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When we think of Wisconsin, we usually think of cheese. Unfortunately, we can also think of censorship and abuse by way of political power.

According to Lynn Andriani of Publishers Weekly:

Four members of a library board in West Bend, Wis., were dismissed last week for refusing to remove controversial books from the library’s young adult section—and yesterday, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Association of American Publishers and PEN American Center criticized the firings.

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The controversy began in February when two patrons complained that the library’s YA section included fiction and nonfiction books about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. The patrons accused the library of promoting “the overt indoctrination of the gay agenda in our community” and demanded that the library add books “affirming traditional heterosexual perspectives.” They also insisted that the library remove books from the YA section including Brent Hartinger’s Geography Club (HarperCollins), Stephan Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Esther Drill’s Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain and Life as a gURL (both Simon & Schuster).

The National Coalition Against Censorship and American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression sent the West Bend Common Council a letter to oppose the dismissals. The letter states:

According to newspaper reports, the Common Council voted not to approve the Mayor’s recommendation to reappoint volunteers Tom Fitz, Mary Reilly-Kliss, James Pouros and Alderman Nick Dobberstein to the Library Board because the majority of Council members disagreed with library board members’ viewpoints. According to The West Bend Daily News, Alderman Terry Vrana said he voted to remove four members of the Library Board because he “disagree[s] with them” and objects to “their ideology.” The role of a public library and its board is to serve the entire community and to evaluate books and other library materials on the basis of objective criteria. By removing half of the members of the library board, the Common Council is imposing its opinions on the rest of the community, threatening free speech in West Bend.

In addition, we understand that members of the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries, led by Ginny and Jim Maziarka, have objected to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Geography Club, and other young adult novels, as well as non-fiction books for teens on sexuality and sexual health, such as Deal with It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL because they are “pornography.” The group has also objected to a portion of the library’s website that recommends books about homosexuality that are written for young adults.

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None of the challenged books is legally obscene. To be obscene, material must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. The critical acclaim the books have received testifies to their educational value, and anybody who has read them is aware that they explore a range of important issues. The books include both educational guides to sex and sexuality written for a young adult audience and novels like The Perks of Being a Wallflower that address the serious issues that adolescents face, including friendship, teen pregnancy and suicide. Library Journal gave “high marks for comprehensiveness and attention to detail” to Deal with It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL. Its main message concerns “accepting diversity in bodies and lifestyles, taking responsibility, and finding help when you need it.” These books are plainly not obscene and are fully protected under the First Amendment.

Sadly, the First Amendment isn’t as important to many governmental bodies as it should be. Just a few months ago I opined on a public school district in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, which had a (still unnamed) book pulled from its school library after a parent complained about it. What struck me more than anything else were the comments made by the district’s school board members and superintendent. The board president remarked that the pulled book shouldn’t have been on the school library’s shelves because it didn’t support the town’s values. Even though it was reported that the book in question had received several awards, the president of Tamaqua School District’s school board, Larry A. Wittig, felt that what might be good nationally might not be good for his quaint little burned-out coal town. He was reported as saying: “The people delivering these books could be totally off the reservation.”

In the cases of both West Bend, Wisconsin, and Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, we can see that the town council and school board, respectively, have helped to show that their “reservation” is more like an insulated bubble in which they live, cut off from the rest of the world, the United States Constitution, and reality.

The truly sad irony of stories like these is this: They’ll most likely defend their censorship by telling themselves that they’re “protecting” their citizens from the evil influences from outside forces like pornography, homosexuality, Satanism, and communism. In so doing, they actually violate the First Amendment.

This is the same First Amendment that is part of the Bill of Rights. This is the same Bill of Rights that is part of our United States Constitution. This is the same United States Constitution to which we turn when we want to know if a law can stand or not.

They actually commit an un-American act in order to defend their “American” traditions.

So who’s the real enemy here?

References

Andriani, Lynn. “Free Speech Groups Criticize Dismissal of Wisconsin Library Board Members.” Publishers Weekly. 29 April 2009. <screenshot>

Cooper, Chase Edwards. “Sealed for Your Protection.” The American Philosophy Company. 17 Jan. 2009.

National Coalition Against Censorship, et al. Letter to West Bend Common Council. 28 Apr. 2009. <screenshot>

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