Hi Monica! Before I get to my comment, I don’t know if you remember me, but we used to converse mostly on your Telegram channel in 2021-22. I was re-listening to a podcast I did in April 2022 where I read an excellent article you’d written and it inspired me to find you again, so here I am, doing that.
Anyway, after reading this, first good on you and your organization for defending her.
Second, just as I used to do when reading your work in the past, I had to roll my eyes at your organization being called a right winger. How many right wings make a wrong…bird(?)! Ha ha.
Last, do you have any updates for readers about this situation? Let us know if you do!
Very concerning that when we voice our thoughts in public and speak truth to power we now have to lawyer up. I wrote a petition: https://www.change.org/p/good-healthcare-workers-need-your-help and letter to my student paper: https://mainecampus.com/category/opinion/2022/10/letter-to-the-editor-by-samson-cournane/ For over a year now I've been legally threatened with a SLAPP lawsuit and my lawyer says that I'll most likely just have to wait for the 2-year statute of limitations to expire. I haven't done anything wrong but must wait 2 years to speak freely again. This experience has changed what I think about what freedoms we have.
I don't think libraries should be censored EXCEPT that adult-themed books, including those showing/advocating sexual acts, should not be in elementary or middle-school libraries. Porn is age-controlled, and dressing up porn to show younger kids doing sexual acts doesn't make it not-porn.
Now, for regular community libraries, I expect diversity. I no longer see this in my county library. For example, they refuse to buy or even interlibrary-loan (ILL) books that are critical of Biden, yet last I checked, they had over 100 books criticizing Trump, conservatives or Republicans. If I ask them to buy or ILL specific books getting into today's problems such as immigration, they refuse. They are buying up a lot of books written by obscure authors obviously because of the race of the authors--these are books with zero holds or checkouts and not of artistic merit of any sort; it's as if the library is procuring to a race checklist.
They hold their Pride events but I don't see anything regarding our local military or veterans.
I've always voted for every levy they've ever asked for over the years, but I absolutely refuse to vote for the next one and will likely go out in the community to work against passing it.
"diversity, inclusion and equity are far more complicated and textured than we are often led to believe"
That is very true. Immediate compensation is legitimate, but in a pattern that is neither punitive nor dogmatic. The French approach could be, let's cut thingz in half. Do you need to compensate racism with positive discrimination? Ok, but only half the available jobs should be concerned. The other half would be based solely on experience, etc... This should be sufficient to satisfies both sides and bring back some consensus, and most importanly, the LOVE for consensus, the NEED for consensus. This country enjoy too much fights.
Cathy Simpson was certainly right, but I hope the Florida's decision to ban books will be treated the same. We agree that bigotry as a whole must be fought back.
C🤣n🤪d🤡! They do not have freedom of speech in their constitution. Their Charter says the gov't can enforce "reasonable" limits censoring speech whatever that means. Regardless Cathy should fight back and it's good FAIR has her back! Great post Monica! Sabrinalabow.substack.com
I have to disagree with "These nuances have prompted well-meaning people to resort to the dangerous and inflammatory mischaracterizations." Those aren't well-meaning people, those are people smug and condescending in their self-righteousness and ones who enjoy the power to destroy other people and control what others are allowed to read. I would never suggest doing to them what they are inflicting, but if we don't find a way to insulate ourselves, our children and our institutions from these fascists controlling everything, we will be leaving an Orwellian future to the younger generations. I have a lot of respect for you and others who have the emotional and intellectual intelligence to deal with these fascists. Please tell Cathy Simpson I send her a salute.
I can't believe this librarian was fired simply because of one op ed. How silly are we that one opinion (uninformed and slanted at best) can scuttle someone's career?
Great rebuttal in the National Post, Monica. Thanks for taking on this fight. If we sacrifice intellectual and viewpoint diversity on the altar of political purity and self-righteousness, we might as well say goodbye to Western Civilization as we know it.
Minor correction: the library in question is in a small town in Ontario, Canada, not Ottawa. (Ottawa is another city in the province of Ontario. Also the Canadian capital.)
Hi Monica! Before I get to my comment, I don’t know if you remember me, but we used to converse mostly on your Telegram channel in 2021-22. I was re-listening to a podcast I did in April 2022 where I read an excellent article you’d written and it inspired me to find you again, so here I am, doing that.
Anyway, after reading this, first good on you and your organization for defending her.
Second, just as I used to do when reading your work in the past, I had to roll my eyes at your organization being called a right winger. How many right wings make a wrong…bird(?)! Ha ha.
Last, do you have any updates for readers about this situation? Let us know if you do!
Very concerning that when we voice our thoughts in public and speak truth to power we now have to lawyer up. I wrote a petition: https://www.change.org/p/good-healthcare-workers-need-your-help and letter to my student paper: https://mainecampus.com/category/opinion/2022/10/letter-to-the-editor-by-samson-cournane/ For over a year now I've been legally threatened with a SLAPP lawsuit and my lawyer says that I'll most likely just have to wait for the 2-year statute of limitations to expire. I haven't done anything wrong but must wait 2 years to speak freely again. This experience has changed what I think about what freedoms we have.
As a Canadian, truly appreciate the work you do. Truly moved by your views during your interview recently with Tara Henley. Keep fighting.
I don't think libraries should be censored EXCEPT that adult-themed books, including those showing/advocating sexual acts, should not be in elementary or middle-school libraries. Porn is age-controlled, and dressing up porn to show younger kids doing sexual acts doesn't make it not-porn.
Now, for regular community libraries, I expect diversity. I no longer see this in my county library. For example, they refuse to buy or even interlibrary-loan (ILL) books that are critical of Biden, yet last I checked, they had over 100 books criticizing Trump, conservatives or Republicans. If I ask them to buy or ILL specific books getting into today's problems such as immigration, they refuse. They are buying up a lot of books written by obscure authors obviously because of the race of the authors--these are books with zero holds or checkouts and not of artistic merit of any sort; it's as if the library is procuring to a race checklist.
They hold their Pride events but I don't see anything regarding our local military or veterans.
I've always voted for every levy they've ever asked for over the years, but I absolutely refuse to vote for the next one and will likely go out in the community to work against passing it.
"diversity, inclusion and equity are far more complicated and textured than we are often led to believe"
That is very true. Immediate compensation is legitimate, but in a pattern that is neither punitive nor dogmatic. The French approach could be, let's cut thingz in half. Do you need to compensate racism with positive discrimination? Ok, but only half the available jobs should be concerned. The other half would be based solely on experience, etc... This should be sufficient to satisfies both sides and bring back some consensus, and most importanly, the LOVE for consensus, the NEED for consensus. This country enjoy too much fights.
Cathy Simpson was certainly right, but I hope the Florida's decision to ban books will be treated the same. We agree that bigotry as a whole must be fought back.
C🤣n🤪d🤡! They do not have freedom of speech in their constitution. Their Charter says the gov't can enforce "reasonable" limits censoring speech whatever that means. Regardless Cathy should fight back and it's good FAIR has her back! Great post Monica! Sabrinalabow.substack.com
I have to disagree with "These nuances have prompted well-meaning people to resort to the dangerous and inflammatory mischaracterizations." Those aren't well-meaning people, those are people smug and condescending in their self-righteousness and ones who enjoy the power to destroy other people and control what others are allowed to read. I would never suggest doing to them what they are inflicting, but if we don't find a way to insulate ourselves, our children and our institutions from these fascists controlling everything, we will be leaving an Orwellian future to the younger generations. I have a lot of respect for you and others who have the emotional and intellectual intelligence to deal with these fascists. Please tell Cathy Simpson I send her a salute.
I can't believe this librarian was fired simply because of one op ed. How silly are we that one opinion (uninformed and slanted at best) can scuttle someone's career?
Great rebuttal in the National Post, Monica. Thanks for taking on this fight. If we sacrifice intellectual and viewpoint diversity on the altar of political purity and self-righteousness, we might as well say goodbye to Western Civilization as we know it.
Minor correction: the library in question is in a small town in Ontario, Canada, not Ottawa. (Ottawa is another city in the province of Ontario. Also the Canadian capital.)
Thank you for fighting the good fight!
During the early heights of speaker cancellation mania, the head of the Toronto public library also stood tall against the mob.
We should look into what makes Canadian librarians. They’re batting well above average compared to their academic peers.