- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia House of Delegates debated the merits of removing protections for public librarians and school librarians from criminal prosecution in the off chance a minor encounters books and content some consider to be obscene.
My mother is a librarian past retirement age in Iowa. She’s the director and has been running the library for probably around 30 years. The state is working on killing library boards and giving all control to local government. It would be absolutely terrible for libraries. My mom won’t retire because she’s standing up for the library and can’t do the same in retirement, and she can’t find a replacement with the same passion to fight.
Republicans are doing everything in their power to hurt people, take away freedoms, and keep the population poorly educated. They are literally the worst thing for this country. I’d say pedophiles are worse, but they’re the same thing, so…
I’d encourage your mom to consider retiring and then running for local office.
We need the custodians of the public good to be in positions of authority. It’s scary to give up control you know for a long shot, but at the same time, if enough people make the leap and give us solid options in every jurisdiction, we might be able to get out ahead of the regressives’ next attack.
I think the library would die in the amount of time it would take to maybe get a local position. Further, she’s pushing 68 this year which imo is too old for something like that. Lastly, it’s a small Iowa town, and while it’s not as conservative as Western Iowa, she’s far too liberal to get mass support for a vote. That and her house is surrounded by family farm land that the city keeps trying to develop and she is fighting tool and nail against that. They wanted to build a massive horse arena right across the street some years ago, which would drastically lower her property value and qualify of life. The city keeps pushing forward trying to get things done and keeping her out of the loop like planning and land surveys for roads and shit. If I inherit some of that land when she passes, out of spite, I will ensure that the city never touches it because of how shady they’ve been. I’ll have it converted to protected prairie land before letting them ruin the area.