Opinion: Propaganda Packet
Edited to add on 2/1/2025: I made an error originally that I need to correct. I don’t believe The Infinite Moment of Us was lost, as I originally stated. However, circulation data for this book shows that it wasn’t checked out for 2 years prior to the Reconsideration which was filed. As for the statement in the packet that the book was showing as missing from PINES, sometimes books are “pulled” and not shown on PINES to the public although they are still at the library, but not available. The last I checked though, this title has been shelved in the adult section. I apologize for my error.
A couple weeks ago, I was sent a packet which was handed out at the Townhall meeting conducted by Commissioners Couch and Carraway on December 12, 2024. The handout was titled “Why the need for age-appropriate guidelines at the Columbia County Libraries? A quick glance.” It was the holidays and I really didn’t have time to address it then. I thought about not addressing it at all but the misinformation included in this packet bothers me. It’s full of shock, awe and lies. I guess I should come to expect it from the Censorship Brigade, but it still pisses me off.
One theme amongst the Reconsideration forms that we see as well as this propaganda packet is the use of selected sections/pictures of books in order to facilitate a strong emotional reaction from people who have never read the books in their entirety. This is often many people’s first introduction to these books. We’ve seen this across the nation and Columbia County is no different. I found it intriguing how many individuals (I think it was 2 or 3) that read the legal definition of obscenity while speaking out at the Regional meeting on December 10th in support of the guidelines. They kept stating the phrase “The material taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value…” Do they understand that part, “taken as a whole”? I kept having a Princess Bride Moment:
When the books are taken as a whole, they are rarely removed from libraries or moved to the adult section. It’s almost like this entire national campaign to attack literature falls apart when people actually read the books. Lo and behold - it’s not pornography!
Back to the propaganda packet, right from the first page, there’s a lie. Gender Queer is often targeted by right-wing conservatives. I could get into the context of the illustrations that are always highlighted by these folks, but for our discussion today, let’s just keep it simple. It states “Shelved in CCL (Evans) Young Adult section (ages 12-18) as of August 30, 2024. Under new age-appropriate guidelines, has been relocated to Graphic Novels.” This book was not shelved in the YA section of the Columbia County Library. It was always shelved in Graphic Novels. The age-appropriate guidelines had nothing to do with the shelving location of this book. Stating that it was in the YA Section as of 8/30/2024 is just a bold lie.
The next 2 books the packet discusses are two YA novels by Elena K. Arnold - What Girls Are Made Of and Red Hood. The authors of this propaganda packet actually mixed up the excerpts. The excerpt for Red Hood is under What Girls Are Made Of and vice versa. They literally just copy and pasted the excerpts from BookLooks so it’s pretty sloppy to paste them under the wrong book. It illustrates that this was all just for shock value though. They knew that their audience wouldn’t dig very deep into it and certainly have never read the books. Neither of these titles contain LGBTQ+ content though, which runs counter to all of the books that have been challenged at the Columbia County Libraries. Why would Moms For Liberty/ BookLooks target these books then? If you click on the links above, you’ll see that both books deal with ideas around feminism. For Red Hood, the School Library Journal states in their starred review, “It’s unsettling how seamlessly Arnold incorporates dark fantasy elements of beastly wolves and cunning hunters into her all-too-realistic tale. A fantastic novel in the #MeToo era, empowering women to share their stories by reaching out, speaking up, and demanding change.” Oh, it all makes sense now. We wouldn’t want teenage girls to come forward with their real life #MeToo stories, would we now.
Another book mentioned is The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle. The packet claims: “Shelved in the CCL (Evans) Young Adult Section (ages 12-18) as of August 30, 2024. Under new guidelines, has been relocated to the Adult section. However, in a PINES search for GCHRL (including Columbia County Libraries) on 12/9/24 does not show this title in the system?” What’s really interesting about this is that Lindsey Brantley (Regional and County Library board member who voted in favor of the guidelines) actually filled out a Reconsideration Form for this book in August 2024, but Columbia County’s copy of the book had not been checked out since 2022. Sometimes, books get pulled into the back and are not visible on PINES to the public, which may be the case here. Regardless, I doubt there’s some secret librarian plot to hide the book. Why did Lindsey target this specific book? I have no idea why. There are other books in the YA room where the teenagers have sex, so it seems strange to pick this one title that’s been missing for 2 years. Maybe it was discussed in some online group or something. Her Reconsideration, just like the excerpts included in the packet, are all copy and pasted from BookLooks. It really highlights that you don’t have to read a book to challenge a book anymore.
The next book is Tell Me: What Children Really Want to Know about Bodies, Sex, and Emotions by Katherine von der Gathen. This is a sex-ed book written by a German sexual education expert (translated to English) that answers questions written anonymously by real 9 and 10 year old kids. (Yes, it also contains information about LGBTQ although that was not highlighted during the Reconsideration process.) The drawings are meant to be funny, while also giving factual information. The packet is correct that this was located in the Juvenile section of the Columbia County Library (in Evans). Of course, the packet authors highlight the drawings of penises and vaginas to freak out over. The disinformation comes first in the timeline of events. It states that the patron completed a request for reconsideration in April 2024. That is incorrect. The patron filled out the form in early January, along with 3 other individuals that she sent pictures to. The Library Board was changing the Reconsideration Process during this time, so the patron was not informed until May 2024 of the decision to keep the book in the Juvenile section by library staff. In June 2024, the patron appealed the decision. It states that the patron “gave testimony of her daughter coming upon this book in the library and bringing it to her.” I take issue with the use of the word “testimony” here. It implies that the patron gave a statement under oath, which is not the case. In fact, many of the patron’s statements regarding mandatory reporting and grooming [sic], were questionable at best. There is also some question as to if her child was actually in attendance at the library when the book was pulled off the shelf, based on a comment by library staff that was included in the review packet. However, apparently showing copies of a handful of illustrated pictures of genitals in a sex education book that is over 100 pages long created enough outrage to have its intended effect. The packet further states that in July, the “Commissioners made a decision to temporarily place all children’s/juvenile Books about body/sex into the adult section.” That’s not true. The librarians moved all of the human body section at that time (not temporarily) because of the pressure to move this one book. If they moved this book, they had to move the whole section. Anyway, I’m so glad we have saved the children from knowing that penises come in different sizes, appropriate terminology for the different parts of the human body and other various questions kids might have. The faux outrage over this particular book was on full display during the December 10 Regional meeting. The Columbia County Republican Party had a full meltdown over this book. Contrary to their opinion, I think the book has good information in it. I wouldn’t necessarily show my kid the whole thing at 8 years old but I also wouldn’t have a “let me speak to the manager” moment if my child happened to read it on their own. Considering my name, that’s saying something. LOL
Lastly, 3 different books are just listed with charts which detail the number of curse/derogatory words in the book. There’s no context, no length of the book or any other information. One of the books is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which has won a huge number of awards and covers issues of race and police violence. Since the charts are from BookLooks, it’s just some random lady in South Florida telling you how many times these books have the “f” word. I really have to laugh at the absurdity of quibbling over how many times a book in the Teen/YA Room has curse words. Have any of these folks been around teenagers? Oh, let me guess, the board’s perfect angelic kids/grandkids “don’t use that language.” Kids these days are exposed to just as much or more profanity walking through Walmart, listening to adults in a road-rage incident on Washington Road, or just walking the halls of a public middle school. I think there’s a shortage of fake pearls in Columbia County from all the pearl-clutching.
At the end of the day, putting out this erroneous information is all they have. They have to try and convince everyone in the community now of how necessary this is because hiding children’s and teen’s books in the adult section that “conservatives” don’t like is not a popular move. This is why the Columbia County Commissioners first tried to pass this quietly. Make no mistake though, it is curating the content of the public library to reflect one group’s political and cultural worldview. The Columbia County Republicans were quite happy after the vote on December 10 because they felt like they won. They laughed, cheered, gave eachother high-fives because they “owned the libs!” Nobody won that day though. We all lost - even if they don’t know it yet.