Is the library safe for children anymore?

I used to feel safe bringing my grandchildren to the library, feeling like the library is an innocent educational environment for kids to explore books and toys and not worry about questionable material that’s not appropriate for them. Not anymore, once I saw the pornographic picture of two men having oral sex in the graphic manga novel easily accessible to my grandchildren.

The books in question look a lot like a comic book which is attractive to kids but the content is obscene and for adults only (at best). With this sexually explicit content easily accessible to small children, I do not feel the library is a safe place to let kids peruse unsupervised.

My grandchildren do not watch pornographic or rated R movies for a good reason, they are not appropriate for them, and their parents don’t allow them to watch them. Why the library is spending public taxpayer dollars on pornographic content targeted at kids is, in my opinion, questionable and warrants further examination.

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The question today is, what is the harm in keeping the pornographic adult content books out of reach of younger kids?

Sue Feeney, New Castle

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It’s time for a change

Our county commissioners are trying to intimidate the library board by threatening to replace them if they don’t acquiesce to the commissioner’s demands. The Garfield County Library Board upholds the American Library Association principles of intellectual freedom and resistance to efforts to censor library resources.

State law determines the choice of board members; the county has limited control over the library board — they cannot remove board members.

Please remember this incident next year when we vote on some of these commissioners. New, younger candidates will be on the ballot; it’s time for a change.

Udelle Stuckey, Carbondale

NO on Proposition HH

TABOR was put into law to limit government revenue, and thus, government spending. Under TABOR, any increase in revenue in excess of inflation and population growth must be refunded to taxpayers. Prop HH is a sneaky way around TABOR. If you liked your refund in 2023 of $1,500 on a joint Colorado return, then you had better vote against Prop HH. Those refunds will eventually go away or be substantially reduced.

In my opinion, this is just another way for the state to spend more of your money without actually raising taxes. If the Governor and the Colorado Legislature feel we need an increase in revenue to help schools or assist with housing, they should simply propose an increase in sales tax or Colorado income tax in order for taxpayers to determine how it will affect their taxes and standard of living. This highly complex ballot initiative lacks the transparency Colorado voters deserve. Vote no on Prop HH.

Bill Barnes, New Castle

We do not need book police, we need free will

If our county commissioners truly stand for the rule of law and the United States Constitution,  they must affirm the right of those expressing concern. And equally, they must stand behind the Library Board’s decision to let current policy stand, which keeps the material in question in their appropriate location, which is not in any location associated with young people’s literary material. 

There is no problem. There has never been a problem.  The alleged problem has been manufactured by a vocal minority driven by extremists, who have in fact admitted, in some cases, to moving material expressly meant to promote their agenda, whilst yelling, “See! Look at this.”

And furthermore claiming that showing the material in question to others outside of the library, violates statues, to the extent it becomes a criminal offense. 

I believe that behavior constitutes criminal intent and behavior, as they freely parade images to others, in library meetings, community gatherings, and to the commissioners in county meetings.

A book on a shelf is just that, a book on a shelf. We do not need book police, or book jail, where books are locked up, only to be accessed if you know the secret handshake.

Free will comes into play at every moment. A decision always rests with the individual. 

The correlation that said materials corrupt is without fact. Abhorrent behavior is more likely learned or taught through example, passed down through generations than by reading a book. 

Mark Rinehart, Silt

It’s time to focus on broader issues

Sorry, whichever way you cut it, the issue with the Japanese illustrations is not censorship because no one is asking (the books) be removed from the catalog. However, having purchased the volumes via the request of one adult is suspect. Seems someone is being played. The professional thing to do would be showing them how to utilize Prospector to request materials outside the system.

This being the case, I hereby request you purchase every book I ever had to request via Prospector, so that I cannot accuse the library of censoring the South American authors never on the shelves, nor in the library system, using the administration’s logic.

The bottom line here is the last three generations have been trained to march to the dogmas of their specific agenda rather than cooperate and compromise. This was accomplished by the privately funded uni-party to keep us warring over trivial matters while we don’t notice they are suppressing the whole of our rights elsewhere. They are keeping us divided and conquered with so little, I find it very sad and depressing how light and secure our shackles are.

We are in the heart of a fast declining empire, with a power structure stealing whatever it can, before it is all gone. It is long past time for these generations to grow up, look around at the broader issues before all at home starts to be remedied like it is presently in our international affairs: with unmitigated hubris and unprecedented violence.

Time to get along.

Before we can’t.

Dolores Way, Carbondale