Who Will Fight For Intellectual Freedom Now?

(Read DocHoc's latest commentary, "Say 'no' to Oklahoma theocracy" in OKC's most provocative publication, the Oklahoma Gazette.)

Library Commission Supports Religious Zealot

Local library officials can spin it how they want but their recent action to create special parenting sections for certain targeted children’s books violates the spirit of intellectual freedom.

In a stark act of anti-intellectualism, the Oklahoma County Metropolitan Library Commission voted Thursday to reshelf so-called “controversial” children’s books so, well, so children cannot find them and read them

This all started last year when State Rep. Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City) threatened to pull funding to our local library system if the libraries did not reshelf children’s books with non-sexual, age-appropriate gay themes. These books are King & King, Daddy's Roommate, The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans and Heather Has Two Mommies. Supposedly the local religious zealot was acting, at least partially, on a patron’s complaint.

The commission then decided, perhaps fearing a lawsuit if they just targeted the gay-themed book, to reshelf not just those books but even more children books dealing with the realities of life, such as domestic abuse and alcoholism. These new parenting sections will be created in all of the system’s seventeen libraries. The realistic books will be placed on high shelves out of the reach of children.

Essentially, the commission wants to ensure that our children here do NOT have an understanding of the world around them. Their philosophy must be that if we keep our kids stupid and narrow-minded, they will be successful and happy. I guess we have to keep them that way if we want them to stay here.

The library formerly had more than adequate controls over allowing children access to library material. Parents could easily choose what they wanted their children to read. And, oh yeah, the Oklahoma religious freaks who want to dictate all the laws and rules in our state could also actually go to the library with their children, but, hey, that would probably be asking too much of them.

This action was not a compromise as some members of the commission tried to spin it in local news accounts. It was a direct attack on intellectualism, open-mindedness, and free thinking. It was a complete capitulation to the whims of a religious zealot on a personal crusade to generate hate against gay people.

Taking realistic, age-appropriate books away from children is immoral and anyone who somehow participated in this act without speaking up is just as responsible, just as immoral, as the religious zealot who initiated it.

Recently, longtime library director Lee Brawner passed away. A tireless champion for intellectual freedom, Brawner fought for the intellectual integrity of his libraries in a metropolitan area still held back by religious extremism and ignorance. I wonder what he would think about this decision? Who is fighting now for intellectual freedom in Oklahoma? Who at your local library cares now about intellectual freedom?

I am telling you, folks, theocracy looms here on the prairie. Do you think the fundies are going to call it “theocracy”? No, its name Thursday afternoon in Oklahoma City was “compromise.”

The Rich Person’s Stealing Bill of Rights (RIPSBOR)

“ . . . TABOR’s strict and rigid spending limits forced deep reductions to Colorado’s basic services, including public schools, colleges, roads, and health care, and kept the state from emerging from its budget crisis. TABOR’s negative effects led Coloradoans, on November 1st, 2005, to approve a statewide measure to suspend TABOR for five years.”—Alliance For Oklahoma’s Future

I am still perplexed that more state leaders have not come out against TABOR, the so-called Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights measure, which, if approved by voters, would decimate the Oklahoma economy and its educational systems.

Why it is particularly important state leaders speak up is because those who support TABOR (SQ 726) lie consistently about its impact in Colorado. Even many of those operatives who gathered signatures to place the measure on the ballot could not or would not tell the truth about TABOR. The petition drive was paid for by out-of-state money.

(I talked to one young woman who signed the petition and then later tried to withdraw it when she found out TABOR benefited rich people and would gut education. State officials told her she could NOT withdraw her signature.)

TABOR would constitutionally tie the state’s budget to a formula tied to population growth and the inflation rate. Any leftover money would have to be refunded to taxpayers. The richest among us would benefit the most, of course, and the rest of us would get underfunded schools, increased college tuition, skyrocketing health care costs, and dilapidated roads and bridges.

Colorado, the only state in the nation to adopt TABOR, had to rescind it recently because it had turned that state into, well, into a place like Oklahoma.

How can state leaders—Democrat or Republican—allow this measure to get through when Oklahoma struggles with some of the lowest educational funding rates in the entire nation?

It is disgusting that ultra-conservative, out-of-state elites have paid to get this measure on the ballot here to ensure rich people increase their wealth while the middle-class faces stagnant wages and increasing living costs.

As I have argued before, the state’s voters face huge decisions about the hypocritical, gubernatorial candidate Ernest Istook, TABOR, and religious encroachment into government through intelligent design and other bills this election year. If we “win” this soul-destroying trifecta, the state will suffer economically for years to come.

When did “family values” come to mean providing an underfunded education for children, making sure senior citizens cannot get health care, forcing college students to pay exorbitant college tuition, and making sure students do not learn established scientific methods.?

Check out the TABOR information on the Alliance For Oklahoma’s Future site.