Regarding the Wednesday article, “Rating system urged at libraries”: Public libraries are concrete proof that the First Amendment is more than words. Currently, the clientele demographic demands and gets more romantic fiction than history and science, with few funds and minimal library staffing. To rate all these books would cost many more tax dollars to pay whoever to decide under what criteria each book is rated. Paying for that would both increase property taxes and user fees, cutting off a source of education and literacy for the people who could use it the most.
Once the books were rated, the theocratic right would then ask why they must pay tax for what they see as pornography and campaign to remove it from the shelves. Ultimately there would be only private libraries, as when this nation was founded, costing thousands in subscription fees yearly, and eventually those would also be subject to inquisition for harboring unsuitable items.
Should one of those private libraries keep a shelf of reclassified historically public domain books on weapons of mass destruction, would the Patriot Act have to be amended to require government access to who reads the books at your home? If classical Greek and Waterhouse nudes are removed from the art shelves, are art galleries next for theocratic cleansing?
Soothing Ms. Martin’s sensibilities sends us back to a dark age of ignorant masses, led by theocrats, who historically begin to turn on each other in merciless conflict. If you wish your children to inherit the splendid civilizations of culture and manners as now typified by Africa and the Mideast, support her and the American Family Association. If you value American ideals like reason, democracy and freedom, support your library.
Jon Coulter
Edmonds
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