Thursday, April 13, 2023

Apparently, threatening to close things down is the MAGAt version of taking their ball and going away...when they don't get their way.

Note: Llano County Texas is a small county northwest of Austin.


From NBC -

Texas county will keep library system open and comply with judge's order to put banned books back in circulation

small-town Texas library system threatened with extinction was spared Thursday after the Llano County commissioners said they would abide by a federal judge's order to restore the books they banned rather than shut the system down.

Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, who is the head of the county commission, made the announcement after county leaders heard from more than a dozen residents at an emergency meeting.

"The library will remain open while we try this in the courts, rather than through the news media," said Cunningham, who said the county has already spent more than $100,000 on legal costs and vowed to appeal the federal judge's decision.

Residents turned out in droves to protect their library system

Also from the NBC story -

"That's a victory," the Rev. Kevin Henderson of Sunrise Beach Federated Church declared. "That's a victory for free speech!"

[snip]

"These books are not pornographic," librarian Suzette Baker, who works at the Kingsland branch of the system, told the commissioners.

Jeff Scoggins paused from livestreaming the meeting to warn the commissioners that they will hear it from the voters if they bow to a "minority" that is pushing to close the libraries.

[snip]

"We're really concerned they might just shut the libraries down," Leila Green Little, one of seven people who successfully sued the county in federal court for banning the books, said ahead of the meeting.

"Our library system was started over a 100 years ago by a group of Llano County women who used to meet by our river to read books," Little added. "That was the humble start of our library system. And if they were to shut it down, it would absolutely be the end of a key piece of our county's history."


Two things:

1. My guess is this isn't over.

2. How long before MAGAts, say, the R caucus in the Arizona legislature, come for public education?  They already hate public ed; threatening it won't be a stretch for them.

See: the reaction of Rs to Red for Ed.


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