Protecting the freedom to read in Seaside, Oregon

Why we need to recall a city councilor

Seaside Public Library, Seaside, Oregon.

I would be happy to continue my cordial relationship with my neighbor, Seaside City Councilor Steve Dillard. However, his attacks on the Seaside Public Library, the Seaside Library Board and the American Library Association and others have disturbed me enough to make me step forward to seek his recall in the city’s Ward 1.

He has called Library Board members panderers. He has called books on a wide array of topics sexually explicit material. He has sought reclassification for books our children read and how they can access them. He has sought to establish a committee appointed by the City Council to determine what books should even be in the library.

The Seaside Library offers a wide selection of books on contemporary topics in the Young Adult section.

I am shocked at this, because book bans are a double-edged sword.

A committee could choose to ban works of history that don’t jibe with a person’s views — ideas of race, gender or religious choice. To that end, Dillard and those proposing committees to censor our reading choices are really asking for us to censor what they read as well. 

One-sided control of the free flow of information leads to nothing but a slavish society with no choice and no imagination. Young people who are not exposed to different viewpoints are nothing more than machines without the ability to reason.

The plain fact is that children cannot get library cards without their parents. Younger children do not go to the library unsupervised. Teens and adolescents are fortunate to have a growing array of works addressing contemporary topics like environmentalism, politics, history, social science and religion. Prohibiting this flow won’t stop the existence of war, hatred, and oppression. But it will help us create and build a worldview based on tolerance and inquiry.

Young adult room at the easide Library.

Reality isn’t always pretty, or the way we want it to be. I fear that whitewashing our library shelves will only lead to a world where some families have knowledge and others remain in ignorance.

The denunciation of librarians and libraries has already had a brutal impact around the country. A country torn by divisions is becoming further polarized by attempts to silo knowledge and deny access to critical learning materials.

Vox News has reported that usually lawmakers start with book bans. If the bans aren’t as effective as they’d hope, they escalate to threatening to defund local libraries. The threats tend to occur in states where lawmakers want to restrict health care for trans people, limit drag performances and curb how teachers discuss gender, sexuality, race, and history at school.

Do you think librarians should be gatekeepers and monitor anyone who checks out a book deemed inappropriate by a cabal of inquisitors — of any stripe?

Is it any wonder why the First Amendment is just that — a “first,” a bold statement by our founders that our words matter, and we have the right to read, explore and grow. Without it, we marginalize our society and create a system that is already under threat by artificial intelligence, partisan news channels and existential environmental threats.

The New York Times has reported that the issue has become “supercharged” by a rapidly growing and increasingly influential constellation of conservative groups. The organizations frequently describe themselves as defending parental rights. Some are new and others are long-standing, but with a recent focus on books. Some work at the district and state levels, others have national reach. And over the past two years or so, they have grown vastly more organized, interconnected, well funded — and effective.

They have created political action committees, funded campaigns, endorsed candidates and packed school boards, helping to fuel a surge in challenges to individual books and to drive changes in the rules governing what books are available to children.

Seaside has proclaimed its support of diversity for two years running, with two proclamations on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community.

Along with the First Amendment assuring us of freedom of religion and speech, we also have the freedom to redress grievances by petitioning our government for change.

If this is Dillard’s first policy proposal, one shudders to think what is next.

Young adult books at the Seaside Public Library.

We are asking Dillard to stop his attack on the Seaside Public Library, a city hub where all residents now feel welcome. 

We are fortunate to have a peaceful, legal method in which to voice our displeasure with Dillard’s attempts to control our minds. It is called the recall process, an opportunity to correct what we feel is official misconduct.

Dillard still has an opportunity to clarify his goals and to reflect on our library freedoms.

It would give me great pleasure to withdraw this petition and to move forward on important items like tsunami resilience, addressing homelessness and maintaining a vibrant city.