Protecting Taxpayers or Silencing Community Voices? The Attack on Samuels Library

How did we come to this point? Samuels Library has served our community for over 200 years. Why has it come under attack? It is an attack and it’s now led by our Board of Supervisors. Last year a small group of people played a game of monkey see monkey do and pulled a list of books off the internet. The few then swamped the library with hundreds of requests to remove these books from the collection. Make no mistake, this is a form of bullying. The library did not cave in but did their due diligence and answered each request with the reason not to pull the book. Is this the reason for the turmoil surrounding the library more than a year later?

The few on the BOS want us to believe that they are protecting the taxpayers. How disingenuous it is to hide behind the skirts of others. Their behavior reminds me of a toddler throwing a tantrum because it was told no. That seemed too simple an answer. Then I remembered Tom McFadden’s history of Christendom College. The college was established in the 1970s to create an environment of higher learning without secular influence. I think this is what the few want for all aspects of their lives and even for the entire county. Can they possibly want to make the library an adjunct of the college? Hopefully not, but they most likely want it run to the same standards. The trouble is that our county’s public library is a secular institution. It is there for everyone not just the few.

If the BOS manages to force Samuels out and replace it with their own choices, it will become a publicly funded library controlled by adherents of a religious institute that shuns government interference. Obviously, they have no problem interfering in secular matters outside the confines of their campus.

Also, they are not explaining to the taxpayers the cost of establishing a new library from scratch if that becomes a reality.

Barbara Hunt
Front Royal

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