It’s Censorship and It’s Expensive

Supervisor Oates once said, “We need to hold government accountable!”  So, who did she hire with $20,000 of Oates-for-Delegate campaign donations, no experience required? Thomas Hinnant. (Who?)

Fox News described him as a “community organizer.” (Check YouTube!)  He wants to “seize the library,” let kids “run free,” and “decolonize” the county!

In The Washington Stand, 6/14/23, he said, “Frankly, conservatives have focused on elections, while … leftists have … colonized … We want to commence the decolonization of rural America … where this cancer … is.” — Nice, Mr. Hinnant!  Meet your new neighbors! (According to its website, “The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview”)

Mr. Hinnant rants, “Our tax dollars are ours, and we do not want un-elected and faceless bureaucrats spending them on pornography for children.”  (I blink! Where to start!) Mr. Hinnant purchased a home in Linden in 2022 for $250,000, contributed $500 to Oates’s campaign, and began his “road map for victory,” presumably in preparation for “decolonizing” Warren County as described in the American Conservative where on 6/17/23 he crowed: “We filled out 500 requests for reconsideration [at Samuels Public Library] … used their own rules against them, clogged the machine, and they didn’t know what to do. Then we had more folks at the meeting [County budget public hearing], and we won.”

What exactly have you won, Mr. Hinnant? Abusing the privileges this country has offered you that people gave their lives for, destroying trust, shocking decent people with public obscenity, and coercing unconstitutional behavior by intimidation and accusation is not leadership or good governance. Insulting and offending your neighbors because you can, has accomplished nothing. It seems childish and dangerous. I am disappointed that the honorably discharged, proud military members on that Board didn’t utter a word of rebuke. One nation under God! There goes the police budget!

And the library budget? What are we paying librarians to be called “unelected, faceless bureaucrats” to read countless books, write respectful responses, meet with BOS members, and, I believe, be falsely accused of sexual grooming? — Not enough! Add to that the cost of reprogramming electronic systems, issuing new cards, and reclassifying books for your censorship project. Mr. Butler or Ms. Cook, after your meetings, what is that total? Is it in the budget, or will they still be underfunded even if you decide to release the 75% public library holdback?

And what are the attorney fees to advise the BOS? Will we soon pay another team to defend against the inevitable lawsuit(s)? — Add that to the total and wait for your tax bills!

Stop using children for aggrandizement. If you cared about children, you’d focus on the foster children whose numbers have overwhelmed the system. Over 5,000 in Virginia, all born back in the day when babies were wanted, and women had choices. Oates’s donors’ $20,000 campaign consultant funds might have been better-spent feeding, housing, and mentoring a foster child. There are 37 homeless children, and I believe only one approved foster care home in Warren County.

While the Board accommodates the Hinnant cabal, children sleep on air mattresses in an office building crying for their mothers and wondering what will happen to them. We can build churches. We can’t house children?

C.A. Wulf
Warren County

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