Power Grabs, Parental Guidance, and Public Libraries: A Front Royal Reflection

I am a prior citizen of Front Royal, VA.  My husband and I raised seven children in our home there.  As our family grew with the addition of grandchildren, several of them also lived and attended schools in Warren County, VA.  Due to family obligations in North Carolina, we moved from Front Royal two years ago.  We all have fond memories of our growing years in Front Royal, and those recollections include our trips to Samuels Public Library.  It was with some consternation that I read an article in The Washinton Post regarding the challenge to the library via withholding funding for the library in an effort for “concerned citizens” to exercise control over the governing management of the library.

It is ironic that we relocated to a county in NC that is facing similar challenges in our local school district over school libraries and their content and availability.  This challenge is also led by a group of citizens deeply engaged in their religious faith, which they strongly believe is guiding them in this process.  The only difference is that extortion is not a tool available to the concerned citizens in NC against the School Board.

For the record, my children who graduated from high school in Warren County include six children who went on to college and received degrees; three have received their master’s degrees, many graduated with dual degrees, and all are successful members of their communities and in their professions.  Their careers include work in the field of education, social service work to assist and support the homeless and disenfranchised, work for the Federal Gov’t directly and indirectly, and those who own/have owned their own businesses.  I feel very confident making this assertion; the trajectory of a child’s life does not hinge on the content of any single book but is essentially reliant on the character of their parents or parental authorities in their lives.  Allowing your children to grow into adulthood with guidance and honest conversation is so much more impactful than sheltering them from the things the parents find offensive or harmful.

I am not taking issue with someone’s concern about any content in any reading material, it is as much your right to be concerned as it is mine to feel that exposure to all aspects of society helps a child refine and develop their own sensibilities as they become adults. It seems the library has put in place a system to help parents limit their child’s exposure by allowing parental controls on their child’s access to the materials they have concerns over.  That these parents feel that they need to control any other parent’s rights can be interpreted as nothing less than a desire to control more than their own child’s access and to assume control of all taxpayers in Warren County.  This is not democracy, and it is not faithful supplication to God.  It is nothing more than a power grab in a performative act of assumed high morality.

Furthermore, the publication of individuals’ names is nothing more than a bullying tactic hoping to incite vindictive rhetoric against those individuals.  That the Board of Supervisors didn’t hold the line at the bullying “conservative activists” and then joined their ranks by withholding their funding and offering the MOA makes me question their suitability to be Supervisors.  They were elected to be leaders of sorts for their districts to seek consensus in untenable challenges.

I am happy to see the Board did reach approval for funding for the library.  The Town of Front Royal and Warren County are fortunate to have this institution, its friendly and helpful staff, and its commitment to the community.  I was born and raised in the close suburbs right outside of the Washington DC line.  When my first husband passed away, I was left with four young daughters, just reaching their teen years.  I had a demanding job that kept me from keeping a normal nine-to-five routine.  I felt it was critical to move to a community where we had neighbors that would look out for us and where the girls could participate in sports and after-school activities without needing transportation from me.  I chose Front Royal, and although it lacked some of the benefits they had in Fairfax, it brought them a multitude of benefits that helped shape them into the adults they became.   Front Royal has always had factions that didn’t see eye to eye on certain issues, but I never experienced the excessiveness that has begun to permeate the social climate in Front Royal.  I hope this incident gives everyone pause to regain common civility and respect for their neighbors and allow the differences to create the best of the community and enhance the future of its upcoming generations.

Barbara Price
Hickory, NC