Library Director warns staff about MassResistance activism, attacks parents
SEE: https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen4/23a/ID-library-warns-staff-about-MR/index.html;
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Library Director in Idaho warns staff about MassResistance. Claims “there’s no pornography or obscenity in the library” – despite clear evidence.
Uses the American Library Association’s dishonest talking points to defend obscene books and attack parents.
Tells staff that the parents are simply “a politically motivated vocal minority.”
(Listen to the meeting for yourself!)
March 28, 2023
Most people don’t realize that even in conservative areas, public library officials are working behind the scenes to thwart and vilify parents who object to the pornographic books available to children. And they outrageously misrepresent parents’ concerns.
Pornographic books for children
It’s not just a few books. The MassResistance parents in Pocatello, Idaho, found over 300 books for young children or teenagers with erotic, homosexual, or transgender themes in the local Marshall Public Library.
How bad are these books? One mother told us about three that she saw in the teenagers’ section of the library:
Flamer by Mike Curato
“Some boys were at scout camp and they were all in a tent and with their pants pulled down. Another boy comes in and they hand him a bottle. They tell him that they’ve all masturbated into that bottle, and if he can’t do it right now in front of them, then he has to drink it.”All boys aren't blue by George M. Johnson
“A ten-year-old boy was raped by his older male cousin. The book describes it in very sexually explicit detail.”Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
“Very explicit drawings of teens having homosexual sex with each other, including a boy sucking on another boy’s penis.” [A main character is a girl trying to be a boy, so it’s transgender propaganda as well.]
By any measure, these books are pornography that no child (or anyone!) should be exposed to. But that’s not how the library staff sees it.
Library Board cancels meeting to avoid parents
In our previous post, we reported that 30 local MassResistance parents in Pocatello came to their local Library Board meeting on Jan. 17 to complain about the obscene books. But the Board canceled the meeting (by staying away, resulting in a lack of a quorum) rather than face the parents’ testimony.
The library director calls a staff meeting on dealing with the ‘problem’ of MassResistance parents
Two days after the canceled Library Board meeting, the director of the Marshall Public Library, Eric Seuss, called a staff meeting to discuss how to deal with their “problem” with parents.
That meeting (of which we’ve received a recording) was a disturbing insight into how those people think. Seuss is also a candidate for president of the American Library Association (ALA) and embodies the far-left thinking of library directors across the country.
Here are some of the things he discussed at the meeting:
He started out talking about MassResistance. He mentioned that we had submitted a FOIA request for their collection policy and book challenging policy. He described what he read on our website about how we were founded in Massachusetts in opposition to gay marriage, and we’re now across the country, including Idaho and beyond.
He said, “They count among their successes forcing the resignation of an Idaho library director due to pressure and intimidation. What essentially they would like is the removal of books that they object to in libraries.”
He added, “Their contention is that libraries are spreading their liberal policies, in order to promote pornography, and promote obscenity, and to corrupt our children.”
He talked about the Jan. 17 Library Board meeting which was canceled when a crowd of parents showed up. Seuss said that someone had called him to say he’d be coming to testify at that meeting and said, “We’re going to surprise you.” (Thus, the library people knew something was coming. There were also social media discussions about it.) But Seuss claimed that he “didn’t know why” a majority of the Board members decided not to show up. He predicted that MassResistance parents will be at the next Board meeting.
Concerning complaints parents had with the books, he really revealed his bizarre mindset on that issue. First, he claimed that there's nothing in the library that is pornographic or obscene:
“We don’t have pornography, we don’t have obscenity. We do have things that people object to. They have gay themes that people object to and say we should remove all references to homosexuality. There are some depictions of body parts, which people object to. There are discussions of issues that people have problems with. But they’re not illegal, they’re not obscene, and they’re not pornography.”
He went on to make an outlandish argument that the library is “different from the school.” While schools push materials at children, libraries simply have materials there for the children to take. (That is misleading and dishonest. Children don’t really see a difference.) Therefore, he said, libraries “don’t have an agenda.”
He added that there are some parents who think these books “are exactly what their child should have.” He didn’t identify exactly who those parents might be, but added, “We’re not going to make that decision. It’s not legally our place.”
He said that the library has a “process” for dealing with objections from the public. He noted he would not be intimidated by “a surprise group” of parents who don’t use the process. (But as we all know, that carefully designed process will always work in the library staff’s favor.)
Seuss brought up a particular author who writes “rough stuff” for kids. The books have crude language, explicit sexual acts, and depict “actual experiences” the author says he had. The author claimed that a girl came up to him and said that it was because of his books that she didn’t kill herself. Seuss related that with some emotion.
(But in fact, this threat of “suicide” is a common tactic that the LGBT movement uses to force adults to accept their agenda on children. It has no legitimacy. In fact, the opposite is true; pushing pornography leads to horrible psychological issues throughout their lives.)
Seuss continued, “Just because you may not want your child to access something doesn’t mean it is not a perfect book for somebody else.” This is another lie by the LGBT movement that is incredibly destructive. There is no child for whom pornography is a “perfect” choice.
“There is a difference between illegal and offensive. They are two different things,” he said. “A good library has a book to offend everybody. It’s OK to be offensive.”
He stated that parents being offended by child pornography is similar to his being offended by “the latest tell-all Princess Diana book” or someone being offended by “a Michelle Obama commentary.” (That is irrational and feeble thinking. It’s not about the parent being offended, it’s about how the child is affected.)
He talked about what might happen at the next month’s Library Board meeting. He warned his staff that a group of MassResistance parents may show up.
He then went on a rant about conservative parents who get involved. It was basically right out of the ALA talking points:
"There is a politically driven script out there that they follow at every library they’ve gone to. This is a national movement that is extremely well organized, very politically motivated and is vocal. But it is a minority.
"These folks truly believe what they’re presenting. They’ve been told that the library is corrupting their children that the library is full of pornography and obscenity and that it’s devastating to our children. And so if that’s what you believe, you’re going to fight for it."
All of this is his way of justifying the content of the toxic books described above as well as the 300 others that parents found there. It’s the same attitude we’ve seen across the country. But most parents are unaware that this extreme attitude has been adopted by most library staff.
Final thoughts
The Left hates MassResistance because we are successful in disrupting – and stopping – what these people are doing to children.
The content of these books sickens the average person, and the thought of impressionable children and teenagers reading them is beyond horrible. It’s well documented that this material can emotionally disrupt children for life.
But the library employees and people who run for library board seats actually believe that these books are good for children. They want children to grow up with the anything-goes sexual attitude that they hold. Furthermore, they use devious and dishonest strategies – much of it given to them by the far-left American Library Association – to actively sabotage and demonize parents who work against this. These are clearly very dysfunctional people.
The obscene Pocatello books are a problem. But the greater issue is the people who put them on the library shelves. Those people need to be removed!
Please help us continue to do our uncompromising work!
Our successes depend on people like you.
Your support will make the difference!
