Catch-22, the true censorship at your local library

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It was a book that introduced the term “catch-22” into America’s modern vocabulary. The 1961 novel by Joseph Heller satirized a bureaucratic loop that prevented a military man from requesting a psychological evaluation because, according to the “catch-22” rule, the very act of asking proved he didn’t need one. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem.”

Heller’s novel is touted by the American Library Association (ALA) among famous “banned books.” However, the ALA admits that it was only temporarily banned in one Strongsville, Ohio library from 1971-1974. There are 116,866 U.S. libraries where it was never banned. The real irony is that a “catch-22” is precisely what prevents an open and honest discussion of civic responsibility in both county and school district libraries. 

Banned Books Week gives a platform for libraries to treat parental concerns with contempt. Here’s how it works. 

Step 1: Woke school administrators—not parents—remove classics like John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” from a high school English curriculum. This enables the ALA to call the books “censored.” 

Step 2: The ALA uses the dubious claim to include them on their “Top 10 #BannedBooksList.” 

Step 3: The same ALA then puts eight other books on the list that truly are objectionable but made to look on a par with American classics. 

Despite its official-sounding name, the ALA’s list has zero science behind it. Rather, it is a fake ranking ginned up by activists who solicit complaints from “librarians and teachers” while ignoring the concerns of parents. To make matters worse, the most pornographic books that libraries regularly display in the children’s section are omitted from the list altogether.

Anyone unable to see why parents should object to the open display of “Doing It,” “The V-Word,” and “This Book is Gay,” in the children’s section of a library has no business being around our children. Despite what progressive ideologues will tell you, this has nothing to do with “sexual identity” and everything to do with exposing children of both sexes to inappropriate sexual content. 

Lincoln County Public Library
children's display, April 10, 2019

Unless you read the above-named titles for yourself, you will likely not believe what unsuspecting children can encounter in your local library. These titles would be perfectly at home in the seediest “Adult Shop.” But they are foisted on children.

That brings us to the real catch-22: The pornographic language and pictures found in the children’s section of Wyoming’s libraries is so over-the-top that examples cannot be printed in any respectable newspaper. This is the very definition of catch-22. The public needs to know the extent of the problem. But a full disclosure is “denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem.”

Thus, parental concerns are censored from the public by sheer decorum and decency. But that same decency is not restraining librarians from exposing even the youngest children to abusive content. They regularly encourage children to read what your local newspaper editor is ashamed to print. 

So, what’s a citizen to do? First, educate yourself. Under the radar, virtually every county and school district library in Wyoming indecently exposes children to explicit content. Concerned citizens should search the card catalogue for books of a sexual or otherwise objectionable nature. Work with other people in the community to share the workload.

Second, go to administrators and discuss your findings. Seek a solution that protects the community’s children above all. Sexually objectionable books should, at the very least, not be exhibited on the direct eye-level of kids wandering past book displays. Better yet, move them into the adult part of the library. Parents that actually want their children to read them can find them there.

Third, learn the library’s policies and whether they are being followed. If not, file a complaint. If the policy itself is inadequate, bring up the matter before the appropriate oversight board—either the school board or the library board. Schools and counties are not answerable to the American Library Association. They are answerable to the voters. Sadly, the ALA has abused the public trust and squandered the credibility it once enjoyed.

Finally, remember that not only parents have a duty to make public libraries safe for children. The entire community shares the duty to create safe spaces. Parents, grandparents and those with no other connection to the community’s children than a desire to see them thrive—all have a legitimate concern. Don’t be censored because you don’t have a child in the school system or spend time in the library. Children need and deserve the protection of every member of the public. That’s why libraries exist in the first place. 

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, October 15, 2021, the Cowboy State Daily, October 17, 2021, Digital Business Books, and Wintermann Library.