What about my rights?
EDITOR:
I am sympathetic to the number of letters you have received regarding the books in question with the Anderson County libraries.
I am afraid I am adding to the array of letters.
I have attended several of the meetings regarding the “books” in question for the last nine months. I am unclear why one specific religious interpretation is being given so much time and attention. I am under the impression that we, as a country, have separation of church and state.
There are 4,200 various religious denominations in the country. How can we fairly represent all of them in a library? Peoples’ rights as parents and as Americans are being challenged by others’ interpretation of what is acceptable reading material for children. I consider myself a Christian and do not agree with others’ interpretation and to force your beliefs on others. Too many of our military have died defending those rights.
Certainly there is more harm being done to our children, such as lack of education, poverty levels that exceed 25-perecnt in various districts, poor foster care, etc., that need much more attention that what books may or may not be on our library shelves.
I respectfully request that my rights as a parent and as an American be left alone to honor our country’s freedom of choice, and spend the time being wasted on others’ interpretation of what my children can read in the library, and spend more time helping children who can’t read at all, need food and housing, etc.
Thank you for your time. I am incredibly grateful to you and our library board for the patience to get through these proceedings.
Louise Casso
Oak Ridge