Letter to the Editor: Fight the cancer of ‘cool’ culture
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It was so heartwarming to read a letter decrying the early sexualization and sexual exploitation of our children. So many of us feel the same way but don't know how or where to start erasing it. It is difficult to imagine it is happening here. The library has always been a safe and wonderful place. My favorite place in the world as I was growing up. Since I am now 90 you may understand it was that beautiful old Carnegie library. There was a dragon guarding the desk in those days, and how I wish she was back.
We had banned books back then too. First one was "Forever Amber" then "God's Little Acre," "Lady Chatterly's Lover" both expurgated and unexpurgated edition, Norman Mailer's work etc. Banning something is the best way to get children to want to read it.
How about banning something good like biographies of intelligent, patriotic,hard working American men and women who made it in this difficult world? History, civics, fiction and loads of books by all ethnicities. How about some displays of good fiction adventure? Has your imagination gone sour about good reading and is it stuck on sex and making sure our poor denied children must know how to do something "correctly" before they even know what it is? Haven't we had enough of Hustler and Playboy concepts?
I am ashamed of you, Brian Raitz, for allowing this to happen here. Yes, I do blame you as the buck stops with you and some on the board.
I wish I could come to see what the display shows but my walker is difficult for me now and I have no wish to bother anyone by cluttering the aisles. I can only go on what others have seen and how they feel. However I have watched this cancer spread on every front of media, music, film and written word. It spread because we didn't try to stop it. It wasn't "cool" to be against dirty words in print and TV. We thought the generation of idiots would grow up. They did and became worse.
Now we reap what we allowed to grow. We are late coming to the fight but we are here now and we won't let our children be soiled by your reckless nonsense. If there are others of like mind out there willing to fight this growing cancer then count me in the fight.
Gertrude Ellen Davisson
Parkersburg