I was asked to email the members of the Okefenokee Regional Library Board. As usual, I saw this request close to the deadline.
For better or worse, this is what I sent:
I am a library patron of both the Waycross/Ware County Library and the Pierce County Library, visiting several times each week.
One of the very best parts of this area is The Miracle League. A specially designed baseball field, with games played by young players with different challenges. The community has come together to support them with dollars, attendance, cheers, and love. Not everyplace in the Okefenokee area makes itself welcome to these marginalized communities, but this league does. It is truly a miracle.
There are not many signs supportive of marginalized communities in this area. There is no requirement to be overtly welcoming in our private businesses and churches. This is especially true of the lgbtq+ community. They are made to feel "less than" in many places.
This should not be true in public spaces. Both our public schools and public schools should be overtly welcome to everyone.
And that is what the Libraries Are for Everyone mural does for the Waycross/Ware County Public Library. It is a vital symbol of inclusion. Taking it down would be sending a horrible message to our marginalized and, in some cases, persecuted communities.
But we need to be honest with ourselves. A virulent vocal group wants it taken down for one reason and one reason only.
The rainbow heart symbol.
That's it. Everything else is background noise.
Taking it down for that reason (no matter how thinly disguised) is discriminatory and against the law. If not criminal, there will be civil rights consequences, and rightly so.
No, it is not enough to imply that the library is for everyone without any symbols of support. The draconian display policy has already eliminated displays for book clubs and most special occasions, giving the library an empty, cold feel. The fear of showing any support for the LGBTQ+ community means stripping everything else away.
The LGBTQ+ youth, excluded and isolated, have a higher rate of depression and suicide, especially in the transgender community. The rainbow heart symbol, which has arisen such a fever of hate and intolerance, is necessary to show that at least one place in the area welcomes them.
The forces that want to take this down will not stop there. Once they realize how easy it is to push the board around, they will come after books, book clubs, activities, and personnel. And how long before they come after books that, in their opinion, make other groups feel uncomfortable, censoring books that do not support their sense of history, or make their children feel uncomfortable? How long will we get to keep our biographies of Ruby Bridges or Rosa Parks? Will they want to take any book that shows the evils of slavery? Will they want the holocaust denied?
Where does it stop?
Please stop the madness. Please show that this area is worthy of the marginalized communities in it.
Just like the Miracle League, you can be a shining example of community support.
Make it real.
Keep the mural up, and keep the library truly for everyone.
Sincerely,
Tom Strait
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