According to their website (http://www.fflibraries.org/), Family Friendly Libraries (FFL), founded in 1995, is a "
grassroots organization of
concerned citizens, librarians and library trustees" that believes in "
common sense access policies", seeks to "protect
children from
exposure to age-inappropriate materials without
parental consent", and favors "placing
libraries under maximum local
control with more acknowledgment of
taxpayer authority and
community standards."
Sounds nice, don't you think?
They're a pro-
censorship organization. Hell, they almost qualify as an anti-library organization.
"Right to read? It's a bunch of hogwash. You don't have the right to read anything you want. We have to protect each other from dangerous material."
--FFL co-founder Phil Burress
According to Article One of the FFL's charter, a library's primary purpose isn't actually to provide
books to patrons:
"As a branch of the government charged with protecting and preserving our society,...the library system clearly acknowledges the importance and superiority of the traditional family (defined as 'mother and father married to each other, committed to a lifetime, monogamous relationship')." It also states that
opposing views wouldn't be
excluded, but they wouldn't be given equal shelf space with
officially sanctioned books. In fact, books which don't get the FFL's
approval would be placed in
restricted areas of the library, where you'd have to get special
permission to even look at the books, much less check them out.
In other words, libraries shouldn't be allowing people to read books that feature
homosexuals, people who commit
adultery, or
nontraditional families. They'd be required to make
moral judgments about books to make sure that the FFL's
preferences
dominate all others.
Though the FFL claims to be a
secular, non-religious organization, the charter states that
"the Creator has given us ABSOLUTE STANDARDS to live by (like sexual purity) which is encoded in our LAWS (like the sodomy, adultery and fornication laws)... the principles of Creator-authenticated absolute standards for people and their government applies in ALL issues." Co-founder
Karen Gounaud has also stated that she believes the
ideal library trustee should be "someone who understands that there is no
constitutional mandate for the
separation of church and state." Sound secular to you?
The FFL hates the
American Library Association (ALA) with a
purple passion. They've referred to the ALA as "an
arrogant,
monopolistic,
lobbying
special-interest group" and claims it is "known nationwide as a pro-
pornography group." Why is the ALA so horrible? Well, their
Library Bill of Rights supports
intellectual freedom and decries
censorship in all its forms. Can't have that, can we? Kids might start thinking for themselves. Kids might even
learn something...
Is there any good way to stop these
lunatics? Hell yeah!
Volunteer at your local library, or at least attend meetings of the
library board. If you hear that the FFL is trying to make
inroads in your community, write
letters to your local
newspaper (they're always
very interested in
Freedom of Speech issues),
lawmakers (the censors are talking to them, so you should, too),
churches (actually, very few of them favor censorship, so you should
encourage them to speak out),
schools (they're nearly always the first place the
censors target for
harrassment), and librarians (just to let them know you
appreciate their hard work). If there is an anti-censorship
protest somewhere, attend it. Censorship drives often bring bad
publicity for a community--let the world see that not everyone in town is
anti-freedom. Finally--and perhaps most importantly--
read some books!Research:
http://www.fflibraries.org/
http://home.epix.net/~jlferri/fflib.html
http://www.loudoun.net/mainstream/Library/fflib.htm
http://www.ncac.org/cen_news/cn60ffl.html