The Louisiana Library wars rage on

Before we jump into Louisiana library news, let me say welcome back from summer vacation. It’s August, and that means back to school for the kids and back to the daily grind for most of us. However, the wokies are mad (as usual), and it’s glorious! The most recent drama comes from a city council meeting in Lafayette, where our old friend “Comedy Hour” Kenneth Boudreaux decided to swipe at us. He said some unknown internet bullies had somehow impugned the stellar reputation of the council and staff. Nobody knew what he was talking about, but one conjecture is he was referring to our article, Lafayette Pride Purveyors Pranked.

That was weeks ago, though. Why did these Leftists start talking about it at midnight on Monday? Because they had just found out that the last remnant of their hopes had been dashed at the Lafayette Public Library. That’s right, Lafayette Democratic Parish Executive Committee Chairman James Thomas officially resigned from his position on the library board. Not that anyone was surprised. He had given up months ago, as evidenced by his no longer attending meetings. Yet again, our persistence has paid off. Citizens for a New Louisiana and the Christian-Conservative movement have been actively and successfully retaking library boards across Louisiana.

Now that Lafayette has zero leftists remaining, we can continue to press on to others. At this very moment, Livingston Parish Library is in the throws of its own power struggle to replace woke board members with rational ones. St. Tammany, likewise, has been fighting hard. Their success is so shocking that it’s been challenged in federal court! All of the wokies who were removed in one fell swoop have sued! Their position? Somehow, they have been denied some mysterious “First Amendment right” to be a board member.

The battle rages on

I’ve mentioned before that we fight these battles with the most powerful weapons in anyone’s arsenal: truth and transparency. That is, if everyone knew what was happening in the libraries, the libraries would change themselves. In that effort, we’ve identified or created a grassroots movement in these communities (and more) focused on removing erotic materials from the public library children’s sections. This is not a controversial issue. However, some library directors and boards have refused to identify and segment this smut proactively. Because they haven’t, the battle continues, and our victories are stacking up.

So what’s a wokie to do in a climate where they’re experiencing catastrophic losses on every front? They do what they’ve always done: confront grassroots movements with astroturf. You remember the difference, right? From a distance, Astroturf looks like grass. Only closer inspection reveals that it’s manufactured. Their latest iteration is another attempt to convince the legacy media (and thereby the public) that our movement’s shining city on a hill, the Lafayette Public Library system, is terrible.

They show up and create chaos for the express purpose of telling the press that the meetings are chaotic. Thankfully, our strong champions in Lafayette have gotten so used to it that they steamroll whatever policy initiatives are best for the community, regardless of the phony outrage. Other library systems across the state would do well to follow that lead. With our successes mounting, these activists must work harder to twist and manufacture their own facts.

Manufactured outrage

Enter Michael Holt, a PhD from LSU who applied for Lafayette Library director on March 19th, 2024. We knew his name because he appeared at one of our events two weeks earlier. That’s when Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries came all the way from New Jersey to visit us in Baton Rouge. Holt sat in the very back of the room and listened while Dan Kleinman shared his experiences and took questions.

The audience included current and former library board members and parish councilmen from Lafayette, Livingston, and St. Tammany parishes. Holt didn’t speak or ask any questions. However, we quickly identified that Michael Holt was a librarian at LSU. One amusing thing about Holt’s work profile page is his strength in “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” Of course!

Then, on July 31, 2024, at 9:20 am, Holt suddenly decided that he no longer wanted to be the library director for Lafayette. But here’s where it gets interesting. A few hours later, Lynette Mejia submitted a public records request to the interim library director, asking for a copy of Holt’s withdrawal letter! To be clear, she didn’t specifically ask for his letter. However, the resignation and timing of the records request suggest her group already has (and may have even written) the letter. She needs the figleaf of a records request to throw the uninformed off the scent. After all, if everyone knew they were conspiring together, the letter would lose impact.

Here comes the faux outrage!

If you don’t know Lynette Mejia, she’s the woman who drove embattled Carencro Branch Manager Cara Chance to the Livingston courthouse in her “Wickedmobile” to watch a certain court hearing. That’s when Banana Jones sued in a failed attempt to block us from telling you what she said and what we’ve been finding in library children’s sections. Banana Jones’s lawsuit attempt has fallen short four out of four times and is currently being appealed (yet again). This time, it’s to the Louisiana Supreme Court. She’s also yet to pay the $25,500 judgment we’ve had against her for over a year.

Lynette Meja and Banana Jones recently formed an organization to oppose our incredibly successful movement. They call it Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship (or LaCAC). In a recent article published in the Southern Library Journal, Mejia and Jones credit LaCAC’s partnership with Louisiana State University (LSU) for numerous but unspecified “victories” during Louisiana’s 2024 legislative session. In her records request, LaCAC’s Mejia asked for:

All documents, correspondence, text messages or messages on messaging platforms or emails to, by, or between members of the LPL board of control, as well as members of the directors search committee regarding the library director search between January 1, 2024, and July 31, 2024.

About five minutes later, she submitted a second request asking for the same thing, specifically targeting emails with a subject line regarding David Pitre, PhD, who serves on the director search committee.

Why did they write the letter?

In December 2023, Michael Holt, a Baton Rouge friend and cohort of LaCAC, sent a multi-page letter denouncing the Lafayette Library Board. Nobody cared. So, for no reason other than to give his scorching letters some credibility, he applied for the Library Director position. If we understand that LaCAC’s goal is to make the Lafayette Library Board of Control look bad, the rest falls into place. In his letter, he excoriates the board with various fabrications. The best part is the end, when he says he’s withdrawing so that his own “mental health” doesn’t become a topic of discussion. A Freudian Slip, perhaps, because no one had mentioned mental health.

His resignation letter sent at 9:20 am on July 31 states:

After applying for the position, l wanted to learn more about the community and the library to prepare for a possible interview. What I discovered was a library system that had become deeply politicized. Though I recognize that I am replying to someone who is a member of the board, I have to be honest and say that I am fundamentally opposed to the actions taken by the Board of Control in recent years and find the recent mission statement revision to be antithetical to what a public library is at its core. I have seen members speak in support of state legislation that would hurt the profession of librarianship. Further, I have even seen one board member excoriate a grieving mother who lost their child to suicide in a public forum. I have watched board of control meetings and seen the board act without concern for the advice of their legal counsel or what the majority of citizens who took time to attend a meeting want. While I am certain that all of you feel justified in your actions, I cannot be honest with myself and condone what I have seen.

Therefore, I must withdraw my name from the search. I do so because of a deep and fundamental philosophical difference with the current Board of Control. The Lafayette Public Library system has been deeply wounded during your tenure and I see little option for its success while the current members remain in their position. Additionally, I cannot see how any experienced individual who is passionate about what libraries are could remain in the search or in the position with the current members who serve on the Board of Control. Whoever accedes to the current library’s mission statement or the actions of the Board in past meetings will assuredly be just as disastrous for a library system that is already suffering from years of poor stewardship. My words may be harsh today, but I say them in the remote hope that some of your members might better understand what the citizens of Lafayette Parish have been saying since at least 2021. Again, please withdraw my name from the search and do not discuss my “character, professional competence, or physical or mental health” in either closed or open session. Thank you.

The multiple problems in this letter have been bold-faced (emphasis mine). I also took the liberty to highlight his reluctance for his “mental health” to be taken up.

Dissecting the letter’s erroneous suppositions

We don’t need to linger here very long. The Lafayette Public Library’s “antithetical” mission statement update can be found on its website’s About page. It reads as follows:

The Lafayette Public Library exists to enhance the quality of life of the residents of Lafayette Parish by providing access to high-quality, cost-effective library services that meet the needs and expectations of the community and to provide opportunities for life-long learning in accordance with this community’s standards.

If you’re anything like me, you wonder what’s antithetical about that. He also mentioned that the board did not take the advice of its legal counsel. However, he fails to mention that the board fired that particular lawyer! Anyone interested in the truth would certainly find that little tidbit relevant to this discussion. Do you wonder what would motivate him to leave out that important detail?

He also mentions not listening to the majority of citizens who showed up to the meetings. What he’s not saying is these citizens are not a majority of the community. In fact, many, like him, travel and complain from far-flung places like Baton Rouge or even New Orleans! The current director’s stewardship (who will appreciate my not mentioning his name) has been pristine, by the way. When the previous director lost one of the library’s three taxes, the new director had to streamline and reprioritize spending. He’s done such a magnificent job that the library system now has enough extra money to operate a new Northeast regional branch.

Finally, I am not in a position to speak on Michael Holt’s concerns over his own mental health. So, I’ll leave that one to your imagination.

###