A New Bill In Louisiana Would Criminalize Librarians and Libraries Who Join the American Library Association (bookriot.com)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by 0x815@feddit.de to c/usnews@beehaw.org

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The House Bill 777 was introduced on March 25 by Representative Kellee Dickerson, who helped fund the Louisiana Freedom Caucus. The bill would criminalize library workers and libraries for joining the American Library Association.

The bill says that "no public official or employee shall appropriate, allocate, reimburse, or otherwise or in any way expend public funds to or with the American Library Association or its successor". Whoever violates the law could face up to two years in prison.

The American Library Association (ALA) is the largest and oldest professional organization for library workers in the nation. It was founded in 1876.

[Edit typo.]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] BevelGear@beehaw.org 19 points 8 months ago

I think this is absurd. Libraries are places of knowledge and curiosity. If people aren't thinking critically about what they read, the government shouldn't put the blame on libraries and librarians. They need to be more worried about educating the public by funding schools to teach students through critical thinking instead of memorization. Yes, that'll be harder to achieve, but the change will be transformative.

[-] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 15 points 8 months ago

People not thinking critically is the goal not the problem...

[-] BevelGear@beehaw.org 6 points 8 months ago

If that's the government's goal and people are are willing to let that happen without a fight, then we may as well give up our free will and just obey as we're told. This is a disgrace imo.

this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024

80 points (100.0% liked)

U.S. News

2250 readers

13 users here now

News about and pertaining to the United States and its people.

Please read what's functionally the mission statement before posting for the first time. We have a narrower definition of news than you might be accustomed to.

Guidelines for submissions:

Post the original source of information as the link.
If there is any Nazi imagery in the linked story, mark your post NSFW.
If there is a paywall, provide an archive link in the body.
Post using the original headline; edits for clarity (as in providing crucial info a clickbait hed omits) are fine.
Social media is not a news source.

For World News, see the News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

rs5th@beehaw.org

Powderhorn@beehaw.org