Letters

Letters

, Sep 20, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Brading doesn’t comply with community standards

Rob Brading is correct. He is not individually responsible for children viewing pornography in the public library. More accurately, Rob Brading is part of a group of people who together control the library and who wield that power in compliance with American Library Association directives, not community standards. The group as a whole is responsible for the exposure of children to inappropriate material that might not happen but for the group’s actions in defiance of the case it lost in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rob Brading is correct again. The Oregonian condemned the “attack” on Aug. 31. But The Oregonian said on Sept. 10 he “shouldn’t be making decisions on what’s best for our state’s kids.” “Brading’s radical and absolutist view of the First Amendment simply prevents him from advocating reasonable, adult steps to protect children from pornography while they’re at a public library. He is, as the flier says, ‘responsible for children viewing Internet porn in our county library.’ ”

Rob Brading is correct yet again. He wrote, “character assassination, lies and misrepresentation destroy our political system.” He is using a lawsuit to suppress the First Amendment rights of Toni Manning to tell the community what happened to her 10-year-old daughter in the public library and who she thinks is responsible for that.

Where the people have little say in how a public library is run, and Rob Brading helps run that library and gets to sue Toni Manning to shut out the truth, our political system is indeed destroyed.

This is not cynical politics, as Rob Brading claims. Self interest is not why Toni Manning is speaking out, although it is why Rob Brading is suing her. Rather, Toni Manning is essentially seeking to advise the public that the library needs to follow community standards, not ALA directives, or else people should not vote for more money for an out-of-control library that endangers children or for people who make the library unsafe for children. Toni Manning doesn’t want other children to suffer as her own daughter has in part at Rob Brading’s hands – that’s not cynical, that’s altruistic.

Rob Brading is correct, but only partly, when it serves his political interests and desire to maintain the ALA’s control in the public library.

The question is, will people vote for a man who sues women to shut them up, who shows no interest in the child injured in the public library he helps control, and who uses the whole incident to make specious attacks on his political opponent?

DAN KLEINMAN

SafeLibraries.org

Chatham, NJ

People should be wary of Democratic gun caucus

According to a Sept. 15 Outlook article (“Oregon Democrats form gun owners caucus”), the Oregon Democratic Party wants to form a Gun Owner’s Caucus, and their stated reason for doing so is to provide “political balance” for gun owners of Oregon.

Let’s see: the other guys (represented by the NRA and more conservative politicians) are vigorously protecting the Second Amendment, which gives us the right to keep and bear arms as individuals.

What could this Gun Owner’s Caucus do for gun owners that the NRA or the GOA isn’t already doing?

Perhaps they will ally themselves with the American Shooters and Hunters Association, a group that wants to protect the rights of hunters to own sporting firearms. In other words, ASHA wants to limit the Second Amendment to “hunting” weapons. Hmmm. That leaves out handguns, collections of military weapons, etc., which the present interpretations of the Second Amendment permit us to own.

Where will the money for the caucus come from? From the Democratic party, or maybe the Joyce Foundation? The Joyce Foundation is a wealthy anti-gun group that has funded the above ASHA, and which supports all the anti-gun activity found in the eastern states, as well as the recent moves by the United Nations to end private gun ownership throughout the world.

Democrats, don’t be fooled. Give this new caucus a close look and have some good questions ready for them. Be prepared for “spin” if they answer your questions.

Remember, there wouldn’t be a First Amendment without a Second Amendment.

GEORGE SCHNEIDER

Past member, Powell Valley Rifles

Present member, Douglas Ridge Rifle Club

Gresham

Patti Smith has earned our vote and respect

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit