The West Bend book burners

Apparently, some folks in West Bend have their collective undies all in a bunch about some books that are available at the West Bend Public Library, and their solution is simple: ask to burn the books and then sue the city.

The four individuals in question, who are clearly not fans of the First Amendment, are seeking $120,000 in compensatory damages for the “pain and suffering” they endured by being exposed to the book. What’s more, the individuals are also demanding the resignation of West Bend Mayor Kristine Deiss, and their suit also asks for “the right to publicly burn or destroy by another means the library’s copy of Baby Be-Bop.”

The current lawsuit came about after four months of grappling between the group and the West Bend Library. The group, led by Ginny and Jim Maziarka, challenged the availability of young-adult materials they deemed sexually explicit, but library trustees voted 9–0 on June 2 to maintain the young-adult collection as is “without removing, relocating, labeling, or otherwise restricting access” to any titles. At the risk of invoking Godwin’s Law, I thought book burning as a common practice went out with the fall of the Nazis in World War II, but apparently, it’s back in vogue for those seeking to curb free expression.

Jason Haas has more.

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9 thoughts on “The West Bend book burners

  1. Zach…so they burned the library’s books they didn’t like?? I don’t get these people. Why do they care if these books are in the library. If they don’t want their children to read these books all they have to do is watch them while they are at the library. What’s so hard about that?? Mensch…

  2. The meme “destroy what you hate” worked well for the Huns, Goths, and Genghis Khan. I believe they all were a conservative kind of people, to wit, conquer-oriented and authoritarian-father societies. I just cannot imagine they were liberals that drank lattes and recycled.However, since they used horses, I imagine that qualified as green transportation.
    They destroyed what they hated, too.

  3. Okay…thanks for the clarification. So…why can’t they just not read at the books if they don’t like them? It’s a *public* library and maybe someone in the *public* might like to read the books they want to burn.

  4. Yeah…”why can’t they just not read at the books if they don’t like them”…I mean don’t you only read at books if you like them??? Oh man…

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