| Congressional Representative Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan Gender:  Posts: 2,271 Country:  Points: 12,095, Level: 72 | Level up: 12%, 355 Points needed | | Freedom of speech in libraries Take a look at this article: MLive.com: Everything Michigan
This is the library where my children love to go. My 5 year old loves to go there, read the books, put pennies in the fountain. It's located right down the street from the middle school where my 14 year old goes, and he often goes there after school for homework and research, and around the corner from the high school where my 2 oldest go, and they are known to walk there after school, too.
The director the library board is refusing to block websites like MySpace from the library computers which is the main reason these punks are hanging out at the library. Instead her solution is to spend MORE money and hire a security guard, which is ridiculous since police presence hasn't made a bit of difference (the Wyoming Police dept and City hall are less then a mile away).
Her other argument was that the library can't take over the job of the parents. To me, that is stupid, since, if these kids are in gangs, the parents don't really care what their kids are doing in the first place. And what about the safety of good kids who go there to read? Now they are saying parents have to be with their kids at the library 100% of the time? WTF?
What do you think? Should the parents demand those websites be blocked to stop the gangs from hanging out? Or do you agree it's a first amendment thing?
This is very upsetting to me to read. Our little city payed millions of dollars to build this beautiful building just a few years ago, and to think that these punks are ruining it just burns me up.
Here's a pic: Wyoming, MI : Wyoming Public Library photo
Oh, and BTW, these are Hispanic gangs that were non-existent 10 years ago. |