www.hollandsentinel.com/story/news/politics/county/2024/05/07/chris-kleinjans-successfully-unseats-ottawa-impacts-lucy-ebel/73596593007/
Unofficial results have the democrat candidate Chris Kleinjans defeat Lucy Ebel, putting the OI majority commission in jeopardy.
Congrats Ottawa county!!
Wonderful. It’s important to continue voting even when things seem fine, otherwise we get this.
Same as when my hometown voted down a continuing average $40/person/year tax for the library and then couldn’t believe the library reduced to 1 day open per week until they reinstated the tax.
Of course nobody would be stupid enough to defund libraries, so it happened because only the very dedicated went out to vote and mucked it up for the whole community.
Imagine going out of your way to make it to a town hall to vote because $ .11/day is too much for YOU to pay so that your town has an open library.
These people are garbage.
People paid to make and distribute signs in order to protest the vote for the $40. I’m certain many of them put hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars in to not put $40 up to help the entire community, especially impoverished children.
I might be trying to find an answer that doesn't exist... but what is the logic behind that kind of protest? Most of these same people spend hundreds or thousands on scratch off tickets a year; or cigarettes... like wtf is wrong with $40/year for something positive?
This was around 2009-2010, so I think the conservative angle was economic anxiety letting them whip people up about government taxation and spending.
In modern times, the main vector of attack on libraries is culture wars. Parents will show up and read cherry-picked segments of books that the libraries sometimes don’t even carry, or do carry but in the adults section only, and they complain kids can access these (if the parents are neglectful of the kids.)
The main thrust of the culture wars is anti-LGBT hatred. It extends to any kind of sex education as well, and in extreme cases parents will even try to get books on evolution banned from public libraries.
The first paragraph makes sense.
The 2nd paragraph sounds like a rare example that is not a common thing. I know most public readings will specify which book is scheduled to be read. If you have a source that exemplifies what you stated, I'd gladly read it. My search algorythm doesn't show me stories like that.
The 3rd paragraph is unfortunately a pretty main thing right now; but mostly in heavily christian/baptist/whatever communities or the south (in general).
I can't really go on a rabbit hole of research during my work day. Here's a single example from Iowa of a woman who read portions of a sex ed book regarding porn and sexting, and she get all choked up about how disgusting and filthy it is.
https://www.kcci.com/article/sex-ed-book-will-not-be-restricted-at-ankeny-library-iowa/41759988
She completely excluded all the surrounding parts about "don't sext until you're an adult", "get prior consent", "do not share the pictures you receive", "if porn or sexting is taking up a big part of your life, you should step back and reconsider".
There are absolutely many cases of parents challenging books that don't exist at a library. The problem is, many of these parents are challenging 100 books or more by just challenging lists distributed by places like Rated Books, BookLooks, or random Facebook groups for things like Ottawa Impact. They don't read the books or always verify that they exist.
I apologize. I misread your 2nd paragraph on the previous comment. I have seen these stories before. Not this one in particular but I see now what you meant.
I thought you meant that teachers or parents were hosting reading times at libraries for kids and reading smut or inappropriate stuff (which would only embolden the culture war boogieman rhetoric).
Yes. I mean the theocratic Christian Nationalists trying to get books banned by reading cherry-picked passages, and sometimes reading books that are not even carried.
$40/year that they don't even have to actively go out and pay
A community near me just voted down a huge bond for their schools. And it was merely extending the current bond that expired, so taxes would have gone up $0. Some people just hate education.
Yay. When I watched their meeting a couple weeks ago, you know which one, she was extra standout as a lunatic among lunatics. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Happy to volunteer and contribute to this win and step towards getting rid of Ottawa Impact members
Voter turnout for this might suggest it’ll be tough to repeat for the 4 year term general election in November, but here is to hoping they can!
Or maybe the majority of his dedicated 'R' votes finallu croaked or went senile. (Silver linings!)
Either way. Dont forget to vote!
Removed. See rule #2 in the r/Michigan subreddit rules.
I bet Joe Moss is seething 😂😂🤣🤣
🤔 if you don't make 100 k a year you don't belong in Ottawa county. Please move to another county.
Huge.