Victory in Batavia Library battle

Posted by Matt Yonke on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Last Tuesday, July 16, the Batavia Library Board of Trustees met for the second time to hear area residents’ concerns about the link to Planned Parenthood's vile TeenWire site on the library's "Young Adult Health and Fitness" section of their website.

Over 120 people came to the meeting which again overflowed the capacity of the room. About 20 of those present were sporting Planned Parenthood pink, but the vast majority appeared to support removing the link.

The Board brought in a curious rule at the last minute, requiring that speakers alternate points of view, one speaker for, one speaker against and so on. This gave the APPEARANCE of an equally split crowd rather than the clear pro-life majority that was actually present.

Speeches were limited to three minutes per person and even with the alternating speakers rule, it was clear that the majority of speakers favored the removal of the link.

In the end, The Board decided to move the TeenWire link from the “Young Adult” section of the site to the “Web Reference” section of the Library’s website where teens are much less likely to go.

This is a huge victory, not only because teens are safer from TeenWire’s salacious content, but also because the Batavia Library, and local governments across the Fox Valley, know they’re being watched. It's clearer all the time that pro-life citizens are active and vocal, not a silent minority political figures can safely ignore.

It's good to know that concerned citizens can still make a difference in the way their tax-funded institutions behave.

Here’s a what some of the local press had to say about the story:

• An editorial from the Daily Herald
• A report from the Daily Herald
• A report from the Aurora Beacon

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.