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Letters

Letter: Troubles for the Anne Arundel library board; Save the Annapolis police chief and sensible lawmaking

Library troubles

Oh, dear. Our county library board has stepped into a dangerous marsh, and if it doesn’t extricate itself quickly, will find itself stuck in a big mess.

As a rule, the library board should never get involved with content. Two reasons:

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First, Director Skip Auld and his team of professional librarians are highly trained and skilled in serving the information needs of the community. That means serving the wide variety of needed interests of all library patrons, not just providing the lowest common denominator of non-controversial stuff or serving only the majority interests in the community.

People are always complaining about library programs and collections, whether it be Harry Potter novels, the works of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, or the paintings of Renaissance masters. The non-political professionalism and knowledge of library staff is their bulwark against these pressures. When a board tiptoes too near content issues, it threatens that bulwark.

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Secondly, the board, itself, should be sensitive to the consequences for their own roles. I know some board members. They are good people, concerned with the welfare of our fine library system. I doubt if they have any intention of becoming Anne Arundel County’s “information nanny,” telling us what is and is not appropriate to read or see.

But, intended or not, that is the path they seem, in appearance at least, to have set themselves.

I suggest they gently extricate themselves from this issue as thoughtfully and soon as possible, or they will be expected to respond to any aggravated soul who discovers something personally offensive on a library shelf.

“We don’t do content” is an effective answer for them.

FRED W. WEINGARTEN

Annapolis

Editor’s note: Fred W. Wiengarten is the retired director of the Office of Information Technology Policy at the American Library Association.

Annapolis owes Baker

Has Mayor Gavin Buckley forgotten it was police Chief Scott Baker who made active shooter exercises a policing priority, one of which was conducted just days before the June 2018 fatal attack on the Capital Gazette staff?

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That training and prescient timing no doubt directly contributed to Annapolis Police Department’s rapid response to the awful scene and seamless integration with other responding law enforcement agencies.

Those actions reflect a culture of bravery that starts at the top. Annapolis owes a debt of gratitude to the police department and its leader. Instead our city’s captain, mayor Buckley, bewilderingly sailed off in the opposite direction.

His claim that the chief had not ardently reached out to residents in the poorer, higher crime precincts of this city is baseless. And his walk back to distinguish the performance of the rank and file from its leader’s is folly.

It is time for the mayor to understand the people writing opinion articles in support of the chief are the tip of an iceberg the mayor is sure to hit later. He needs to reverse course now: Keep Chief Baker.

It’s the right thing to do, and the water is cold.

VIKKI WATKINS

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Annapolis

Sensible gun control

Guest columnist Brian Compere wrote “Gun violence is an epidemic, sensible solutions aren't being considered (The Capital, March 16).” I disagree.

When the legislature was considering their sensible long gun bill last week, the Republicans put forward an amendment that stated if a long gun was used in a crime, it's a mandatory two-year sentence. That seems sensible to me! The Democrats shot it down.

Some years ago there was a law in Maryland that had a mandatory five-year jail term if a pistol was used in a crime. Crime went down! That seems sensible to me!

The Democrats did away with that mandatory sentence a few years back. I feel the Democrats don't want to pass laws that would help solve the gun crime, they actually want the issue to whittle away at the Second Amendment and have the issue to campaign with every election cycle!

JIM GILL

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Edgewater


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