Amanda Jones book of her experience with book ban nuts, led by mostly outside forces, scheduled for release Aug. 29

Yeah, I know I supposedly retired from this column some time ago. I did so because I’ve turned 80 and I’m tired and I feel as though I’ve mostly had my say and someone else can pick up the baton. I also know there are those who vehemently disagree with me and feel I should have packed it in years ago. That’s okay. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion and I understand – and appreciate that, even when they amuse themselves with personal attacks.

But on Tuesday, I received an e-copy of a book written by local school librarian Amanda Jones who wrote about her surreal experience with some very narrow-minded, non-thinking conspiracy nuts who only regurgitate what they are spoon-fed by equally mentally challenged people.

The ones instilling the community with fear and outright lies apparently have an agenda to sow as much discord and controversy as possible – supposedly to detract from real problems like politicians who would capitalize on division to usurp more and more rights from the very ones who keep electing them (keep an eye on your Social Security and Medicare).

Her book, That Librarian, was sent to me by her publisher so that I might review it. Her publisher, by the way, is the same publisher of the best-selling Harry Potter series. So, entrusted with offering my take on her book, I shall attempt to carry out my assigned chore – though, in fact, it is not a chore at all, but a privilege.

But to do so, it must first point out that the examples of the campaign waged against her by Michael Lunsford of St. Martinville, head of some wacko outfit called Citizens for a New Louisiana (of Lafayette), a local internet troll named Ryan Thames and their ilk give ample evidence that when you’re an a$$hole, you tend to talk out of your a$$.

What else could possibly explain an Aug. 14, 2022, email that said in part, “Continue with your LGBT agenda on our children cause (sic) we gonna (sic) put ur (sic) fat evil commie PEDO azz (sic) in the dirt very soon bitch. You can’t hide. We know where you work + live…you have a LARGE target on your back. Click, click…see you soon.”

Several observations must be made at this point. Ms. Jones is a librarian at a public school in Livingston Parish. “We know where you work” would appear to be a direct threat on a school and its occupants. Have we learned nothing of this kind of rhetoric? Threatening a teacher and by extension her students is nothing less than a act of terror. It was an anonymous threat, sent by a coward hiding behind a keyboard, but a coward nonetheless. The sender was also obviously mentally disturbed. No one but a sick, sociopathic person would post such a threat.

The second observation is where the hell was law enforcement on this? Ms. Jones, taking the threat seriously, reported it to both the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and to the FBI. Neither agency acted on this threat. God forbid, if this threat should turn in the worst-case scenario, then Sheriff Jason Ard is going to have some “Ard questions” to answer regard his inactivity. It’s easy to trace an anonymous email and Ard knows it. Yet he extended no effort to discern if it was a threat to be taken seriously.

And Thames, that tower of intellect, posted this incredible message on his Facebook page (as he hid behind his keyboard), “The reality is they are grooming an entire generation so that ‘they’ can feel comfortable and so children will be less resistant to inappropriate advances. ‘They’…are working in your schools and librarys (sic) to push this agenda.”

Well, Thames, perhaps if you had worked a little harder in your school, you’d know that the plural for library is libraries, not librarys.

As for “grooming” children, what the hell do you call it when Republican politicians pass legislation forbidding the teaching about slavery of blacks and genocide against Native Americans? These people, these online critics, are like a two-year-old who thinks if he covers his eyes, he’s invisible. But I digress.

Let’s talk about Mr. Lunsford, or perhaps his PR flak who posted this on Citizens for a New Louisiana’s Facebook page: “After Amanda’s testimony (at a library board meeting), her school was struck by lightning and portions of it burned down. Not Kidding.”

Well, Lunsford, we’re not kidding either. It was a different school, not the school where Ms. Jones serves as librarian. Talking out of your a$$hole again, are we?

I’ve pointed out only a couple of attacks on Amanda Jones. The hate and the lies spread by Lunsford and Thames were bad enough, but people Amanda had known all her life and parents whose children she had taught (the same parents who had previously praised her), also turned on her, feeding on pure BS spewed out on social media. It’s really amazing – and shameful – how otherwise intelligent people will let some half-assed blowhard influence their thinking as though they didn’t have enough sense to separate the wheat from the chaff for themselves.

Amanda’s book is a 288-page love story – a story about her love for libraries (did you get that, Thames?), her love for books and, believe it or not, her love for the one-time Republican philosophy (yep, she’s a registered Republican).

It’s also a story of just how low some people are willing to go to destroy a person’s reputation and to put her and her students in potential danger. It’s a story of an effort undertaken by a select few to dictate their morals and standards on everyone else.

Whether or not you agree with Amanda’s viewpoint is irrelevant. What you should take from this book is an understanding of how willing people can be to accept what is fed them on social media and how these same people are so eager to read some unsubstantiated rumor and run with it as if it were carved in stone.

It’s sad, really. And frightening.

Reserve your copy ($29.99) by emailing Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs at info@cavalierhousebooks.com