Chris Roemer: ‘Parental rights’ only exist to ensure progressive parents get what they want | COMMENTARY

I am so tired of people talking about “book bans.”

Think what you want about the kinds of material that should or should not be in school libraries, but using the term “book ban” is intentionally deceitful.

Nevertheless, it is a term being widely used by partisans and the media to describe any effort by non-progressive parents to have a say concerning what books children should have access to in school libraries.

The term is used because it elicits strong emotional reactions, and those emotions are then used to manipulate people about the issue.

Imagine for a moment there is a community where a book called “Thought and Action” is available at Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart and almost every other brick-and-mortar location that sells books. “Thought and Action” is also widely available online.

In addition, the book can be found in most public libraries, but is not available in public school libraries.

Would it be accurate to say “Thought and Action” has been banned?

If that’s a “book ban,” it’s a pretty lousy one.

A Carroll County Times commentary recently argued if a librarian decides a book belongs in a school library that should be the end of the discussion because parents do not have the necessary qualifications to question a school librarian.

According to this commentary, parents need to just trust the professional expertise of teachers and librarians to make these decisions.

In fact, the commentary suggests, no matter how graphic, no matter how sexually explicit, no matter what anyone might think about it, people who question a librarian’s book selections forfeit the right to call themselves freedom-loving Americans.

Now that’s autocracy.

It seems “parental rights” only exist to ensure progressive parents get what they want.

Other parents have no right to expect their children will be protected from sexually explicit material or adult subject matter in schools.

The commentary goes on to argue any parent who thinks they should have a say in that decision is a bad parent. These parents should just tell their kids to stay away from books they find in the library that resemble pornography.

That’s a great plan.

While I can’t speak for the kids of progressive parents, I know sometimes kids from conservative homes don’t always do exactly what their parents tell them to do.

Then again, progressives are smarter and morally superior to the average conservative so the same is probably true of their children, as well.

In the world where progressives live, it’s they who get to decide what they want, and everyone else has no choice but to go along for the ride.

If someone insists on questioning progressive decision making, the game plan is always the same — immediately label the upstart a fascist, a right-wing extremist or some other pejorative, and dismiss anything they say as “hate.”

If that doesn’t work, there’s always Donald Trump.

Actually, I have that backward. A progressive’s first instinct is usually to deflect by bringing up Trump, and then quickly follow up with a fascist remark.

So, if you’re one of the millions of impudent parents who think sexually explicit graphic material has no place in school libraries, you are obviously an anti-democratic, anti-freedom, hatemongering MAGA, right-wing radical extremist.

And you probably smell bad, too.

You know, we never had these sorts of arguments before. There was a time — not long ago —  when there was near-universal agreement, if not about what should be in school libraries, then at least about what shouldn’t be there.

That we are arguing about these things now is just another manifestation of the progressive extremism that has infected every aspect of American society.

The current generation of progressives drank the Kool-Aid, and now they’re itching for their turn to pour it down the throats of the next generation of true believers.

Conservatives just need to keep doing what they believe is right.

Let progressives call you whatever hateful name they can think of. It’s what they do and they do it well.

The truth is, progressive arguments are usually so weak that name calling and bringing up Trump are all they have.

Consider how far left we have traveled in the last 20 years. Now imagine where we’ll be 20 years from now if progressives go unchallenged.

American cities are in their current sorry state because there was no one at the table to tell progressive politicians in those cities their ideas stink.

Now that progressives have destroyed our cities, they’ve turned their sights on the suburbs and beyond.

Is it our intention to allow them to do to our community what they’ve done elsewhere?

Rest assured, they will if we let them.

In the meantime, can we at least acknowledge that books available everywhere except in school libraries have not been “banned,” and it is intentionally deceitful to suggest otherwise?

Chris Roemer is a retired banker and educator who resides in Finksburg. He can be contacted at chrisroemer1960@gmail.com