Thank you for publishing my letters of Oct. 17 and 18 and Mayor pro tem Ladehoff’s rebuttal. Perfect examples of free speech in a free press.

I stand by every word in the letters and represent citizens/patrons who resent the MPL attempts to prohibit library owners from benefiting from the MPL Statement of Purpose, the Freedom to Read Statement, and the Library Bill of Rights. Notice that MPL staff/board and supporters avoid referring to those Statements and Rights.

In this Republic, the staff/board and supporters are free to like or hate intellectual material of choice just as citizens/patrons are free to like or hate intellectual material of choice. Neither group, regardless of title nor stature, is free to prohibit the other from choosing material to evaluate.

The vote not to purchase two periodicals did not in fact follow policy in place at the time. Proof of that is the fact that the April 2023 policy revision removed and clarified one aspect of policy to further restrict patron input. Another failure was that the staff/board failed to advance the principles stated in the Statements and Rights named above.

The director did not encourage adherence to them and offered only a disingenuous quick review of the 100-year-old American Rifleman and The Epoch Times which is subscribed to and read by millions around the world. That vote is history and irrelevant now that generous patrons have offered to fulfill a counter offer accepting additional years subscriptions from the MPL director in Aug. 2022 at no cost to the Library. How much sense is required to accept free popular, timely, and pertinent materials at a time of budget strain?

Shedding tears for “stressed” staff and board who ignore the “public’ in public servant is misguided. Have people forgotten the images of Hitler Youth joyfully throwing manuscripts and books onto a fire? Save tears for American men and women who experienced the ultimate stress of death while defeating Hitler and Tito and advancing our freedoms!

My next letter will contain public information from emails between the MPL Director and State Library of Iowa, and the MPL Director and board members T. Gaffney, M. Lyons, J. Lindholm, A. Beek, R. Morrison, K. Pink, E. Hall, Chief Tupper, and the Cities Attorneys Ahler & Cooney.