The Alabama Public Library Service (ALPS) Board voted unanimously Tuesday to withdraw its membership with the American Library Association (ALA).
The ALPS has faced close scrutiny in recent months over the availability of sexual explicit books in the children’s section of local libraries. Some lawmakers feel their affiliation with the ALA exposed them to a woke agenda being pushed on kids.
ALGOP Chair John Wahl, who also sits on the ALPS Board, praised the decision recently on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”
“I was very proud of the decision,” Wahl said. “This is actually something that’s long overdue. When you have an organization like the American Library Association that is led by an open Marxist…that is not an organization that an official government and an official Alabama department with the ALPS Board…should be associated with.”
Wahl said this is only the beginning of reforms for the APLS.
“I think this is a good continuing step in the process of cleaning up our libraries,” he said. “We’ve all said several things in the past including adopt the governor’s recommendations for new code, which public comment will be open on that very soon. We set up an inappropriate book list where parents can submit book titles that they feel are inappropriate if they find those in their local libraries.
“And I think this is the next logical step as we continue to work moving forward to make sure that our local libraries are safe places for our children.”
State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine) has pre-filed a bill that says municipal and county leaders are not only in charge of appointing local library board members, but also have the right to dismiss them if they deem necessary.
Wahl didn’t say he was against Elliott’s bill outright, but said he would prefer the APLS reform itself so the Legislature doesn’t need to act on the issue.
“Best case scenario, I would actually like to see this handled by the APLS Board,” he said. “I feel like that is the proper authority and the proper channels. And if we did our job right and set up the proper protocols, there would be no need for the state Legislature to get involved.”
He also admitted that there has been some criticism about some of the recent decisions by the board, but that won’t stop him from helping reform the APLS for the better.
“There’s been a lot of pushback,” he said. “There are moderate and liberal groups who want to undermine our core traditional American values, and that’s ok. You know that’s going to happen. You know these groups are out there. You know they’re going to push back. Any time you touch something with our education, or our libraries, or anything to do with our children, Socialists react because they know that whoever controls the children today controls the country and society tomorrow.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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