SemiConscious Dot Org

Never let it be said that folks in my home state are averse to taking direct action. When a right-wing crank in the town of Lewiston found a sex education book at her local library offensive to her delicate sensibilities, did she work within the established system and fill out a complaint form asking the Trustees to review the book? Did she hold a protest outside the library? Did she file a lawsuit to force the book’s removal, like the loonie in Georgia?

Hell, no! She just stole the books!

A Lewiston woman who was upset by the content of an acclaimed sex education book published 14 years ago has checked out copies from two libraries and refuses to give them back.

“Since I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and the sexually graphic, amoral abnormal contents, I will not be returning the books,” JoAn Karkos wrote the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries last month.

Each letter was accompanied by a check for $20.95 to cover the cost of the book, “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex & Sexual Health.”

“This has never happened before,” said Rick Speer, director of the Lewiston Public Library. “It is clearly theft.”

You gotta love that pretzel logic: The way to protect your children from “amoral” influences is by demonstrating to them that it’s okay to steal something you disagree with. (And yes, it is stealing, whether she offered to pay for them or not.)

Thankfully, neither the library nor the surrounding community are taking this idiocy lying down:

Speer told library trustees that Lewiston police will issue Karkos a summons if she fails to return the book. She faces library fines and a $25 penalty. The library issues at least one summons for overdue books each week, he said. That’s been standard library policy for the past 25 years.

Karkos’ protest has made the book more popular, and requests for copies have increased, Speer said. He said he received several phone calls and e-mails from people around the country applauding the book and offering to buy the library more copies.

“I turned them down,” he said. “We have plenty of copies now. Instead, I suggested they donate a copy to their local library.”

My library has received two donates copies of It’s Perfectly Normal in the past day and a half (as well as multiple requests to check out the book.)

Congratulations, lady. Like all censors, you have only made that which you wish to stifle more popular. And just in time for Banned Books Week, too. Thanks for all the free publicity, dipshit!