In her letter to the editor on July 13, Jessica Luther, assistant director of the Alpena County Library, set up a straw man argument to try to deflect attention away from the fact that she is in favor of making highly sexualized books available to children and teens in the library.

The Alpena County commissioners deemed the content of these books as obscene. Ms. Luther implied that the people who object to obscene, sexual cartoons and text in books available to children don’t really care about children. She named several ways in which she has determined that the Save the Alpena Children group is not helping children and families — she doesn’t tell us how she knows this information.

She has done this to deflect attention away from the real issue.

The real issue is that she and the library board are in favor of making books with highly sexualized and obscene content available to the children of Alpena County.

The STAC group has been trying for months to persuade the library board to institute reasonable safeguards to protect children from these books. The members of this group include teachers, a mental health professional, concerned parents, and grandparents. Every reasonable suggestion to protect children from these books has been rebuffed.

If the library loses its funding because of the library board’s refusal to institute a book selection policy that protects children from obscene illustrations and content, the library board will be to blame, not the people who object to obscenity for children. The books in question can be viewed here: https://linktr.ee/safelibraryalpena. Be prepared to be shocked.

JACKI BOURDEAU,

Presque Isle