Fremont County is large, diverse, and filled with opinions, or “talk in the 10.” “Talk in the 10” is an opportunity for you, our readers, to articulate and share your thoughts about what is happening in the community with the community. Letters may have been edited for clarity and length, but generally have been published exactly as received. The views expressed in the following are solely those of the author. Send your letters to our editors by emailing opinion@county10.com
I wholeheartedly support the Fremont County Library Board’s decision to separate from the American Library Association (ALA). This move is not an act of censorship or political extremism—it is an act of local responsibility and moral clarity.
For too long, the ALA has treated small-town libraries as laboratories for its ideological experiments, insisting that children be given unfiltered access to sexually explicit materials in the name of “intellectual freedom.” It opposes even the most basic parental safeguards, training librarians to defy local values and laws that exist to protect minors. That is not neutrality—it’s indoctrination disguised as professionalism.
Fremont County families have every right to expect that their public library reflects our own community standards, not the dictates of an organization that refuses to recognize moral boundaries or age distinctions. The same society that sets age limits for driving, voting, or drinking should certainly be able to set limits on exposure to pornography and graphic content. Protecting childhood innocence is not censorship; it’s the bare minimum of decency and common sense.
Separating from the ALA doesn’t remove access to knowledge—it returns accountability to the local level, where parents, citizens, and elected representatives can ensure that our libraries are both safe and enriching. The ALA’s radical redefinitions of family, gender, and morality have no place steering public policy in rural Wyoming.
Fremont County’s libraries should once again be houses of learning—filled with timeless literature, history, and works that build character and wisdom, not confusion. By cutting ties with the ALA, our board is affirming what this community has always stood for: freedom with responsibility, knowledge with integrity, and childhood protected by love and good sense.
Sincerely,
Ali Etsinger