A plot twist in the misguided efforts to shut down Dayton’s library

Don’t put that e-book down simply but — the unhappy saga of an irrational initiative to shut the general public library in Dayton has taken a hopeful flip.

Columbia County Superior Court docket Commissioner Julie Karl has issued an injunction that quickly blocks the asinine measure — which requires the dissolution of the county’s entire library system — from being positioned on the Nov. 7 poll.

Good.

Karl’s order holds till a Wednesday listening to that may contemplate whether or not the measure would trigger hurt to public providers and deprive Dayton metropolis taxpayers of their voting rights.

It ought to go with out saying that closing down the library most positively would hurt public providers. And since Dayton residents wouldn’t even be allowed to vote on the measure — it could solely seem on the ballots of county residents who dwell exterior town — some voting rights clearly could be bypassed.

In accordance with intensive reporting by the Yakima Herald-Republic’s sister paper, the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, the initiative took place after a gaggle of Dayton-area residents obtained it of their heads {that a} handful of books within the library addressed topics they didn’t need to hear about. And for some purpose, they figured their views had been extra vital than the remainder of the county’s — so of their distorted view, the books needed to go.

The library board, nonetheless, refused to take away the books.

That set off a livid petition drive that ultimately yielded the names of 10% of Columbia County’s registered voters — sufficient to satisfy state necessities for placing the concept of dissolving the library system as much as a public vote.

However then a neighborhood group known as Neighbors United for Progress stepped in.

Hoping to save lots of the Dayton Library, the group filed a lawsuit towards the county and the chief of the petition effort, Jessica Ruffcorn. That’s what led to Karl’s order final week.

If wiser heads prevail on this debacle, the initiative to shut Columbia County’s library system and the cringeworthy push to throttle free thought will finish after subsequent week’s listening to.

As we famous not too long ago, that is precisely the sort of considering that retains nations like Afghanistan and Iran within the Darkish Ages relating to particular person freedoms.

It’s additionally noteworthy that the petitioners deliberately boxed out the voters of Dayton — the individuals who dwell closest to the county’s solely public library. They’re those who’d doubtless have essentially the most to lose by a doable closure, so the chances are good they’d even be the almost definitely to oppose the measure.

It means that the petitioners knew that their thought could be unpopular, but pressed ahead with it anyway. They’re unabashedly snug overriding the desires of the vast majority of their neighborhood.

That flies within the face of democracy — which the petitioners might study extra about in the event that they cared to go to, say, a library.

We strongly urge the Columbia County Superior Court docket to grant the desires of Neighbors United for Progress and maintain this initiative off the poll.

It’s a ham-handed, however harmful, try to slide spiritual nationalism within the again door of certainly one of our nation’s most cherished and useful establishments: the native library.

Time to show the web page on this nonsense.