Governor names advocate for banning books to State Library Board, ruffling feathers

The State of Nebraska has more than 200 boards and commissions staffed by professionals and regular citizens.

They deal with a broad range of subjects, from the recently-created Alzheimer's Disease and Other dementia Advisory Council and State Child Death Review Team, to more recognizable boards, such as the Board of Parole and Board of Trustees for State Colleges.

The governor gets to appoint members to many of these boards and the appointments often go to supporters of the governor and people he knows.

Gov. Jim Pillen has already earned a reputation for picking folks he knows from growing up in Columbus.

His Lieutenant Governor, Joe Kelly, is a Columbus guy, and, among others, he tabbed folks who were from the Platte River town as his chief of economic development (K.C. Belitz) and to fill a vacancy at the State legislature (Carolyn Bosn).

But one of his recent appointments left some people scratching their heads.

I'd compare it to naming an anti-hunting advocate to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

Last month, Pillen tabbed Terri Cunningham-Swanson of Plattsmouth to serve a six-year term on the State Library Board. 

That five-member board's purpose is to promote, develop and coordinate library services across the state. It is also to be "an advocate for the library and information service needs of all Nebraskans," according to its website.

So the head-scratching commenced after the appointment of Cunningham-Swanson, who called for banning more than 50 books at her local middle school and high school libraries in Plattsmouth, according to reporting by Chris Dunker in the Lincoln Journal-Star.

That advocacy earned her the dubious distinction of being recalled from her spot on the Plattsmouth School Board by 62% of local voters. The vote was supported by four of her colleagues on the school board, and the controversy brewed up a student protest walk out and the resignation of the high school librarian.

The hub-bub resulted in the formation of a review committee that removed one book – "Triangles," by Ellen Hopkins – from the school libraries. It also led to the placement of some other books in a restricted section (a section I'm sure school kids have gravitated to, because it was "restricted").

Book banning, in the name of protecting kids, is on a roll nationally.

More than 2,500 books had been banned through the 2022-23 school year across 41 states and 247 public school districts, according to PEN America, a group that tracks and advocates against such bans.

Some of the banned books might surprise you. George Orwell's 1984, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, and Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner are among titles removed from the shelves.

Even Charlotte's Web, a beloved children's book about a friendship between a pig and a garden spider, was banned after a Kansas group objected. Two talking animals must be the work of the devil they reasoned, according to The Week magazine, and only humans, God's highest creation, should be depicted talking.

I've been out of school for quite a while, but I recall respecting the judgment of my teacher, my principal and my local librarian – people specially trained to deal with kids – to use common sense on what I should be reading. 

Cunningham-Swanson told the Journal-Star that she was proud of her record on the school board, which she described as doing "right" by students and "honoring God."

But a leader of the recall effort said that Plattsmouth voters rejected such "extremism" by a wide margin.

“Book bans have no place in Nebraska. We will continue the fight to keep it that way,” Jayden Speed told the newspaper.

If the governor’s goal was to stir things up on the low-profit library commission, the appointment of a book-ban advocate to it will surely do that.

But naming someone that a local community has already deemed unfit to serve over libraries in their town seems like an unusual way to do that.

Paul Hammel has covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. He retired in April as senior contributor with the Nebraska Examiner. He was previously with the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha Sun.  A native of Ralston, he loves traveling and writing about the state.