Apparently, the days of burning have not faded into history. Earlier this year, the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries have petitioned their local library to remove a selection of books from their shelves. Among them is a book by Francesca Lia Block, Baby Be-Bop, which deals with youth homosexuality and bullying.

The citizen group requested the West Bend library to have the title removed from the children’s section and only make the book available to adults so that they would be aware of their child’s choice of reading. When the library did not immediately complied with the request, the group organised a petition to be sent. In response to this move, a second group called the West Bend Parents for Free Speech was formed to oppose the objections. Consequently, at a meeting beginning of June, the library board received two petitions, one with 700 signatories supporting the move and 1,000 opposing it. The library voted unanimously to sustain their initial decision.

But the story gets better. Once the library sustained their refusal to move certain books to the adult section, the Milwaukee branch of the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) joined the ranks of complainants by filing a suit against the library motioning to have Baby Be-Bop not moved to a different section, but to have it removed from the library completely by stating that the book is offensive. According to the suit, the book is “explicitly vulgar, racial (sic) and anti-Christian”.

But the CCLU goes further than that. Robert C. Braun, president of the Milwaukee branch, has written a fax message to the West Bent Daily News stating that “Mayor Kristine Deiss and the West Bend Library allowed a hate crime book, which offends minorities, gays and Christianity to remain in the public library, despite the fact that both prayers and God’s name have been removed from public places”. He also writes that a vigil is planned outside city hall to “pray for [the] West Bend mayor and city Library Board” and he invites interested individuals “to join us at a later date when we burn the “Baby Be-Bop” book”.

It seems the CCLU has no problem with destruction of public property.