If the dumb, bassackwards hick-moment fits, then yes. It beats sneaking down to the planning office to make spurious complaints. At least, it’s a better way to go if you aren’t ashamed of your opinions. If you are ashamed of your opinions, you have bigger problems than the possibility that others might judge you.
Fake outrage about the fact that some openly stated opinion might be heard is not real outrage.
The thing about shaming is that it doesn’t work if it’s just a case of someone disagreeing with you. But it works if the person was secretly shitting on their own community.
For those who don’t understand why everyone’s shitting on Kansas all of a sudden:
This is a kid in “zomagahdpeodophilesgonnagetmahkids” fear-gripped suburbia where kids aren’t allowed to walk or bike anywhere outside of mom or dad’s sight line. I doubt this kid and his neighbor kids are as likely to have the easy access to the town library that you’re imagining.
With one of the lowest crime rates in the KC Metro area, I doubt anyone is cowering in fear vs going to the library. Yeesh. If they were, I doubt they would be less paralyzed with fear to approach some strangers house to pick from a collection of god-knows-what.
There’s Educated, and then there’s educated…
Dorothy: “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto…”
Toto: “Phew…”
Another thing, it’s not like this kid’s mini-library is actually providing a needed service. This isn’t some poor neighborhood where people aren’t exposed to/have access to books. No one there has an issue ordering any book they want on Amazon. They have a nice library, and it being a small town, it’s not far away from anyone. While I get the concept of a mini-library is kinda neat, really, no one’s life is being directly effected negatively here.
As a complete side note, this is why I sort of role my eyes a little bit at Little Free Libraries. I mean, great concept. But the outreach aspect is shit. It ends up being something that is promoted to middle and upper-middle class neighborhoods by middle and upper-middle class people who already have access to lots of books and just like the idea of supporting literacy in a hand-wavey way. At least, that’s how it seems to have played out in Minneapolis. You can’t walk two blocks without hitting one of these things in the neighborhoods that need them the least. It feels like a really great example of how your good intentions don’t do much if you only operate within your own community and class. Hell, Little Free Libraries might not even be the best way to get books to the neighborhoods that don’t have very good library or bookstore access. I’m not convinced that anybody behind Little Free Libraries has asked.
So because someone disagrees with you, you feel the need to try to publicly humiliate them?
This isn’t about agreement and disagreement. This is about a person who decided a small child’s lending library was bad and called code enforcement. There is no indication they had approached the family with their concerns. There was never even a chance for disagreement. They simply narc’d on a kind trying to be helpful.
Now, if I wanted to publicly humiliate someone because they disagree with me I might choose someone who also supports anti-social behavior… You know, the type of person who is excited about being on the HOA board. Or the kind of person who is more concerned with how their neighborhood looks than the lives of their neighbors. Perhaps I would pick on some who narcs on kids being cool or maybe just lends support to that kind of person. In other words, someone like you.
I don’t know… in the picture it looks no larger than the little libraries I’ve seen. And the guy did say that “little free libraries” are a code violation, not his specific one, but all of them in general. It also sounds like some kill-joy complained about it.
I think that building codes are meant to protect the public from shoddy building practices, in general, not to cut down on civic engagement like this. It’s just silly.
I noticed that too here in Atlanta. The ones I’ve seen are all in the district with the best schools, a good walking neighborhood that has been gentrified out the ying-yang. Not that they are bad, but yeah, I think you’re kind of right.
Not sure that’s really the point, though.
The boy was just trying to do something nice. I suppose he got a lesson in exactly how far that will get you sometimes.
Some irritating fuckstick in your neighborhood will call the “city” (and I use that term loosely on a place like Leawood, KS) and the “city” official will be a spineless idiot in a group of other dumbfucks who can’t think for themselves and/or have the sense to get back to the people that complained with the following - “mind your own business, Mrs. Kravitz”
So what would happen if we found out all the books in his library were about such things as:
Suddenly the support for him here would dry up, and all we would hear is the faint sound of heads exploding over the Internet.
I have to question their utility. My apt. complex has one of them and aside from one history book, my life is too short to want to read anything offered there.
Weren’t you just pissed off that you thought someone called you a hick? Now you’re bitching about hicks?
Oh, I’m not saying that makes them bad! I think they’re great, no matter where they are. But part of the stated reason for them is an increase in literacy and to help people have access to books who might not otherwise.
I’d just love to see the people in these more affluent neighborhoods take their libraries to places where the kids aren’t already swimming with advantages. It doesn’t have to be either/or.
Obviously, the neighbor who complained was something of a douche. I wasn’t suggesting otherwise. I was just responding to a specific point that @maggiek made, which I thought was interested and that I agreed with.
There are Little Free Libraries in less affluent places - one reason you may not be seeing them is because you don’t spend much time in those places (not hating - I live in Boulder after all). Of course that is the same reason that many of them ARE in affluent places - those are the places that people think about the idea and take the time and money to make one.
That said, whether an area is affluent or not, the Little Libraries promote a culture of “reading and sharing is a good thing” which is a sentiment sadly lacking even in very well-off neighborhoods. In some areas people have hosted library build-clubs with the intent of getting the libraries into neighborhoods that wouldn’t ordinarily get one - by fronting a place to build, tools and materials, someone can put one up in their own neighborhood without having to make the investment in all that stuff/space, and get some support from people who’ve already done it.
Sometimes, its the extremes that show the idiocy of something 
The main life I see being negatively affected is the kid’s, who is being taught that any attempt to improve the world around you and invest in your community will be met with resistance from know-it-alls who’ve never lifted a finger but are suddenly experts in the topic. It might be true, but man, what a shit sandwich to feed a kid.
In most cities, that response would get your happy ass fired if you’re not union.
No I was bitching about the unwarranted, unrelated stereotyping of Kansans.
Then in the above example I was showing how everyone has a limit as to what they consider tacky. While many people can disagree how appropriate one thing or another is, when you start stacking/adding more items such as those listed, at some point the plot points converge to where most everyone is repulsed.
