Editor, thank you for this opportunity to respond to misconceptions expressed by Alan Thoreson in the June 20 edition. Instead of accepting the biased fact check industries spin on The American Rifleman and The Epoch Times and instead actually held and read with an open mind several copies of those publications, an accurate view may have been expressed. That is if accuracy was the goal.

The public has a right to read that the Institute for Legislative Action is the lobby/lawsuit arm of the NRA. It operates legally and successfully to protect the Second Amendment. Approx. two pages in each issue of the 100-year-old American Rifleman keeps the public updated on those foolhardy enough to reject the Second Amendment. Marshall Co. voters passed by more than two to one a measure to bolster the Second Amendment. The magazine offers citizens links to gun shows, programs, clubs, events, and training. The magazine isn’t any more political than others now on the shelf.

The fact that some of The Epoch Times staff enjoy any religious affiliation by no means implies that the publication is affiliated with that religion or any religion. The latest 46-page edition includes less than one full page of anything even remotely expressing strong religious views. Two books for sale. The publication is banned in Communist China and The Marshalltown Public Library main shelves!

Mr. Thoreson fails to acknowledge that the MPL is ignoring policy that it claims to adhere to, flip flips on policy and revises policy as retaliation such as limiting comment to 180 seconds a month and prohibiting concerns from making the agenda when submitted as a Statement of Concern.

Here is a quote from The Freedom to Read Statement.

“Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad. We trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe. We do not believe they are prepared to sacrifice their heritage of a free press to be “protected” against what others think may be bad for them. We believe they still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression.”

My determined campaign has exposed a self-serving staff, a complicit board, self-identifying community censors and most of the City Council.

Censorship is alive and well in Marshalltown.