This is a rather old topic, but still one that irks me to no end. To start, allow me to explain the situation.
In Searcy, a small town by all standards but our own, there resided a Books-a-million. Not the greatest book store ever, but by far a cut above the standard fare for this location. I loved that store, in our small part of the world, devoid of culture that amounts to anything greater than duck hunting, trucks, god, and getting drunk and chasing pussy, all of which have their own merits, this place was a bastion for those of us who wanted more.
The staff was wonderful, one could spend hours perusing the various tomes, without being disturbed, without being hassled to buy something or get out. In a small alcove at the store front, there was a small coffee shop. Nothing fancy mind you, you could get your more trendy drinks, but I always settled for a medium coffee, two sugars. I truly enjoyed that store. It was a port in the raging storm of conformity.
Enter the Concerned Citizens of White County, a Christian group dedicated to protecting the minds, hearts, and souls of the people. Oh blessings upon this gracious group of citizens, they saved us! It seemed that this book store was selling material that was inappropriate. No matter that I’m an adult, no matter that any of us were. They saw things, things that did not fit into what they felt a good Christian should allow in their community.
What did they see? They saw freedom of ideas; they saw people thinking for themselves, they saw a threat to their views. You see, this store did not discriminate against books, no matter what their subject was. Sexuality, religion, beliefs of any and all types represented in many fashions. Now I’m sure you’re casting a baleful eye upon your monitor and thinking: But that’s what a book store is, that’s normal. Well not here, no, not here.
They launched into action, how dare they have these books in their store. How dare they expose our children to these ideas? These Concerned Citizens, the same people who are responsible for preventing even comedy central from being available on the local cable network, were going to save us from ourselves, no matter that we didn’t need saving. They launched a campaign that eventually lead to Books-a-million leaving, a representative made a statement along the lines of, We won’t stay where we’re not wanted.
Now those of us in the know, and since it’s a small town everyone is, caught wind of the real reason behind their leaving. The building in which they were located was leased to them by Harding University, yet another good Christian establishment. Harding had a deal with another local book store, the only competitor of Books-a-million in this town, Hastings. The Harding students got more than just a student discount. They got software, music, movies, clothes, everything at a huge discount for being Harding students, no other schools students got said discount. Hastings even carried some products that were restricted for sale to Harding students only. So the concerned citizens use the material present as a convenient excuse to shut down the competitor.
Never mind that there were far more offensive things at Hastings. They claimed that it was because of the books about offensive subjects easily viewable by any child that might happen by, God forbid that you should be a responsible parent and not leave a child un-supervised in any store. So rather than be forced out when the lease expired, the retired with what dignity they could muster. I don’t blame them for doing so. And thus the masses were saved from non-conformity.
As I stated at the beginning, this is a sore subject for me. Not that I can’t drive 90 miles to Little Rock to visit the other book stores, and other Books-a-million. Not that I can’t purchase my books online. But they took something from us, for our own protection. They forced them out, because those good Christians felt we had no right to choose for ourselves what we read. We fought back as best we could. Signed petitions, wrote letters, tried to gain media attention. But it was to no avail, they had them, and one way or another they were going to rid of the menace of free will.
Not three months after Books-a-million were forced out of business, did Hastings take up shop in their old location. It makes me sick every time I drive past. Two years after the fact, anytime I feel the need to buy a new book I am reminded of what happened. Now Hastings sits in twisted mockery of what once was, selling things far less palatable. Movies that no good Christian would watch, music that surpasses the obscene, and all the same books are still available, you just have to order them, because they lack the shelf space to stock them, what with all the games they have.
And there ends my rant, with no purpose other than to vent my pent up anger, It’s too late, two years have nearly passed since this occurred. It simply surfaced, and again I felt the need to express myself on the subject, had I been a member of the SDMB at the time, I would have probably been more expedient with my bitching and moaning. But now is as good a time as any. So I thank those good Christians, for saving us whether we needed it or not.