Because you could not provide well-planned financial stewardship for a legacy left to this city by a generous group of donors, the Richard C. Sullivan Public Library is doomed to pass to county administration, thus removing one layer of safeguards against censorship in literature and film that support an inclusive community.

State and county censorship of materials in our library will obstruct children and adults who go to our library endeavoring to find out if their sexual orientation and gender identity are valid expressions of human existence. Many will be left feeling alone, isolated, and desperate.

I call upon the Wilton Manors community to remember your lack of civic leadership and fiscal responsibility each time another piece of public art is purchased and placed on our streets, or when one more green space becomes a pickleball court, or when you vote yourselves another raise. You have ensured the demise of our city’s inclusive literary legacy. How dare you facilitate the destruction of one single human thought and the ideological ruin of a treasured inclusive community space?

Act responsibly. Save the library. 

Thomas Paul Severino