Anchorage Mayor Strikes Again: Attempts to stack library advisory board with political allies
Well, well, well! It seems like Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson just can't help himself. He's gone ahead and appointed yet another right-wing radical, Leigh Sloan, to the Anchorage Library Advisory Board (LAB).
Sloan, a failed political candidate, and Bronson loyalist, previously supported an attempt to ban/censor the gender-inclusive book 'Jack Not Jackie' from the Anchorage Public Library (APL).
In a Facebook post dated April 12, 2022, Sloan shared a link to a Change.org petition that, believe it or not (and at this point, you probably do), accused the Anchorage Public Library of traumatizing children! The petition's absurd claim stemmed from an incident where a four-year-old child allegedly wandered unattended in the library and stumbled upon a book that didn't align with her mother's personal values.
Sloan's affiliation with the far-right Save Anchorage Facebook group, notorious for spreading baseless accusations of grooming and pedophilia against Anchorage Assembly members and other elected officials, should give library patrons and residents great pause — especially given that Jamie Allard previously used the group in an effort to censor the very same book.
Then, there's this letter Sloan sent to Mayor Bronson thanking him for liberating the city from Anchorage's mask monocracy and vaccine "vanality" - which isn't even a word.
Bronson's latest move in further politicizing the library also involves his reappointment of two familiar faces to LAB: Jessie Moody and Robyn Branson. Both had been appointed to the advisory board in May of last year - but no action was taken to confirm them.
Branson and her husband donated a combined $150 to Dave Bronson's mayoral campaign. In addition, she actively engages in community service by volunteering and serving as a prayer partner for the Community Pregnancy Center, which identifies as a "Christ-centered organization created to offer support, practical care, and accurate information to women and men facing unplanned pregnancies."
Branson is also a lay counselor and mom's group leader for two local churches, including Anchorage Bible Fellowship.
Jessie Moody's resume states that he is a facilities manager for Alaska Federal Credit Union. In an interesting and rather bizarre plot twist, the Bronson administration has chosen to redact the "activities" section of his resume, which they did not previously redact when Bronson appointed him to LAB last May.
Even though the Anchorage Assembly passed an amendment that ensures LAB functions as a purely advisory role with no authority to ban or censor library materials, Sloan's disturbing advocacy for banning books in public libraries strikes at the very heart of intellectual freedom. By endorsing the removal of books based on ideological or controversial content, she best represents Mayor Bronson's intent to continue his dangerous assault on our collective right to explore diverse perspectives and engage in critical thinking.
Rather than appointing Sloan and political donors to an institution designed to be free from political bias and influence, perhaps Mayor Bronson should consider widening the net and conducting a "world-wide search" for appointees who won't work to further a political agenda that jeopardizes the inclusivity and diversity Anchorage's public libraries should exemplify.
