Geography Club as Metaphor

As I read Geography Club for yesterday's review, I couldn't help but think of the story as a metaphor for the West Bend library.

In Geography Club, a small group of students start a high school club by and for themselves as gay and questioning teens. But they're afraid the school administration won't allow it, and are afraid of being labeled by other students. Their solution to the problem is to call their club the Geography Club. Why? Because geography is so boring that no other students would ever want to join, and nobody in the administration will pay attention to it.

As I read, I wondered what the West Bend library would be like after every aggrieved group of whiny adults had their turn at removing the books they object to. The pro-gay books would go, then the anti-gay books. The atheist and agnostic books would go, then all the Christian literature. The liberal/progressive political books would go, then the conservative. Needless to say, any factual book of history will disappear along the way.

I see the library silent and empty. Rows and rows of empty shelves. One, lone atlas, standing by itself.