Do you know what happened to the vote over whether to close the library in Dayton, Washington?

Here’s the background: An initiative was proposed that sought to close a library in Dayton, a town of 2500 residents, over objectionable books that dealt with LGBTQ and sexual content for teens. It was a test over First Amendment rights versus parental rights. In this case, it was a group of conservative parents who got the initiative passed.

As with a great many issues, this conflict ended up in court. Columbia County Superior Court Judge Julie Karl blocked the auditor’s office from printing ballots that included the measure. She had two major arguments:

1) Only rural voters could decide, even though the library lay within the city limits of Dayton, the largest town in the county. This denied Dayton residents the right of representation as taxpayers.

2) Karl noted that “dissolving the library would be an ‘irreparable loss’ to the community because of the diverse services it provides aside from books, noting its resources for people who are low-income or who do not have housing” .

Had the vote passed, it would have been the first time in the nation’s history that a library was dissolved over book challenges. A bullet was dodged. This culture war ended, at least for now.

Another battle continues, however. It is over the increase in shoplifting in local supermarkets and our seeming inability to end this epidemic.

When I go shopping at QFC in Enumclaw, or especially the Fred Meyer in Auburn, I see some major security issues. In both Enumclaw and Auburn stores, there are cameras in the parking lots on high poles with blinking blue lights that videorecord all people entering and leaving the stores. These poles are there to send a message that illegal behavior is being recorded.

In both the Auburn and Bonney Lake Fred Meyers, Lego boxes are behind locked glass cabinets to prevent thieves from taking them and leaving the store without paying. When I went to the Auburn Fred Meyer last week, I saw an off-duty police officer decked out in a bullet-proof vest and pistol standing at the exit. He was checking receipts as customers leave the store. I asked the officer and a clerk whether shoplifting had diminished. Both agreed thefts had decreased due to the store’s more aggressive measures.

Certainly, no employees should die due to theft as happened in San Jose, California in 2022 when an employee was killed trying to stop a shoplifter. Store owners want to protect their employees AND end shoplifting. The police seem helpless to turn the tide of crime due to staff shortages and low police morale. These negative perceptions are due to a lack of accountability over race, which in some cities seems to be part of a dysfunctional police culture.

So, what’s the solution in these two cases?

Fortunately, in the Dayton library issue, a judge was able to restore balance to the community. In the case of shoplifting, it was the Auburn store management that decided the threat of force was the most effective deterrent. Will prices rise as a result of stricter enforcement? Absolutely. But what else can be done? Hiring a private police force may become more common, at least until attitudes change.

One thing all of us can agree on is that we are living in a time when morality on all levels is being challenged. Until our culture can agree about a standard of integrity for our top leaders in the Presidency, Congress, and the Court, these problems will spread like COVID-19 to the entire nation. As an old Turkish proverb states, “When a fish begins to stink, it always begins at the head.”