An organized protest by socialists at Anchorage City Hall was directed at the assistant director of Anchorage Libraries, Judy Eledge. The picketers want her fired, and held signs that said as much. They have accused the assistant library director of creating a bad working environment for workers at the library, which has led to some people quitting.
Another group showed up with signs supporting Eledge. The groups were roughly the same size, although the group trying to get Eledge fired had a microphone and the protesters were making loud accusations for the television cameras.
The environment at the library may not be ideal for some of the more radical former library workers who are bent on pushing leftist agendas on the public.
Eledge is a commonsense old-school educator and conservative who has been in charge of the libraries for over a year. A new library director will arrive in August from out of state.
The accusers say Eledge has removed books from the library. She says that is not so; she’s not removed a single book. But it’s clear she was hired by Mayor Dave Bronson to return the library to a family-friendly environment, not just a daycare center for drug addicts and a stage for drag queen story hour.
Never before in the history of Anchorage has a group of people tried to get a library employee fired by taking to the streets. But such is the divide between cultures in 2022, with the library now at the center of a values wars between the right and the left. Those organizing the protest include the usuals: The Alaska Center for the Environment, Stand Up Alaska, Anchorage Action, GALS (Growing Alaska Leaders, a political organization), and PSL Anchorage — the communist “Party for Socialism and Liberation.“
