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It seemed rather insane when Southerners overreacted to John Lennon's statement about Jesus. After recently reviewing his remarks on a video, I have concluded that he was stating a fact and never intended to elevate the Beatles to a divine level. Those of us who grew up in the “Blue” states were reasonable enough to realize this.

Today, we have supposed Christians in the South overreacting to material in public libraries. The most recent is a father claiming his sons had “sleepless nights” after reading a public library book about lesbian sex (“'Obscene' PL Book on Lesbian Sex?” LJ 5/15/07, p. 19). I recall having sleepless nights as a child, after reading or viewing thriller, suspense, or mystery books and movies. No one thought anything about that. I recall having sleepless nights when a video depicted a live decapitation. These scenes are played over and over on the Internet, but I hear nothing about this. Yet a book about sex and love? How absurd.

This is not government censorship but censorship by private groups, so there is nothing we can do? That is, until the Christian right wing wears us all down (and the government, too), so that we all abide by their viewing habits? I resent what these narrow-minded Red State “Christians” are doing to America.—Douglas W. Cornwell, Assoc. Prof., Palm Beach Community Coll., Lake Worth, FL

Norman Oder reports that DC library trustee president John Hill has “little time for criticism” from my organization, the DC Library Renaissance Project (LRP) (“Cooper's Challenge,” LJ 6/1/07, p. 36–40), but Hill's own comments indicate that he has, in fact, taken to heart many of our suggestions:

“It's hard for people to think about teen rooms and puppet theaters when bathrooms don't work and roofs leak,” Hill observes. “I learned there's a lot of anger in the community, that the only reason anyone would be interested in the library is as a potential development ploy.” These comments of Hill's are a pretty good summary of LRP's Blueprint for Cynicism issued in May 2006 (www.savedclibraries.org/index.php?/archives/13-Blueprint-for-Cynicism.html).

Interestingly, Hill did not begin talking this way until after the central library plan he backed was rejected by city council in a divisive and bitter battle last fall.

Whether he “has time for” us or not, Hill has adopted many of our project's suggestions—from holding “open” committee meetings and using volunteers to do “fix-ups” to inviting back to the board table the president of the Federation of Friends of the Library he had asked to step down. One suggestion he has not taken is to apologize to the Friends. Sadly, Hill does not always recognize the true friends of the library. I have no illusions that Hill will ever have time for us, but LRP will continue to listen to the public and do our utmost to represent the public's interest in the public library in Washington, DC.—Robin Diener, Dir., DC Library Renaissance Project, Washington, DC

I'm with Mark Y. Herring all the way in his “BackTalk” stand [“Get a (Real) Life,” LJ 5/15/07, p. 59]. Second Life may be fun, but it's just a game. No more time should be spent there than one would allocate to playing cards.—Faith Burdick, Reference, Galesburg P.L., IL

Kudos on Eva Miller's “The Women Who Drive Library Technology” (LJ 5/1/07, p. 28–32). As a female librarian who works intensively with technology, I'm still a little surprised at the novelty factor that my job seems to have for people. It is great to see techie women profiled in a matter-of-fact way as integral to library technology development and innovation. Keep up the good work!—Jessamyn West, Bethel, VT

While I was impressed to see the focus on gay and lesbian fiction in a Collection Development feature (Devon Thomas, “A Place on the Shelf,” LJ 5/1/07, p. 40–43), I was disappointed that bisexual fiction was not addressed. I am certain that there are enough published materials that at least a few titles could have been included (e.g., April Sinclair's Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice, James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, or Alice Walker's The Color Purple). I have found LJ to be very inclusive so I mention this oversight so that future articles focusing on GLBT literature won't be missing the “B” (bisexual) or the “T” (transgender).—D. Williams, Georgia

In “Cooper's Challenge” (LJ 6/1/07, p. 36–40), LJ erroneously attributed the “Blueprint for Change” report regarding the District of Columbia Public Library to former St. Louis Public Library director Glen Holt. The author is Dubberly Garcia Associates.

We regret publishing an outdated URL for the Environ Biocomposite product listed in “Green Picks” (Library by Design, Spring 2007, p. 19, a supplement to LJ 5/15/07). The current URL is www.environbiocomposites.com.