Like many Great Neck residents, I watched in horror over the past few weeks as our beloved library was defamed and dragged through the mud.
The supporters of Jessica Hughes, Christina Rusu, and Sara Rivka Khodadadian repeatedly shared inflammatory screenshots of books in our library, branding them as pornographic.
These are award-winning books carefully selected by professional, highly trained librarians. They accused the library of showing pornography to children.
Worse yet, they accused the opposing candidates of showing porn to children, calling for these candidates’ arrests and calling them pedophiles.
These supporters walked through our library, taking photos of books, photos they would use in lurid, creepy videos aimed at scaring the community.
I can only imagine what our librarians were thinking if they witnessed this. Imagine being a librarian and being accused of giving pornography to children.
As a writer myself, I was absolutely horrified. The words I write come from my heart and soul. Some are deeply personal. The work of writers is to share their truth, and by doing so, make others feel less alone.
The vast majority of the books targeted by these candidates’ supporters dealt with LGBTQ issues and spoke directly to children and teens wrestling with their gender and sexuality. These children deserve to have a voice that speaks to them or for them.
By targeting these books, these candidates’ supporters were targeting these children and the LGBTQ community as a whole. This is completely unacceptable.
When Hughes was asked—repeatedly, by multiple people—to denounce these hateful attacks, she deflected.
She assured the public that she was against book banning, but she had nothing to say about the vile, dangerous, disgusting, hateful accusations against our libraries, our librarians, their fellow candidates, and the LGBTQ community in Great Neck.
That’s where we were on Oct. 31, when the election was held.
Finally, those of us who were shocked and disgusted by these hateful attacks could make our voices heard. That’s what elections are for. Like literature, elections are a chance for people to speak their truth and have their feelings and opinions heard.
In this case, however, as many of you likely know, the counting has stopped. Our voices have been silenced.
On election night, the in-person votes were counted first, and Hughes, Rusu, and Khodadadian had a slight lead. But that night, it became clear that opening the absentee ballots was not going to be a simple task.
Within days, Hughes halted the counting, insisting that the absentee ballots were tainted with “voter fraud,” and that she needed to obtain expert counsel. Of over 330 absentee ballots, more than 50 still haven’t been opened.
This isn’t about who wins or loses (although one assumes these candidates would only stop the count if they feared they were losing). No: this is about making sure that every vote is counted, that every voice is heard. Do the candidates really believe that many of us in this community are voting fraudulently?
We will not be silenced. We will not be falsely accused. Open the ballots. Don’t tie up our votes in unnecessary litigation. Count our votes. now..
Wendy Wisner
Great Neck