You can't forget Farmer's Branch

At least not when they do things like this:

An artist's work is deemed inappropriate and yanked from the walls of the public library.

An 82-year-old woman faces jail time because she can't afford to pay $1,900 in code enforcement fines.

Hispanic activists scramble to educate parents after the city demands the names, addresses and phone numbers of every child enrolled in the local schools.

That's on top of this stupidity we told you about.

But why?

While the illegal immigration ordinance passed by voters last spring is tied up in the courts, the city council is pushing ahead with other measures focused on such things as home maintenance, overcrowding and library conduct. At the helm of the agenda are Tim O'Hare, the council member who forced the immigration issue to the forefront, and his two new allies on the council, Tim Scott and David Koch. They say their goals are to protect homeowners' property values and ensure residents' safety and quality of life. But critics see an all-white, all-male city council hell-bent on purging Farmers Branch of any shred of diversity—be it racial, economic or philosophical.

And that fits what we know of what older WASPs tend to like (in general). Here's the details on those paintings:

In late September, City Manager Gary Greer ordered several paintings removed from Manske Library's gallery. Ironically, the works, by Carrollton artist Alex Trevino, were inspired by the immigration debate and assembled in an exhibit titled "Clash of Cultures." Trevino was not available for comment, but he told The Dallas Morning News that the paintings related to personal experiences of racism as well as what he considers public resentment of Hispanics. One of the paintings showed a lion fighting an eagle, its claws and mouth dripping with the lion's blood.

Mayor Bob Phelps said people had complained about the works and that they weren't appropriate for children because of violence and nudity. "I think if it's offensive it shouldn't be in our library to start with," he said. "I heard from a couple people it was freedom of speech, but it's a matter of opinion."

Is freedom of speech a matter of opinion? I thought the Supreme Court had decided it was not. I know I wouldn't want to live in FB, mainly because of who lives there, and I'm not talking about the Hispanics. There are places where they think it's ok to regulate what's in the library and how you can paint your house. Of course, the Soviet Union has fallen and Communist China isn't so Communist anymore, but it's still an example. Seriously, in America we love to bitch about people doing what they have every right to do, such as wear their pants low and burn the flag. But this is America, which means we accept other people's behavior as long as it doesn't cause us any harm. Or at least that's the America I thought we were living in. As Farmer's Branch shows, that's not the America all of us live in.