When a story hour becomes a battleground for community values, Jesse White takes you through the tumult of Lancaster County's clash over Drag Queen Story Hour. Following the chilling bomb threats that led to the cancellation of the event at Lancaster City Library, we find ourselves dissecting the intersection of free expression, public safety, and the fissures of local politics.
Amidst the uproar, County Commissioner Josh Parsons' inflammatory suggestion that the bomb threats may be a "false flag" stirs the pot, challenging us to confront the perils of such dangerous rhetoric. This episode peels back the layers of political opposition, revealing how it can morph into outright dehumanization, and underscoring the complexities of tracking anonymous threats in our digital world. Despite the initial fear and disruption, Jesse forecasts a resilient rebound for the story hour, predicting its return with heightened resolve and spotlight, reminding us that understanding and solidarity are the keystones of our community fabric.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're really worried about story time and a
story that isn't appropriate forchildren, maybe you shouldn't
be the one writing it.
Hello and welcome to theKeystone Reckoning podcast for
Tuesday, march 26, 2024.
I'm your host, jesse White.
Obviously, the big news storytoday that we all woke up to was
the tragic collapse of theFrancis Scott Key Bridge in
(00:22):
Baltimore.
They are still searching andtrying to pull people out of the
frigid waters of the Chesapeakeas we speak.
Obviously, there will be a lotto talk about in terms of
repercussions and policy andpolitics and everything, but
obviously that is not somethingthat we want to talk about while
people's lives are still indanger.
(00:42):
So we're going to put a pin inthat and just watch, like
everybody, and hope and praythat the losses are as minimal
as they can possibly be.
So let's turn to today's topic,which is the massive story that
has come out of LancasterCounty and the city of Lancaster
(01:03):
in particular, regarding theDrag Queen Story Hour and
everything that happened as aresult of it.
For those unfamiliar with thestory, the Lancaster City
Library was hosting a Drag QueenStory Hour, much like has been
held in other communities, otherstates.
It's a simple, straightforwardevent for anybody that wants to
(01:25):
come out and for as the forthose of you who are unfamiliar
with the story, the LancasterPublic Library sponsored a drag
queen story hour that was goingto be held on March 23rd.
It was sponsored by LancasterPride and they described it as,
quote, a wonderful time to getthe community out, queer, folks,
(01:47):
allies, just to get everyonetogether and spend some quality
time enjoying some stories,fellowship, just an overall fun
time.
Pretty straightforward, open tothe public.
Anybody that could show upwanted to show up.
Anybody and this is animportant part of it anybody
that didn't want to show updidn't have to show up.
Don't forget that part.
So that was what the event wasabout.
(02:08):
Of course, and this is why, ifyou don't know the political
makeup of Lancaster County andI've mentioned this before I've
spent a lot of the last twocampaign cycles 22 and 23,
working in Lancaster County onvarious races down there.
So I got to know the politicalmakeup of the area fairly well,
(02:28):
which gives me some insight intokind of what happened and why.
None of this of what happenednext is surprising for those who
are unfamiliar with the area.
Lancaster County itself is, forthe most part, very red, very
Republican there's, but insideof that you have the city of
Lancaster which is literally a180.
(02:49):
It's very progressive, veryDemocratic, but they're kind of
an island in a Red Sea and it istrending.
There are other areas aroundthere Manheim Township, places
like that that are trending blueand I think Lancaster County is
really kind of a bellwether fora large portion of Pennsylvania
.
It really politically remindsme of a lot of the counties in
(03:11):
southeastern PA, the colorcounties around Philly, like
Bucks, montgomery, and I thinkin 10, 15 years you're going to
look at that as a.
Lancaster County is a much morepurple slash blue area.
Lancaster County is a much morepurple slash blue area, but
it's not there yet.
One of the main reasons whythere is so much political
(03:38):
clashing going on there comesfrom young Nazi on the make,
josh Parsons.
He's a county commissioner andhe is clearly navigating for
higher aspirations in everythinghe says and does, which this
story will very clearly lay out.
So when news of this drag queenstory hour came out, parsons
felt the need to chirp up andgive a take that nobody was
(04:03):
asking him for.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And here's the clip of that right now I'll let you
hear his voice chirp up and givea take that nobody was asking
him for, and here's the clip ofthat.
Right now, I'll let you hearhis voice.
This is forcing politicized,woke ideology onto a library.
This is an effort to basicallytake an organization that's
supposed to be neutral andinject it into the political
sphere.
I think that's why they'redoing this, and you know we
don't want that in thiscommunity.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, so let's break down what was said there.
He clearly is condemning theevent.
He's accusing the organizationof being political, which, right
there, you know, in order foryou to believe anything that
happens next, you have to acceptthe premise that a drag queen
(04:48):
story hour is a democratic event.
Right Like that.
It's somehow associated withthe Democratic Party or the
Democratic politics.
It's not.
Obviously this was done by thepublic library, which can
sponsor events of all kinds.
So, and they work with anonprofit in Lancaster Pride.
Now, this is not the first timethat Parsons has taken shots at
(05:12):
nonprofits and communityorganizations.
There is a long history of this, to the point where he's
actually gone in and strippedcontracts away from city
nonprofits that were providingservices for the county and then
move those like no bidcontracts out to other entities
(05:33):
outside of Lancaster County toprovide lesser services at a
greater cost.
I know that because I did theopposition research when I was
working down there, because Idid the opposition research when
I was working down there.
He's the guy that is literallymaking everything political.
Everything he does is political.
And then he also likes to hidebehind the fact that he was a
(05:53):
veteran.
You know that thing where he'sa veteran, ergo he's a greater
patriot than you'll ever be, andanything that he says is the
gospel, literally the gospel.
He's the worst of the worst,placed to the lowest common
denominator out there, asevidenced by what he said about
this.
So you have this drag queenstory hour.
Parsons comes out and to alesser extent the other
(06:17):
Republican, commissioner, rayD'Agostino, but Parsons was the
one out there throwing politicalbombs and I use that word
deliberately and not in any wayjoking because of what happened
next.
So story hour was then canceledbecause a suspicious package was
(06:38):
found at the library and bombthreats were emailed threatening
the event, referencing thelibrary and the home addresses
of the library's executivedirector, the president of
Lancaster Pride and Dan Neffin,who is a journalist for LNP,
which is Lancaster Online.
And Lancaster Online is thepaper of record in Lancaster
(07:01):
County and I have to say, havingdealt with them, they're
phenomenal.
They are One of the single bestnews organizations, especially
in this day and age of shrinkinglocal news coverage.
They're really, really good andthey Lancaster County is lucky
to have them they are fair, butthey actually go after the
(07:23):
stories and they hold peopleaccountable.
They have some wonderfulreporters, editors I've dealt
with many of them and I've nevercome away disappointed.
I've always come away impressed, so, ok.
So you hear, you hear threats,right, and you're like, ok,
somebody emailed a threat.
What does that look like?
Well, it's interesting.
Dan Neffin, the reporter, was,gave an actual description of
(07:47):
what was in.
He read the email on a WITFprogram and this is this is his
quote.
It says, quote we are the onesthat place bombs at the
Lancaster Public Library.
We will kill Tiffany Shirley,the head of Lancaster Pride.
We placed a bomb in her homeand the home of Lissa Holland,
(08:08):
who's a library executivedirector.
She's just an employee, by theway, the executive director,
she's an employee.
My home, neffin's homeStarbucks in Lancaster,
lancaster online office.
At 1.30,.
The bombs will detonate.
Bring the fire department.
We place pipe bombs as well asfuel Bombs will likely cause a
fire spreading to otherbuildings.
(08:28):
Evacuate, so no innocents diespreading to other buildings.
Evacuate, so no innocents die.
You are exploitive, degenerate,pedophiles, child abusers or
expletive.
You know whatever the word wasthey use cowards who rather let
our children get preyed uponthan be called a bigot Blank.
You degenerates.
We will kill you all and purifyour land.
What Like for real, that is nojoke, right?
(08:50):
You hear the phrase oh, therewere threats set.
That is very specific.
We will kill you.
We are going to kill individualpeople.
We are going to kill peoplethat are just doing their jobs
the reporter, the executivedirector of the library.
We will kill you and yourfamily and presumably your
(09:10):
children, if your children arethere.
We are so worried aboutprotecting the children that we
are going to kill your children.
That's where we're at.
They would rather see deadchildren of these innocent
people than having kids go todrag time, drag queen story hour
.
That's the logic, or lackthereof.
That's what we're dealing with.
(09:31):
So then, on top of that, thepolice found a suspicious
package at the library, and itturned out it was a package from
like the USDA, containingcoloring books and some other
things, but it set off the bomb,sniffing dogs, for whatever
reason.
Yeah, they said that.
Look it was.
(09:51):
You know it could be.
The dogs can pick up on a lotof different things, but you
know, for example, if it hadbeen handled by someone, who
would also handle the gun orwhatever.
But like he said and he's right, you know when a dog alerts you
, you just call the bomb squadand, given what those emails
said it was by no email said itwas by no stretch, uh, a, a, a
(10:19):
far, it was no stretch.
To think that this was couldvery easily have been a bomb.
Right, it was no joke.
So that is all horrible,objectively horrible in every
sense of the word.
So then, and to me though, it'salmost not the worst part of it
.
So then, of course, storytime,drag Queen storytime gets
canceled, obviously, right.
So mission accomplished for thepeople trying to disrupt it.
(10:41):
By the way, hundreds of peoplehad signed up for it, and it was
, you know, a lot of peoplefollowed suit in the lead that
Parsons had led had said inorder of challenging and calling
it unfit for children.
This was a statement issued bystate reps David Zimmerman,
keith Grenier and Tom Jones.
(11:01):
Quote as state representativesin Lancaster County, we are
strongly opposed to theLancaster Public Library using
taxpayer dollars to sexualizeour young children by bringing
in drag queen story hour.
This is totally political andimmoral use of our money.
Read the joint statement.
And then it ends with and thisis almost like too cliched quote
we need to protect our children.
(11:22):
Again, they were the ones makingit political.
They made it a political issuebecause apparently the First
Amendment like, just isn't athing whenever it comes to
something they don't like.
You know it's so funny theseRepublicans talk about, you know
, oh, everybody's so thinskinned and everybody's a
(11:42):
snowflake.
You know for being criticalsometimes, but like this wasn't.
These weren't being snowflakes,these guys are being.
They were a blizzard becausethey are.
They were so thin skinned.
But let's call this what itreally is.
They don't give a damn aboutanything.
They just said they did itbecause it was good pandering
(12:04):
politics for the folks back home.
Like I said, josh Parsons, youngNazi on the make, this guy is
just the biggest piece ofgarbage you're ever going to
come across in politics and theyjust can't any time they can
get in the paper to push theirgarbage and take something that
was apolitical and make itpolitical.
(12:24):
That's what they're going to doand that's exactly what they
did here, right, it's exactlywhat they did.
So they go out and geteverybody all worked up.
They actually even held aprayer vigil the night before.
At the prayer vigil, the peoplethere asked God to stop the
event, but didn't call forviolence, which I guess we're
(12:44):
supposed to be thrilled about.
But that is the dance that'shappening here, right, parsons
and these other people come outand they condemn it and they
make it this huge deal.
And then the people out thereand we've seen this, it, you
know, this is, you know, theJanuary 6th mentality.
This is everything else.
They get everybody worked intoa lather.
It's a what it is.
(13:05):
It's a call to arms.
Right, this was a call to arms.
And guess what happened?
Somebody picked up the arms.
Somebody said we're beingcalled into service, our militia
and I'm not saying that, youknow, it was an actual militia,
but it's that mentality, right?
Oh, it's go time, boys.
(13:26):
We got to act.
Save the children.
How do we save the children?
Blow up a bunch of buildingswhere children will be.
We're not dealing with thesmartest people here, but
Parsons and Zimmerman andGrenier and Jones and Bag of
Steel, they knew exactly whatthe hell they were doing.
They knew exactly what theywere doing.
So then, of course, people'slives were threatened.
Reporters lives were threatened.
(13:47):
And, by the way, going back toLancaster Online, parsons has
had a long, a very nastyrelationship with Lancaster
Online, and to the point whereI've always thought he kind of
did the thing that Trump did,where he accused them of being
so mean to him that they almosthad to be more reasonable to
(14:09):
avoid an image of a perceptionof impropriety.
I'm going to guess that that'sprobably not going to be
happening quite so much.
And now that one of theirreporters lives, were threatened
and their office was threatened, where everybody worked there.
Because of what was said nextand this is the part that is
(14:30):
just absolutely unbelievableOkay, josh Parsons, on his
social media, everywhere else,had said well, march 14th he
says you know that this was avery simple issue, despite
efforts by activists to distract, misdirect and misinform.
That's what he said, like onMarch 14th, like 10 days before
(14:51):
the event was supposed to happen.
And it goes on.
I'm not going to read any moreof his garbage.
You know what we're talkingabout here, but that's what you
know.
That's how he framed it right.
Like as soon as this became athing, he was like oh, I'm going
to jump on this and make it athing.
Okay, now, let's so.
Then obviously you've goteverything that happened In the
(15:16):
meantime.
Just I'm reading through whathappened to Lancaster's just to
give you an idea of what thecommissioners are working on.
They passed a resolution sayingthat Lancaster County is a
non-sanctuary county because,obviously black and brown people
in their minds are brown peopleare the problem, right, that's.
You know.
That's what they view theproblem as, not the people that
are threatening to blow upbuildings and kill children.
Okay, but whatever, that's astory for another day.
(15:37):
So here's the here's what hesays.
After the bomb threats.
This was two days ago, so thiswas March 24th.
So the day after this, this waswhat he says.
After the bomb threats.
This was two days ago, this wasMarch 24th.
The day after.
This was what he said.
Quote Sheriff's Office personnel, county emergency management
agency personnel and othercounty assets have been involved
in the Lancaster Public Librarysituation, including dealing
(15:58):
with apparent bomb threats thathave been made apparent.
I read you what they said.
I don't know how you could takethat and think that it was an
apparent bomb threat.
That's about as explicit as itgets Back to his quote.
We continue to monitor thesituation and provide assistance
.
Yeah, because you've been somuch help so far, please keep
assisting, says the Bend Park aswell Plaza area that's where
(16:22):
the library is is well coveredwith cameras and law enforcement
can trace phone calls andcommunications.
It is my hope and expectationthat the perpetrators will be
quickly caught and prosecuted tothe full extent of the law.
Wait for it, because here we go.
This is true regardless ofwhether they actually oppose the
Drag Queen story hour or theysupport it and are seeking to
(16:45):
create outrage against those whooppose it.
The consequences should be thesame and extremely serious.
Threats of violence have noplace in our debates.
Dude, you can just go and F allthe way off.
You are now doubling down andpretending, alleging that this
(17:06):
was a false flag done bysupporters to I'm not even sure
to what end, seeking to createoutrage against those who oppose
it.
Dude, you already created theoutrage, josh Parsons.
You created it, you perpetuatedit.
There was a freaking prayervigil, which, by the way, nobody
threatened to blow up.
The prayer vigil Should just benoted.
(17:27):
Just a thought apparent bombthreats.
It says the area is covered withcameras and law enforcement.
Well, I think we canacknowledge that the bomb.
There were no bombs actuallyplaced right, so that's not
going to do anybody at thispoint.
You know they're going to finda delivery guy dropping off
about a package of coloringbooks, right?
They're not going to findanything there Now tracing the
email?
(17:48):
Yes, that is.
I'm sure there are people doingthat.
I'm quite certain that is not apriority for the county, given
what the leadership of thecounty looks like.
You know not that.
That I mean it's a lawenforcement issue and I do
believe law enforcement will doit.
I also would be willing to betthat they're never going to find
the person because,theoretically, emails can be
(18:09):
traced, but there are enoughways out there, using VPNs and
anonymous email servers, andthere are a lot of things you
can do and I'm sure someone thatmade threats that explicit knew
enough to cover their tracks tosome extent.
I'm not saying they'll neverfind the person.
I'm saying it will probably beexceptionally difficult and I
would be really surprised ifanybody was found out.
(18:29):
Now, I think if they do findthem, I think bringing them to
justice, I think we'll probablyhave them, but just the odds of
it happening are very low.
So what happened was JoshParsons got exactly what he
wanted, and not just Josh.
All of his you, you know,fellow whatevers got exactly
what they wanted.
They got the event canceled.
(18:49):
So they saved the children,right.
They protected the children,they delivered to their, they
preached to the choir, right.
They literally got the exactthing they wanted.
They are heroes to their people, and that's the problem.
These people like this theydon't.
They play such little value onnot just the ideas and the
(19:13):
principles, but the people whobelieve them, that not only are
they willfully ignorant towardsthose people and their needs and
their rights, but they will goout of their way to risk serious
bodily injury and death inorder to make themselves look
better to their people, becausein their minds, those are the
(19:35):
good people, those are the onlyones that matter.
It's such a big problem in ourpolitics now and it really is
something that can go back to tomaga, which is we don't
disagree on policies.
Now it becomes so personal inthat they they have dehumanized
anybody that doesn't agree withthem.
They flatly dehumanize them.
(19:55):
So when something like thishappens, the calls for violence
don't matter, because thevictims deserve it.
In their minds, they deserve it.
That's what we're dealing with,because here's the thing If
they really didn't want this tobe a thing, you know what they
do.
You know what Josh Parsonsshould have done Kept his damn
(20:19):
mouth shut.
This became a national newsstory.
That event is going to happenat this at some point.
I don't know.
I don't know the details, but I, you, you can be sure that it
will happen and it will be amuch bigger deal, because they
elevated the issue.
They elevated the story, theymade it.
They made it an issue byopposing it, by enabling the
(20:44):
violence, by infuriatingeverybody, not just with
everything that happened, but bythen coming back and accusing
the people that wanted the eventto happen or didn't care about
the event, by accusing them of afalse flag operation.
That's what they did.
They did what they set out todo.
So there, you wanted a story.
(21:05):
There's your story.
Doesn't it have a happy ending?
I don't know.
I hope so, but we definitelyknow who the villain is and we
definitely know, at this point,who the victims are.
Thank you for listening.
This has been the KeystoneReckoning Podcast.
I'm Jesse White.
No-transcript.
If you're really worried about story time and a
story that isn't appropriate forchildren, maybe you shouldn't
be the one writing it.
Hello and welcome to theKeystone Reckoning podcast for
Tuesday, march 26, 2024.
I'm your host, jesse White.
Obviously, the big news storytoday that we all woke up to was
the tragic collapse of theFrancis Scott Key Bridge in
(00:22):
Baltimore.
They are still searching andtrying to pull people out of the
frigid waters of the Chesapeakeas we speak.
Obviously, there will be a lotto talk about in terms of
repercussions and policy andpolitics and everything, but
obviously that is not somethingthat we want to talk about while
people's lives are still indanger.
(00:42):
So we're going to put a pin inthat and just watch, like
everybody, and hope and praythat the losses are as minimal
as they can possibly be.
So let's turn to today's topic,which is the massive story that
has come out of LancasterCounty and the city of Lancaster
(01:03):
in particular, regarding theDrag Queen Story Hour and
everything that happened as aresult of it.
For those unfamiliar with thestory, the Lancaster City
Library was hosting a Drag QueenStory Hour, much like has been
held in other communities, otherstates.
It's a simple, straightforwardevent for anybody that wants to
(01:25):
come out and for as the forthose of you who are unfamiliar
with the story, the LancasterPublic Library sponsored a drag
queen story hour that was goingto be held on March 23rd.
It was sponsored by LancasterPride and they described it as,
quote, a wonderful time to getthe community out, queer, folks,
(01:47):
allies, just to get everyonetogether and spend some quality
time enjoying some stories,fellowship, just an overall fun
time.
Pretty straightforward, open tothe public.
Anybody that could show upwanted to show up.
Anybody and this is animportant part of it anybody
that didn't want to show updidn't have to show up.
Don't forget that part.
So that was what the event wasabout.
(02:08):
Of course, and this is why, ifyou don't know the political
makeup of Lancaster County andI've mentioned this before I've
spent a lot of the last twocampaign cycles 22 and 23,
working in Lancaster County onvarious races down there.
So I got to know the politicalmakeup of the area fairly well,
(02:28):
which gives me some insight intokind of what happened and why.
None of this of what happenednext is surprising for those who
are unfamiliar with the area.
Lancaster County itself is, forthe most part, very red, very
Republican there's, but insideof that you have the city of
Lancaster which is literally a180.
(02:49):
It's very progressive, veryDemocratic, but they're kind of
an island in a Red Sea and it istrending.
There are other areas aroundthere Manheim Township, places
like that that are trending blueand I think Lancaster County is
really kind of a bellwether fora large portion of Pennsylvania
.
It really politically remindsme of a lot of the counties in
(03:11):
southeastern PA, the colorcounties around Philly, like
Bucks, montgomery, and I thinkin 10, 15 years you're going to
look at that as a.
Lancaster County is a much morepurple slash blue area.
Lancaster County is a much morepurple slash blue area, but
it's not there yet.
One of the main reasons whythere is so much political
(03:38):
clashing going on there comesfrom young Nazi on the make,
josh Parsons.
He's a county commissioner andhe is clearly navigating for
higher aspirations in everythinghe says and does, which this
story will very clearly lay out.
So when news of this drag queenstory hour came out, parsons
felt the need to chirp up andgive a take that nobody was
(04:03):
asking him for.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And here's the clip of that right now I'll let you
hear his voice chirp up and givea take that nobody was asking
him for, and here's the clip ofthat.
Right now, I'll let you hearhis voice.
This is forcing politicized,woke ideology onto a library.
This is an effort to basicallytake an organization that's
supposed to be neutral andinject it into the political
sphere.
I think that's why they'redoing this, and you know we
don't want that in thiscommunity.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, so let's break down what was said there.
He clearly is condemning theevent.
He's accusing the organizationof being political, which, right
there, you know, in order foryou to believe anything that
happens next, you have to acceptthe premise that a drag queen
(04:48):
story hour is a democratic event.
Right Like that.
It's somehow associated withthe Democratic Party or the
Democratic politics.
It's not.
Obviously this was done by thepublic library, which can
sponsor events of all kinds.
So, and they work with anonprofit in Lancaster Pride.
Now, this is not the first timethat Parsons has taken shots at
(05:12):
nonprofits and communityorganizations.
There is a long history of this, to the point where he's
actually gone in and strippedcontracts away from city
nonprofits that were providingservices for the county and then
move those like no bidcontracts out to other entities
(05:33):
outside of Lancaster County toprovide lesser services at a
greater cost.
I know that because I did theopposition research when I was
working down there, because Idid the opposition research when
I was working down there.
He's the guy that is literallymaking everything political.
Everything he does is political.
And then he also likes to hidebehind the fact that he was a
(05:53):
veteran.
You know that thing where he'sa veteran, ergo he's a greater
patriot than you'll ever be, andanything that he says is the
gospel, literally the gospel.
He's the worst of the worst,placed to the lowest common
denominator out there, asevidenced by what he said about
this.
So you have this drag queenstory hour.
Parsons comes out and to alesser extent the other
(06:17):
Republican, commissioner, rayD'Agostino, but Parsons was the
one out there throwing politicalbombs and I use that word
deliberately and not in any wayjoking because of what happened
next.
So story hour was then canceledbecause a suspicious package was
(06:38):
found at the library and bombthreats were emailed threatening
the event, referencing thelibrary and the home addresses
of the library's executivedirector, the president of
Lancaster Pride and Dan Neffin,who is a journalist for LNP,
which is Lancaster Online.
And Lancaster Online is thepaper of record in Lancaster
(07:01):
County and I have to say, havingdealt with them, they're
phenomenal.
They are One of the single bestnews organizations, especially
in this day and age of shrinkinglocal news coverage.
They're really, really good andthey Lancaster County is lucky
to have them they are fair, butthey actually go after the
(07:23):
stories and they hold peopleaccountable.
They have some wonderfulreporters, editors I've dealt
with many of them and I've nevercome away disappointed.
I've always come away impressed, so, ok.
So you hear, you hear threats,right, and you're like, ok,
somebody emailed a threat.
What does that look like?
Well, it's interesting.
Dan Neffin, the reporter, was,gave an actual description of
(07:47):
what was in.
He read the email on a WITFprogram and this is this is his
quote.
It says, quote we are the onesthat place bombs at the
Lancaster Public Library.
We will kill Tiffany Shirley,the head of Lancaster Pride.
We placed a bomb in her homeand the home of Lissa Holland,
(08:08):
who's a library executivedirector.
She's just an employee, by theway, the executive director,
she's an employee.
My home, neffin's homeStarbucks in Lancaster,
lancaster online office.
At 1.30,.
The bombs will detonate.
Bring the fire department.
We place pipe bombs as well asfuel Bombs will likely cause a
fire spreading to otherbuildings.
(08:28):
Evacuate, so no innocents diespreading to other buildings.
Evacuate, so no innocents die.
You are exploitive, degenerate,pedophiles, child abusers or
expletive.
You know whatever the word wasthey use cowards who rather let
our children get preyed uponthan be called a bigot Blank.
You degenerates.
We will kill you all and purifyour land.
What Like for real, that is nojoke, right?
(08:50):
You hear the phrase oh, therewere threats set.
That is very specific.
We will kill you.
We are going to kill individualpeople.
We are going to kill peoplethat are just doing their jobs
the reporter, the executivedirector of the library.
We will kill you and yourfamily and presumably your
(09:10):
children, if your children arethere.
We are so worried aboutprotecting the children that we
are going to kill your children.
That's where we're at.
They would rather see deadchildren of these innocent
people than having kids go todrag time, drag queen story hour
.
That's the logic, or lackthereof.
That's what we're dealing with.
(09:31):
So then, on top of that, thepolice found a suspicious
package at the library, and itturned out it was a package from
like the USDA, containingcoloring books and some other
things, but it set off the bomb,sniffing dogs, for whatever
reason.
Yeah, they said that.
Look it was.
(09:51):
You know it could be.
The dogs can pick up on a lotof different things, but you
know, for example, if it hadbeen handled by someone, who
would also handle the gun orwhatever.
But like he said and he's right, you know when a dog alerts you
, you just call the bomb squadand, given what those emails
said it was by no email said itwas by no stretch, uh, a, a, a
(10:19):
far, it was no stretch.
To think that this was couldvery easily have been a bomb.
Right, it was no joke.
So that is all horrible,objectively horrible in every
sense of the word.
So then, and to me though, it'salmost not the worst part of it
.
So then, of course, storytime,drag Queen storytime gets
canceled, obviously, right.
So mission accomplished for thepeople trying to disrupt it.
(10:41):
By the way, hundreds of peoplehad signed up for it, and it was
, you know, a lot of peoplefollowed suit in the lead that
Parsons had led had said inorder of challenging and calling
it unfit for children.
This was a statement issued bystate reps David Zimmerman,
keith Grenier and Tom Jones.
(11:01):
Quote as state representativesin Lancaster County, we are
strongly opposed to theLancaster Public Library using
taxpayer dollars to sexualizeour young children by bringing
in drag queen story hour.
This is totally political andimmoral use of our money.
Read the joint statement.
And then it ends with and thisis almost like too cliched quote
we need to protect our children.
(11:22):
Again, they were the ones makingit political.
They made it a political issuebecause apparently the First
Amendment like, just isn't athing whenever it comes to
something they don't like.
You know it's so funny theseRepublicans talk about, you know
, oh, everybody's so thinskinned and everybody's a
(11:42):
snowflake.
You know for being criticalsometimes, but like this wasn't.
These weren't being snowflakes,these guys are being.
They were a blizzard becausethey are.
They were so thin skinned.
But let's call this what itreally is.
They don't give a damn aboutanything.
They just said they did itbecause it was good pandering
(12:04):
politics for the folks back home.
Like I said, josh Parsons, youngNazi on the make, this guy is
just the biggest piece ofgarbage you're ever going to
come across in politics and theyjust can't any time they can
get in the paper to push theirgarbage and take something that
was apolitical and make itpolitical.
(12:24):
That's what they're going to doand that's exactly what they
did here, right, it's exactlywhat they did.
So they go out and geteverybody all worked up.
They actually even held aprayer vigil the night before.
At the prayer vigil, the peoplethere asked God to stop the
event, but didn't call forviolence, which I guess we're
(12:44):
supposed to be thrilled about.
But that is the dance that'shappening here, right, parsons
and these other people come outand they condemn it and they
make it this huge deal.
And then the people out thereand we've seen this, it, you
know, this is, you know, theJanuary 6th mentality.
This is everything else.
They get everybody worked intoa lather.
It's a what it is.
(13:05):
It's a call to arms.
Right, this was a call to arms.
And guess what happened?
Somebody picked up the arms.
Somebody said we're beingcalled into service, our militia
and I'm not saying that, youknow, it was an actual militia,
but it's that mentality, right?
Oh, it's go time, boys.
(13:26):
We got to act.
Save the children.
How do we save the children?
Blow up a bunch of buildingswhere children will be.
We're not dealing with thesmartest people here, but
Parsons and Zimmerman andGrenier and Jones and Bag of
Steel, they knew exactly whatthe hell they were doing.
They knew exactly what theywere doing.
So then, of course, people'slives were threatened.
Reporters lives were threatened.
(13:47):
And, by the way, going back toLancaster Online, parsons has
had a long, a very nastyrelationship with Lancaster
Online, and to the point whereI've always thought he kind of
did the thing that Trump did,where he accused them of being
so mean to him that they almosthad to be more reasonable to
(14:09):
avoid an image of a perceptionof impropriety.
I'm going to guess that that'sprobably not going to be
happening quite so much.
And now that one of theirreporters lives, were threatened
and their office was threatened, where everybody worked there.
Because of what was said nextand this is the part that is
(14:30):
just absolutely unbelievableOkay, josh Parsons, on his
social media, everywhere else,had said well, march 14th he
says you know that this was avery simple issue, despite
efforts by activists to distract, misdirect and misinform.
That's what he said, like onMarch 14th, like 10 days before
(14:51):
the event was supposed to happen.
And it goes on.
I'm not going to read any moreof his garbage.
You know what we're talkingabout here, but that's what you
know.
That's how he framed it right.
Like as soon as this became athing, he was like oh, I'm going
to jump on this and make it athing.
Okay, now, let's so.
Then obviously you've goteverything that happened In the
(15:16):
meantime.
Just I'm reading through whathappened to Lancaster's just to
give you an idea of what thecommissioners are working on.
They passed a resolution sayingthat Lancaster County is a
non-sanctuary county because,obviously black and brown people
in their minds are brown peopleare the problem, right, that's.
You know.
That's what they view theproblem as, not the people that
are threatening to blow upbuildings and kill children.
Okay, but whatever, that's astory for another day.
(15:37):
So here's the here's what hesays.
After the bomb threats.
This was two days ago, so thiswas March 24th.
So the day after this, this waswhat he says.
After the bomb threats.
This was two days ago, this wasMarch 24th.
The day after.
This was what he said.
Quote Sheriff's Office personnel, county emergency management
agency personnel and othercounty assets have been involved
in the Lancaster Public Librarysituation, including dealing
(15:58):
with apparent bomb threats thathave been made apparent.
I read you what they said.
I don't know how you could takethat and think that it was an
apparent bomb threat.
That's about as explicit as itgets Back to his quote.
We continue to monitor thesituation and provide assistance
.
Yeah, because you've been somuch help so far, please keep
assisting, says the Bend Park aswell Plaza area that's where
(16:22):
the library is is well coveredwith cameras and law enforcement
can trace phone calls andcommunications.
It is my hope and expectationthat the perpetrators will be
quickly caught and prosecuted tothe full extent of the law.
Wait for it, because here we go.
This is true regardless ofwhether they actually oppose the
Drag Queen story hour or theysupport it and are seeking to
(16:45):
create outrage against those whooppose it.
The consequences should be thesame and extremely serious.
Threats of violence have noplace in our debates.
Dude, you can just go and F allthe way off.
You are now doubling down andpretending, alleging that this
(17:06):
was a false flag done bysupporters to I'm not even sure
to what end, seeking to createoutrage against those who oppose
it.
Dude, you already created theoutrage, josh Parsons.
You created it, you perpetuatedit.
There was a freaking prayervigil, which, by the way, nobody
threatened to blow up.
The prayer vigil Should just benoted.
(17:27):
Just a thought apparent bombthreats.
It says the area is covered withcameras and law enforcement.
Well, I think we canacknowledge that the bomb.
There were no bombs actuallyplaced right, so that's not
going to do anybody at thispoint.
You know they're going to finda delivery guy dropping off
about a package of coloringbooks, right?
They're not going to findanything there Now tracing the
email?
(17:48):
Yes, that is.
I'm sure there are people doingthat.
I'm quite certain that is not apriority for the county, given
what the leadership of thecounty looks like.
You know not that.
That I mean it's a lawenforcement issue and I do
believe law enforcement will doit.
I also would be willing to betthat they're never going to find
the person because,theoretically, emails can be
(18:09):
traced, but there are enoughways out there, using VPNs and
anonymous email servers, andthere are a lot of things you
can do and I'm sure someone thatmade threats that explicit knew
enough to cover their tracks tosome extent.
I'm not saying they'll neverfind the person.
I'm saying it will probably beexceptionally difficult and I
would be really surprised ifanybody was found out.
(18:29):
Now, I think if they do findthem, I think bringing them to
justice, I think we'll probablyhave them, but just the odds of
it happening are very low.
So what happened was JoshParsons got exactly what he
wanted, and not just Josh.
All of his you, you know,fellow whatevers got exactly
what they wanted.
They got the event canceled.
(18:49):
So they saved the children,right.
They protected the children,they delivered to their, they
preached to the choir, right.
They literally got the exactthing they wanted.
They are heroes to their people, and that's the problem.
These people like this theydon't.
They play such little value onnot just the ideas and the
(19:13):
principles, but the people whobelieve them, that not only are
they willfully ignorant towardsthose people and their needs and
their rights, but they will goout of their way to risk serious
bodily injury and death inorder to make themselves look
better to their people, becausein their minds, those are the
(19:35):
good people, those are the onlyones that matter.
It's such a big problem in ourpolitics now and it really is
something that can go back to tomaga, which is we don't
disagree on policies.
Now it becomes so personal inthat they they have dehumanized
anybody that doesn't agree withthem.
They flatly dehumanize them.
(19:55):
So when something like thishappens, the calls for violence
don't matter, because thevictims deserve it.
In their minds, they deserve it.
That's what we're dealing with,because here's the thing If
they really didn't want this tobe a thing, you know what they
do.
You know what Josh Parsonsshould have done Kept his damn
(20:19):
mouth shut.
This became a national newsstory.
That event is going to happenat this at some point.
I don't know.
I don't know the details, but I, you, you can be sure that it
will happen and it will be amuch bigger deal, because they
elevated the issue.
They elevated the story, theymade it.
They made it an issue byopposing it, by enabling the
(20:44):
violence, by infuriatingeverybody, not just with
everything that happened, but bythen coming back and accusing
the people that wanted the eventto happen or didn't care about
the event, by accusing them of afalse flag operation.
That's what they did.
They did what they set out todo.
So there, you wanted a story.
(21:05):
There's your story.
Doesn't it have a happy ending?
I don't know.
I hope so, but we definitelyknow who the villain is and we
definitely know, at this point,who the victims are.
Thank you for listening.
This has been the KeystoneReckoning Podcast.
I'm Jesse White.
No-transcript.
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