If I Was Voting...
From the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News: Palin Pressured Wasilla Librarian.
WASILLA -- Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.
According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and had to go.
Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.
Click this link for the full article, which I first read about here at Jessica Rules The Universe.
For deep-seated reasons, the issue bothers me in no small way.
Well, I can't vote in that country's elections anyway.
Holy 1984, Batman!
posted by pgenrestories at 3:30 PM
4 Comments:
A newspaper article covering this issue -- 12 years ago -- might be helpful. No books were actually banned, and the friction between Palin and the librarian came from their politics: the librarian was an appointee and supporter of the previous mayor.
More from Chicago Tribune and Infinite Monkeys Blog.
Of course, this opens the larger question: should any and all books be made available in a public library?
@dominique: My initial reaction to your question is "yes", even if there are books out there that disturb or offend me. But thinking it through exposes some limitations. Oh well. Mahabang diskusyon 'yan. :)
What's more interesting to me is all the vitriol poured on Palin. This article from the Weekly Standard explains why.
So, it's ideology, and the goal of winning the elections. It seems like politics as usual. But as was mentioned in the PGS Multiply, this US presidential elections feels like the results will have greater repercussions around the world. Not that past ones haven't. If W. had not won a 2nd term, the world situation will probably be different from what it is today.
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