Dan Posted some questions, and a really interesting answer from Felice Picano, the c0-author of “The Joy of Gay Sex”
“The instinct and need for people of all ages to be educated is what librarians face every day. Their need to make instant assessments and treat people with dignity is an absolute requirement. They are unsung heroes. Let them do their job.”
Dan and Felice Picano and gay sex
Dan,
Still trying to decide what’s appropriate for everyone under the guise of saying you’re not? Good luck.
What is this business about Judith Krug being the de facto leader of ALA? That doesn’t even make sense.
Communities should decide what’s appropriate, not the ALA
Chuck,
I’m trying to show communities should decide for themselves what’s appropriate, not me, and not the ALA.
As to Krug being the de facto leader, she’s created and run the OIF for four decades enforcing the ALA’s main mission, she created Banned Books Week although no books have been banned in the USA for many decades and although keeping inappropriate material from children is legal and not censorship, she drives the ALA to sue to stop laws like CIPA intended to protect children from harm, she changes the very nature of libraries so they are no longer family friendly and publicly derides family-friendly libraries, and she and her chief deputy are the most widely quoted ALA sources in the media nationwide, particularly on controversial issues. No one else has such a comprehensive role at the ALA on a sustained basis.
More pertinent to this blog post however, that Felice Picano response is really interesting, isn’t it.
-=-=-=-
http://www.SafeLibraries.org
http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/
The ALA doesn’t decide. Not
The ALA doesn’t decide. Not every issue with a challenged book hits the paper and not every one is handled the way the OIF would like. The ALA can’t come where it’s not invited and can’t intervene. PR and legal advice, sure. But they can’t make the decisions for them.
Second, do you really think that one obscure bureaucrat is changing all libraries nationwide? Really? Out side of the nerds that follow this (us, etc.) no one in the whole country knows a thing about ALA, OIF or any of this other inside baseball.
It seems that you attribute your feelings to the country as a whole. Which is a lot like the people who couldn’t understand how Walter Mondale lost the election because everyone they knew voted for him.
But I don’t see what is so interesting about Picano’s comment.
I appreciate what
I appreciate what SafeLibraries is saying. It shows something I never knew of before. If you are so interested in free speech, I don’t see why you make SafeLibraries the focus of attention instead of the situation being revealed. I’m going to keep my eyes open now in my own community to see what’s what. And I love what Picano said about religion and the library. He seems quite intelligent to me.
Communities do decide
And they commonly decide in favour of freedom and liberty and eschew censorship and totalitarianism. Censormorons hate it when they do that, because it means that the censormorons are not getting their way, and that makes them even more petty and spiteful than they were previously.
There is nothing that cannot be found offensive by someone, somewhere.
Point of Inquiry
You know, I’d like to see the court decisions that say it’s legal to remove books from libraries once they’re on the shelf.
And I’m sure ALA wishes it had half the power Dan attributes to it.
Pico and Krug – Book Removal Okay
The case is Board of Education v. Pico, US Supreme Court, 1982.
Also, Judith Krug said in the same Curriculum Review document cited in my blog,
“On rare occasion, we have situations where a piece of material is not what it appears to be on the surface and the material is totally inappropriate for a school library. In that case, yes, it is appropriate to remove materials. If it doesn’t fit your material selection policy, get it out of there.”
As to the ALA’s power I supposedly attribute to it, actually, it attributes such powers to itself, again from the same Curriculum Review source, again from Judith Krug:
“I’m not going to dictate what they do, but I’m certainly going to provide assistance if they want it. You never have to fight a censorship battle alone. The Office for Intellectual Freedom has an incredible program. We provide everything from a dry shoulder to cry on–because we understand what you’re going through–all the way up to legal assistance that will take you to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
-=-=-=-
http://www.SafeLibraries.org
http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/
Pico
Pico isn’t a law. It’s a court decision. Legislatures make laws. You can’t take some books off the shelve and then say “Pico says I can.”
I know you don’t believe this, but court decisions are usually relevant in similar court cases. Or they guide the legislature in making law that is in line with the constitution. Pico doesn’t mean anything unless there is another suit filed.
Further, the Justices (in Pico) said that the decision was not a license for books to be removed on an ad-hoc basis. There had to be a mechanism in place for formal complaints, hearings and resolutions.
Why is there never a coordinated, large-scale movement in a town to have these books removed? It’s always five people or less. If you have 15,000, 30,000, 50,000 patrons or more why should you care what five think about anything?