Posted on 12/19/2009 5:55:53 AM PST by markomalley
The American Library Association (ALA) supports intellectual freedom and opposes censorship in any form, including the suppression of information that some may find controversial or objectionable. Libraries and librarians give substance to intellectual freedom by acquiring and providing information without prejudice or restriction and supporting each person’s right to read and speak freely, regardless of their opinions or beliefs.
There are those who challenge the right to read and speak freely, believing that certain ideas and opinions have no place in our common discourse because they find them to be offensive, harmful, or even dangerous. They believe that certain institutions, even society itself, will be endangered if particular ideas are disseminated without restriction.
The most recent example of this behavior can be found in the ongoing campaign against Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, attacking him because GLSEN, an organization he founded but with which he is no longer affiliated, publishes a list of literary works that touch on gay themes. These attacks seek to stigmatize Jennings and GLSEN for providing information for those who are interested in gay-positive books and materials for youth and adults alike.
Many organizations create and distribute recommended book lists as a means of advising either their members or the general public regarding the organizations’ opinions on the contents and suitability of certain books or other materials. In addition, many libraries develop and make available their own readers’ advisory book lists to assist users in locating information on topics of interest. Librarians and educators should be free to provide information about such reading lists to their communities, regardless of viewpoint.
Though Jennings’ and GLSEN’s critics claim to be upholding American morals and values by condemning the GLSEN book list, they are actually undermining the values of tolerance, free inquiry, and self-determination that inform and sustain our democratic way of life in the United States. Stigmatizing particular ideas and engaging in unfounded personal attacks in an effort to censor and suppress opposing opinions and ideas is the antithesis of intellectual freedom, especially when done to discourage and prevent individuals from accessing or considering those opinions and ideas. Such acts strike at the core of our democracy.
— Martin Garnar, Chair, ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee
Not exactly. He's being stigmatized for his vocal support of people and organizations that endorse child molestation.
My wife used to belong to the ALA so we got their magazine. Every issue had the “Censorship Watch” column, where awful things like some libraries not letting children check out R rated movies without a parent’s note were criticized. They HATE internet filtering.
They did publish letters from librarians ojecting to their national “censorship” policy. At first I gave them credit for allowing dissent, but there was never a response from the leadership. Then I figured out what they were implying. “Resistance is futile, so give up”!
My answer to my leftier friends is, “it’s not outlawed, anybody can get it on their own time with their own dime, but why do think a taxpayer funded public library should be the pimp”?
Try putting a Bible in a High School library. ALA’s concerns about censorship disappear.
“publishes a list of literary works that touch on gay themes”
Is that what we are calling books that describe how wonderful experience it was to be “nearly raped by an old man at 13” and giving an old man oral sex on a city bus by a 15 year old? Because those are the books that was recommended to our kids by this organization.
I don’t even consider myself particularly anti-gay, or just don’t care if someone is, but this is DISGUSTING and I have a feeling that if it were a 13 year old girl, it would be a different story.
ALA is disgusting. The things they do so proudly in the name of ‘freedom’ turn my stomach.
Advocating wholesale Child Rape is not Free Speech, it is ISLAM
I would venture to say that most librarians don’t have children and as such don’t see this kind of filth for what it is; filth. It’s also a very violent form of literary and verbal child abuse. This is not ‘’reading material’’ nor ‘’freedom of speech’’ It’s a crime against children. It’s a felony and by disseminating and protecting this garbage and making it available to children, these librarians are accessories to that felony.
I find it hypocritical and disgusting that people would have their homes invaded and put in jail(rightly so) for the type of filth that is allowed at the public library.
Precisely. Any individual in possession of the kind of material described in this article would be and SHOULD BE arrested for felony possession of child pornography. Other felony charges would include attempting to disseminate same and corrupting a minor or attempting to commit lewd acts on a minor. Why is a building, a library in this case and an employee, a librarian who is either a municipal, state or federal employee held to a different standard. In fact, as far as I can tell, no standard at all? The people who champion this garbage are pedophiles, pure and simple and their mission in life is to get their hands on children.
Whenever the word “tolerance” makes its appearance in a screed like this, you can be certain of its political bent. Always.
There is to my knowledge no professional group which does less for its members than the ALA. It is 100% a left wing advocacy group 0% librarians advocacy group.
The organization lives to bash conservatives and Christians.
When a group of Minnesota librarians complained about sexual harassment by public library internet porn surfers the ALA took the side of the porn addicts.
I know of no position taken by the ACLU which the ALA does not support including the legalization of child porn.
As bad as the National Education Association is for education it has been good for many teachers. You can argue in its defense that at least it aggressively promotes the interests of its members. Teachers in many locations owe their financial well being and out sized pensions to the single minded aggressiveness of the NEA.
On the other hand thanks to ALA focus on politics not the welfare of its members, Librarian’s are at the absolute bottom of the wage scale for professionals. It is hard to find a field in which people with Masters degrees routinely make less than 40k a year.
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