{"id":4763,"date":"2008-09-03T13:37:49","date_gmt":"2008-09-03T20:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/09\/03\/sarah-palin-book-banner\/"},"modified":"2008-09-03T13:37:49","modified_gmt":"2008-09-03T20:57:37","slug":"sarah-palin-book-banner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=4763","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Palin: Book Banner?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent Time Magazine article<\/a> claims that, as Mayor, Sarah Palin looked into removing books with ‘inappropriate language’ from library shelves. The paragraph in question:<\/p>\n

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving “full support” to the mayor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Steve Benen, over at The Washington Monthly claims that<\/a> the librarian was actually fired, then brought back due to public outcry, but he doesn’t cite a source other than the Time article, so I’m suspending judgment on that. If it were true, though, it would be something of an eerie mirror of Palin’s Troopergate situation, and even Time’s report, of a threatened firing, is awfully troubling.<\/p>\n

And then there’s the book banning itself. In a just world, a sane world, a decent world, any attempt to ban a book would be met with disgust from all quarters. Personally, I’ve got no patience for censorship, period. Whether it’s the left or the right that’s doing it, it’s wrong, and I’ve said so often in the past.<\/p>\n

In this case, though, I guess we’d better gear up to hear plenty of defenses of book banning, and why telling us what we’re allowed to read is somehow reasonable and appropriate.<\/p>\n

Oh how I love the party of small government.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong>: Steve Benen’s info came from this New York Times article<\/a>, the relevant section of which is reprinted below.<\/p>\n

Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.<\/p>\n

Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin\u2019s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. \u201cThey were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,\u201d Ms. Kilkenny said.<\/p>\n

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to \u201cresist all efforts at censorship,\u201d Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support. Ms. Emmons, who left her job and Wasilla a couple of years later, declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n

In 1996, Ms. Palin suggested to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the conversations about banning books were \u201crhetorical.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dude.<\/p>\n

UPDATE THE SECOND<\/strong>: Since there seems to be some question as to whether trying to have books with ‘inappropriate language’ removed from library shelves ‘counts’ as censorship, I thought I’d actually print the relevant section from the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom page<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

What Is Censorship?<\/h2>\n

Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons\u2014individuals, groups or government officials\u2014find objectionable or dangerous. It is no more complicated than someone saying, \u201cDon\u2019t let anyone read this book, or buy that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it! \u201d Censors try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries, to suppress and remove from public access information they judge inappropriate<\/strong> or dangerous, so that no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Emphasis mine. I hope that’s clear now. That’s the definition I’m using.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent Time Magazine article claims that, as Mayor, Sarah Palin looked into removing books with ‘inappropriate language’ from library shelves. The paragraph in question: Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}