The attached resolution (Resolution
Condemning the Actions of President George W. Bush and Calling for His
Immediate Removal or Resignation from Office) was introduced by a group of
Librarians and Library employees from Seattle Public Library to their union,
AFSCME Local 2083, on January 13, 2006.
The Union has since mailed the resolution to its members
for consideration. The resolution will be voted on at the next Union
meeting (4-7-06).
We encourage Librarians, Library employees, and
Library associations everywhere to get involved with this initiative
at a time when voices ranging from Al Gore to some of our most beloved authors
and historians are warning of the Bush administration’s threat to the U.S.
Constitution and the unprecedented danger of concentrated power in the
Executive Branch that approaches fascism. Let us stand with them and demand
that all of our voices be heard, that intellectual freedom be upheld, and that the
question of whether Bush need step down become a critical
debate in all of society.
The Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime has garnered
widespread support. The latest signers include U.S. Representative John Conyers; Rev. Jesse L. Jackson; Paul
Haggis, Academy Award Winning Director/Writer of Crash; Maxine Waters, Harry Belafonte, Sean Penn, Jessica Lange,
Niles Eldredge, curator of the Darwin Show at the Museum of Natural
History, NYC; and Lewis Lapham, former editor of Harper’s Magazine. The
advisory board includes writers Gore Vidal, Mark Crispin Miller
and Howard Zinn.
Some quotes from signatories:
HAROLD PINTER, Nobel Prize winning playwright, 2005: “The Bush
Administration is the most dangerous force that has ever existed. It is more
dangerous than Nazi Germany because of the range and depth of its activities
and intentions worldwide.”
ALICE WALKER: “May all beings
be free, May all Universes know peace. May all Americans be enlightened to our
state of affairs.”
STUDS TERKEL: “It’s time we
assert ourselves. And said to these outrageous liars, who offended our sense of
decency, and native intelligence. It’s time to BUGGER OFF! Get lost! And let’s
unite on behalf of peace and sanity and all that makes life rich and
worthwhile…”
MICHAEL RATNER, President of the
Center for Constitutional Rights: They’re a criminal administration. Today,
they claim they can torture worldwide. They have CIA hellholes worldwide. The
victims of the administration are worldwide: Iraq,
Afghanistan, New
Orleans, detention facilities…One of our lawyers
went to visit one of our clients [in Guantanamo]
and he was hanging from the ceiling, blood streaming from his hands.”
We ask that you:
-
Sign The Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime as an organization,
professional association, union, or individual member of the Library
community. Send signatures to libraryvoices@fastmail.us
. If signing as an individual, indicate if you’d like your organizational
or Library affiliation listed for identification purposes only. We will
forward these signatures to the World
Can’t Wait organization.
-
Add your name to this open letter.
Again, send signatures to libraryvoices@fastmail.us
-
Introduce and pass resolutions
condemning the actions of President George W. Bush and calling for his
immediate removal or resignation from office. Feel free to use the wording
of the attached resolution.
-
Spread this letter and resolution to
colleagues and friends. Direct
people to the website: www.worldcantwait.org
-
Donate funds toward the work of World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush
Regime.www.worldcantwait.org . Donations
can be made online or sent to: World
Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime, 305 W. Broadway, #185, NY,
NY 10013
(Make payable to World Can’t Wait/AGJ). Learn more about this national organization by visiting
Signed,*
Akua Abotare,
Librarian, CNN
Doug Barnes, Public Service Technician, Seattle Public Library
Isobel Bascus,
Librarian, Martin Luther King, Jr Elementary
Karen Trivette Cannell, MLS
Hannah Whitman Clement
Roberta Frye, Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library
Lucinda Glenn, Archivist, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
Peter Gunther, Founder, Progressive
Archivists
Marty Hendley,
Librarian, Seattle Public Library
Mark Hughes, LAII, Seattle Public Library
Ron Jacobs, Library
Assistant, Asheville-Buncombe Public Library, North
Carolina
Jim Kuhn, Librarian, Takoma
Park, MD resident
Paul Lefrak, Librarian,
Broward County Main
Library, Fort
Lauderdale, FL
Lynn Lorenz,
Librarian, Seattle Public Library
Laena McCarthy, library employee, New York City
Wendy McPherson, Young Adult Librarian, Los Angeles Public
Library, activist in AFSCME 2626 (Librarians’ Guild) and AFSCME 2626 delegate
to the L.A. County Federation of
Labor
Valerie Metzler,Archivist/Historian, Altoona, PA
Phil Runkel,
Archivist, Raynor Memorial Libraries, Marquette University
Peter Spitzform, Collection Development Librarian, Bailey/Howe Library, University of Vermont
Tamara A. Turner, MSLS, retired librarian, Seattle
Janet Van Fleet, LAII, Seattle Public Library
Mynique
Williams, Librarian, Seattle Public
Library
Dennis Wolbers, Skyline College
*All affiliations are for
identification purposes only. The views expressed herein are those of the
signers only and not the views of affiliated Libraries or organizations.
Resolution Condemning the Actions of President George W. Bush and
Calling for His Immediate Removal or Resignation from Office
WHEREAS, Democracy is a
core value that defines, informs, and guides our professional practice and is
the base on which rests the foundation of modern librarianship; and
WHEREAS, The American
Library Association affirms the responsibility of the leaders of the United
States to protect and preserve the freedoms that are the foundation of our
democracy; (ALA Resolution on the USA Patriot Act and Related Measures That
Infringe on the Rights of Public Library Users); and
WHEREAS, The actions of
the current President, George W. Bush, have violated that responsibility in
unprecedented ways that threaten the very foundation and form of a Democratic
government. Those actions, many of which are indictably criminal, are as
follows:
·
Entering into an
illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, based upon fabricated and erroneous
information;
·
Crafting of
policies adopted since September 11, 2001, including provisions in the USA
PATRIOT Act (Public Law 107-56) and PATRIOT ACT II and related executive
orders, regulations and actions which threaten fundamental rights and liberties
by:
a) expanding the authority of federal agents to conduct
so-called “sneak and peek” or “black bag” searches, in
which the subject of the search warrant is unaware that his property has been
searched, thereby increasing the
likelihood that the activities of library users, including their use of
computers to browse the Web or access e-mail, may be under government
surveillance without their knowledge or consent
b) granting law enforcement and intelligence agencies
broad access to personal medical, financial, library and education records with
little if any judicial oversight;
c)
permitting the
FBI to conduct surveillance of religious services, internet chat rooms,
political demonstrations, and other public meetings of any kind without having
any evidence that a crime has been or may be committed;
d) diminishing personal privacy by removing important
checks on government surveillance authority;
e) reducing the accountability of government to the
public by increasing government secrecy;
f)
granting
expansive new immigration powers to the Attorney General which are subject to abuse, particularly with
regard to immigrants from Arab, Muslim and South Asian countries.
g) expanding the definition of “terrorism” in
a manner that threatens the constitutionally protected rights of Americans, and
·
Approval of the
use of torture (including practices such as hooding, shackling, drugging, sleep
deprivation, etc.) in the interrogation of suspected terrorists or their
suspected accomplices in his “war on terror.”
·
Illegal
detainment of so called “enemy combatants” and others who are jailed
on the merest suspicion, refusing them legal counsel and either holding them
indefinitely or secretly deporting them.
·
Authorization of
warrantless electronic surveillance of people within the United States,
including U.S. citizens, by the National Security Agency (NSA).
·
Promoting
policies that erode the division of Church and State.
·
Openly asserting
executive power in attempts to override the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Congress, and
the U.S. Judicial system, thus ignoring the system of checks and balances
fundamental to democratic government.
WHEREAS, Librarians are
among the preeminent defenders of intellectual freedom and government openness
in the US; and
WHEREAS, Intellectual
freedom, our primary value as librarians, is seriously violated by the current
political climate which allows for suppression, attack and even criminalization
of dissent; and
WHEREAS, The Library Bill
of Rights states that Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups
concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas;
and
WHEREAS, The broad social
responsibilities of the American Library Association are, in part, defined in
terms of the contribution that librarianship can make in ameliorating or
solving the critical problems of society, and the willingness of the ALA to
take a position on current critical issues with the relationship to libraries
and library service set forth in the position statement (ALA Policy Manual,
1.1); therefore it is
RESOLVED, That President
George W. Bush, as the head of the administration that is leading the US in its
current political direction, should immediately step down from the office of
the President of the United States, whether by resignation or impeachment; and,
be it further
RESOLVED, That __________
support growing movements calling on President Bush to step down, whether by
resignation or impeachment; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That __________
support the actions calling for President Bush to step down initiated by World
Can’t Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime to take place during the State of the
Union Address on January 31, 2006; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That __________ encourages
our members and the library community to mobilize for and participate in the
State of the Union actions; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That __________
will introduce this resolution to __________; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That this
resolution be forwarded to the President of the United States, to the
Attorney General of the United States, to Members of both Houses of
Congress, to the
library community, and to others as appropriate.
Dated this ______ day of ____________, 2006
__________ (Organization)
__________ (City, State)