By David Postman, The Seattle Times, 6/23/06
In
New Orleans, Seattle librarians are lobbying delegates at the American
Library Association conference in the hopes of getting their call to impeach President Bush adopted as an official ALA policy.
If you read the comments in the post below you
can see the debate between those who think this is an important stand
for librarians to take and those who wonder what difference it could
make and what, if anything, impeachment has to do with libraries.
I asked those questions of Lynn Lorenz, a Seattle librarian and member of the AFSCME local that adopted the resolution.
“Libraries don’t exist in a bubble. As stated by the ALA,
democracy is the core value of libraries and we’re talking about
unprecedented and sweeping changes by the Bush administration that,
taken as whole, comprise a radical remaking of society, a society that
will no longer be a democracy. … Is it radical? It’s actually what
the majority of people in this country and the world would like to see.
So we said it.”
But in addition to seeing some special role that librarians play, Lorenz argues that more professionals should do the same.
“I think the political terrrain and the political discourse
in this country would be very different if people from all walks of
life, all professions, all organizations, were making strong statements
that repudiate the political direction being led by the Bush
administration. Right now, things are way too silent and people are
beginning to get used to things they would’ve never found acceptable
just a couple years ago. Those of us who voted in favor of the
resolution want this to help break the silence and paralysis that are
setting in. It’s every citizen’s responsibility to not conciliate with
the Bush administration’s crimes.”
Ã
The ALA
has 65,000 members worldwide and about 18,000 expected in New Orleans,
Larra Clark, the ALA’s spokeswoman told me. She said it’s not unusual
for the ALA to consider political issues at its conferences.
“Our membership is very diverse, so there are many, many kinds of
resolutions that are considered; literacy issues to school libraries,
destruction of libraries in other countries, issues in the news,” she
said.
The group has adopted resolutions about propaganda and disinformation related the Iraq war and the Patriot Act at conferences earlier this year and in 2005.
There’s a process the Seattle librarians have to follow to get their
resolution debated before the ALA’a governing body. Lorenz, who is not
attending the convention, said she thinks they have gotten support from
members of the ALA council, which is necessary to get the issue
introduced and debated. She said the ALA’s Social Responsibilities
Round Table is supportive and that other groups will be proposing
similar resolutions that she hopes results in “one unified resolution
calling for the impeachment or resignation of President Bush.”
UPDATE:
To see if librarians in New Orleans were talking about the Seattle librarians’ campaign, I reached Jim Rettig, a veteran member of ALA and a research librarian at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
He has served 14 years on the ALA’s council, which is the 180 or so
member governing board that acts on resolutions. He says he hadn’t
heard much about the impeachment move but that librarians are really
just starting to get to town.
The ALA is set up to foster debate and discussion, he said. “We
truly are committed to freedom of speech and intellectual freedom.
There’s no hindrances to that within our governance structure.”
He said the council has been “criticized by some groups as a tool
for the left. But I’m completing my third term and I would describe
most of its actions as very centrist.” He also said the actions are
rooted in the ALA’s principles.
The librarians are split on their view of the president just like
the rest of the country, he said, and there was no way to predict what
would happen when business meetings get underway.
“I can’t think of a good precedence for this to base a good guess on,” he said.