Re: [Marxism] Books Palin tried to ban

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bill Quimby addresses this question to me: "Are you stating that there was
no 'list', or that there was no attempt at censorship?" 

>From the form of the question, it appears Bill has not followed the accounts
that have emerged. The heart of the matter was her attempted firing of the
librarian, allegedly (at least in part) for resisting Palin on censorship.
Whether any specific texts were involved is unclear, but it appears not, at
least not initially (see the story I link to at the end of this post).

These are a few of the accounts that have emerged that are at least
well-sourced:

I believe the first one in a major national outlet was in TIME magazine: 

"[Former Wasilla mayor John] 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."

A post on Politico recounts the story this way: "According to the
Frontiersman newspaper, Wasilla's library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, said
that Palin asked her outright if she 'could live with censorship of library
books.' Palin later dismissed the conversation as a 'rhetorical' exercise."

And this is from the Kilkenny email, i.e., a first-hand account by someone
who was a participant, and written within a couple of days of Palin's being
anointed McCain's running mate, i.e., before a lot of accounts had appeared
in the press.

"While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected
City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the
library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the
defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out
censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People
who fought her attempt to oust the 
Librarian are on her enemies list to this day."

And this is the New York Times account of the incidents: 

"[F]or some, Ms. Palin's first months in office here were so jarring - and
so alienating - that an effort was made to force a recall. About 100 people
attended a meeting to discuss the effort, which was covered in the local
press, but the idea was dropped.

"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.

"Anne Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting
in Ms. Palin's first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of
banning some books at one meeting. 'They were somehow morally or socially
objectionable to her,' Ms. Kilkenny said.

"The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to 'resist all efforts at
censorship,' 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.

"In 1996, Ms. Palin suggested to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the
conversations about banning books were 'rhetorical.'"

*  *  *

That Frontiersman article is now online here:
<http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2008/09/05/breaking_news/doc48c1c8a60d
6d9379155484.txt>. Unfortunately the later articles recounting the firings
and recall movement against Palin are not online. You would think that with
the gizillions of dollars news organizations are spending "covering" the
campaign someone could have sent someone up to the Wasilla library to write
a detailed account of those events, but it hasn't happened, at least not
yet, and I wouldn't hold my breath.

Joaquin



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