Republican VP pick Sarah Palin wanted to ban certain books from public library!
I’m not one to dive much into politics on this blog, there are too many political blogs to count if you’re looking for your politics fix. However, given that it is an election year and this next election will very much decide the new (or same) course the country will take, I can’t help but chime in now and then. And when the issue is libraries and books, you can bet I’ll have something to say.
News reports continue to surface about the past of the McCain presidential VP nominee Sarah Palin. Most of the reports are disturbing, to say the least. The latest sent a shiver down my spine as I read this article on CNN’s Time website that Palin wanted certain books banned from the library when she was mayor of a small Alaskan town:
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.
That’s right, she wanted to ban books from the public library because of "inappropriate language." Worst of all, she used her position in public office to try and "strong arm" the librarian into getting those books out of the library. This is not a person I want a heartbeat away from the presidency. I like being able to go to the library and decide for myself what books I want to read. I don’t need some politician telling me what I can and can’t read.
Right now, there’s not much information about this particular story, but as soon as I can find more, I will definitely keep everyone out there in blogland up-to-date!
Related posts
- UPDATE: What books did Sarah Palin want to ban from library?
- UPDATE: No official list in Sarah Palin controversy, Republicans respond!
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- Wisconsin library board members dismissed for refusal to remove ‘controversial’ titles
- How big is your library of books?
Read More: Censorship, Literary News, Reading
