High Profile, Strong Image
If we didn't have Attorney General Ashcroft, we would have to invent him
John N. Berry III, Editor-in-Chief -- Library Journal, 12/15/2003
The librarians of America have responded magnificently. All over the nation they have joined a growing popular crusade to raise citizen awareness of the ever-increasing erosion of basic American individual rights through the infamous Patriot Act and a variety of federal initiatives. Only a sample of that librarian activism is cited below.
First came American Library Association (ALA) president Carla Hayden's immediate, articulate response to Ashcroft. Librarian protests and teach-ins had begun before that—the Vermont Library Association spurred Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to try to scale back the act. After Ashcroft's outburst, the actions of librarians gained a new resonance.
There was ALA's Judith Krug on a panel debating a U.S. attorney, a county prosecutor, and an ACLU leader in Boise, ID. The Hampshire News reported how Marlene Drew (Macon Library, Great Barrington, MA), Pat McLeod (Milne Library, Williamstown, MA), Jan Ekert (Western Massachusetts Regional Library System, Hatfield), and others had protested the pernicious law in those Berkshire mountain communities.
The Nevada Library Association not only voted to urge Congress to repeal portions of the Patriot Act, it organized librarians and other Nevadans—no matter their political persuasion—to protest in front of the federal courthouse. The Maine Library Association participated in a workshop and panel hosted by the Maine Civil Liberties Union and issued a list of librarians to meet the growing demand for speakers from Down East groups. Banned Books Week exhibits highlighted librarian opposition to the law.
In Alaska, June Pinnell-Stephens, chair of the Alaska Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee, mounted her soapbox at nine organizations of journalists, librarians, and others. She was picked up on radio and television and profiled in the Anchorage Daily News.
Montana ALA Chapter councilor Suzanne Reymer spoke at a forum on the act cosponsored by several state organizations, along with the U.S. Attorney for Montana and the executive director of the Montana ACLU. ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table activist Ann Sparanese spoke at an islandwide librarians' summit on the Patriot Act convened by the Puerto Rican Librarians Association.
Mitch Freedman, ALA immediate past president, spoke against the act at the Kentucky, Iowa, and Mississippi library associations and at teach-ins at the Bronx Community College and City University of New York. At the Westchester Library System Freedman directs, ACLU attorney Chris Hansen spoke on the act at their Trustees Institute and Annual Meeting. Already the growing opposition has triggered hearings in Congress on needed revisions to the law, if not its outright repeal.
Librarians have been leaders and very visible participants in this fight. This has brought a dramatic increase in respect for the profession and calls to participate in programs, debates, and discussions on these and other issues.
So, what works? First, it is very useful to have a prominent government official single you out for attack. That means you are important enough to be a problem, and to be a problem for John Ashcroft is perfect placement. Second, it is critical to keep up the pressure and the activism. The new visibility won't last long if we don't stay focused on the issues and if we get distracted by the publicity.
If we continue that focus, the sky's the limit for our profile in the political and social arenas. Of course, if we're really lucky, the Attorney General will call us names again.
