Dr. Laura Revisited

[Alan Olson <whs@FRANKLIN.SE-IOWA.NET>]

I enjoy  listening to Dr. Laura and think that she is pretty "right on"
most of the time.  It is wonderful to have someone with the courage to take
a public moral stand on issues.  There is so much that is not right and so
many spokespersons for the evil of the world that I find her stance very
encouraging.

Recently I heard her dissertation about some of the links on the ALA page.
She was particularly concerned about the "Go Ask Alice" site as well as a
link to a site named "Peacefire" which shows people how to subvert the
internet filters.

It is difficult to defend either site.  I would rather that neither of them
were linked to the page.  I would rather that neither of them existed but
that is my own personal opinion.  They do exist and people can choose to
use them or not.

The "Alice" site is under the Teen Hoopla/Health site and is not difficult
to find.

The other site is VERY obscure.  I spent quite a bit of time looking for it
on the ALA web site.  I even used the search engine for the site and typed
in "Peacefire" and received no documents back.  Finally I did a search for
"net nanny" and some comments came up. I linked into the comments section
and there I found the Peacefire link that she had talked about.

The point I am making here is that Dr. Laura is absolutely correct that
there is a link to "Peacefire" on the ALA pages but it is so obscure,
someone would have to spend a long time looking for it.  If you look at all
the links on the ALA pages there is some really good stuff, including
articles on Internet net safety.

It almost looks like she is on a rant and has now started to look for
anything available to pick at.  I have not heard her give any kudos for the
wonderful links that are available there.

Come on Dr. Laura!  Play fair here.  You have some legit points but now you
are starting to over react on this issue.  I can understand the complaint
about allowing access to anyone regardless of age as that is controversial
but don't paint the ALA as a "Bad" group for everything.

On the other hand I see some reactionary e- mail from library people on
this list also.

Perhaps it is time for all of us to "turn the other cheek"

Al

Alan Olson, Media Specialist
Washington Sr. High - Washington IA
aolson@washington.k12.ia.us   OR
whs@se-iowa.net

"The only tools one needs in life:
WD-40 to make things go and
duct tape to make them stop."
http://www.addicted2stuff.com/

What's dumber, expecting educators to be entertaining, or expecting
entertainment to be educational?

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