We need more action on Dr. L

[Sharon Hamer <sharonh@HOPKINTON.K12.MA.US>]

We are how many...8,000 school library media specialist? 10,000? We must
show in numbers what we think about this issue.

As for a direct quote, I heard her again yesterday ranting about ALA.
One thing she said was that librarians didn't mind having objectionable
material in the library and giving it to children. Ah, there's the rub.
What exactly is objectionable material? I find white supremacist
material very objectionable, I find using the constitution to defend gun
ownership objectionable, I find using the bible to excuse violence
against homosexuals objectionable. Am *I* the arbiter of what is
objectionable for the world??? Is *she*? If we use filtering software on
the web to eliminate hits to porn websites and we filter sites that use
words like bondage and slaves, would we eliminate all the sites that
refer to the middle passage? It just isn't as simple an issue as saying
we need to keep objectionable material out of the hands of children.
Does anyone in their right mind really think that librarians want to
give children access to pornography???

Uh oh, look who's ranting now!!!

I have sent this letter to other groups I belong to on the internet, to
try and counter the people who are calling and writing to Toys R Us and
Colin Powell. Send this around the net and lets show how powerful
librarians can be.



The American Library Association, a wonderful organization that supports
reading, literacy, information technology and free and equal access to
information, is being attacked by radio talk show host Dr. Laura
Schlessinger for its "position on pornography".

Every day librarians across this country provide children with
beautiful, uplifting stories that many of them are not getting exposed
to at home. For very little money, and even less respect, librarians
devote their professional lives to giving children the information tools
with which to navigate through school, work and life.

The ALA does not advocate pornography for children, nor does it have--to
quote her web page--"a position on pornography". It does take a position
on censorship; a statement which can be twisted and manipulated to mean
whatever one wants it to.

Ask yourself this: did you, as a child, or your children, or your
neighbor's children, ever come home from the library with pornography?
Compare your child's exposure to pornography in the Children's Room of
the library with the magazines, newspapers, television shows and
commercials, and catalogs that are in your own home. Which do you think
gives a child greater exposure to pornography?

Please continue to support the American Library Association and its goal
of free and equal access to information for all Americans.




Sharon Hamer                    Library Media Specialist
Hopkinton MIddle/High School            sharonh@hopkinton.k12.ma.us
88 Hayden Rowe Street           508-497-9820
Hopkinton, Massachusetts 01748  508-497-9829 (fax)

"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time"--Steven Wright

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