Librarians Against Bush.org

[reprehensor]

Librarians Against Bush

Mission Statement

Librarians Against Bush is a group of politically active librarians who are concerned about the Bush administration's policies and their effects on civil liberties, privacy, and intellectual freedom. Through legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act, a culture of fear has taken root in this country. As librarians, it is our duty to defend the very principles of our profession under the current administration. Librarians and the citizens they serve should be aware of and refuse to live under such policies, even when we are continually told that they are necessities in the fight against terrorism. For, as Benjamin Franklin said, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

Under the USA PATRIOT Act (sections 215 and 216) the government may visit a library in order to obtain information about the books people read and web sites or electronic resources they view without probable cause that the information is linked to a crime, but simply stating that it is part of “terrorist investigation.” The librarian may not inform anyone of the seizure of such information. If the librarian notifies anyone, they face imprisonment.

In September of last year, Attorney General John Ashcroft stated that librarians were part of a “baseless hysteria” concerning the USA PATRIOT Act, and he claimed that the Justice Department was not using the Act to monitor library users. However, documents released through a Freedom of Information Act Request in June of 2004 detail that a request to use these powers was made only one month after Ashcroft’s statements in September of 2003. This is certainly troubling.

Whether the USA PATRIOT Act has ever or will ever be used is irrelevant and, in practice, unknowable, as the Act itself states that the government doesn’t have to reveal how and when they’ve used provisions in the Act. However, we believe that if only one library user has thought twice about checking out a book of interest or visiting a web site for fear of being monitored, the Act HAS been implemented. This type of environment is in opposition to basic tenets of our profession, namely open access, freedom to read, privacy, and educating and informing every citizen, without prejudice. We believe these tenets are more than the core values of librarianship, they are American values.

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[DenverDem]

1. The American Librarian Association has been the most courageous

opponent of the (anti)Patriot Act from the beginning. I did streaming media of their 2002 national convention for their website and they were militantly against the Patriot Act even then. I was blown away by their powerful statement for freedom.

God Bless the patriotic librarians. I am absolutely not bullshitting on this.

[bandagainstbush]

2. Truly

Always remember two quotes from Thomas Jefferson.

"I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too."

"Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism."

Keep fighting for us all.