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Monday, September 22, 2008

Sarah Palin and the Book Scandal

Nadene Goldfoot
Sarah Palin has been said to have wanted to ban books in her library. Today's Oregonian's article by Leonard Pitts Jr. talks about it. He says that in the past Sarah tried to pull books off the library shelves. His information came from the New York Times. At the time she was a member of the City Council of Wasilla, Alaska. She was concerned about a book there called "Daddy's Roommate." It was to be read by children of lesbian and gay parents, or read by people interested in children of these parents. Sarah's campaign manager for mayor said the book was harmless and told Sarah to read it.

Sarah didn't want to read it. Possibly she had read the promotional material about it and was concerned.

When Sarah became mayor, it is reported that she asked the town librarian to remove controversial books from the shelves. She asked three times. The librarian refused, and then was fired from her job. Public presssure caused Sarah to give the librarian back her job.

I haven't been concerned about Sarah because she has said nothing harmful about Israel. As a teacher, I'm really disappointed in anyone that would want to ban books. That's so reminiscent of Germany in the 30's. I tried to find a Palin website to see where she stands about Israel, but unlike Obama and Clinton, could find nothing. However, she doesn't sound open minded at all if she would do something like ban a book.

Sarah should know better She graduated from the U. of Idaho with a B.A. in journalism. I don't know how long she worked at this job, but she should have more respect for a person's right to write and know that banning books is simply un-American.


Oregonian Newspaper page B5, "Books and minds: both should be open"by Leonard Pitts Jr.
http://gawker.com/5044569/factsheet-sarah-palin
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