Proud to be a librarian...especially on the Fourth

This was on a listserv I belong to for librarians...very appropriate for today, I thought.

from THE NATION

editorial | posted June 28, 2006 (July 17, 2006 issue)

American Patriots


Patriotism, Tom Paine observed, is not best measured in times of
national comfort and quiet. It is in times of crisis, when the summer
soldiers and sunshine patriots have retreated to the safety of official
talking points and unquestioning loyalty, that those who truly
understand the meaning and merit of the American experiment come to its
defense. On the 230th anniversary of the launch of that experiment, let
us reflect on those who have met the test, noting in particular that
some of the boldest expressions of patriotism have come from groups not
necessarily associated with dissent.

Consider America's librarians. Since the enactment of the Patriot Act in
2001, the American Library Association (ALA) has been at the forefront
of the fight to defend freedom of inquiry and thought from provisions of
the act that allow the Justice Department to subpoena the records of
libraries and bookstores. The librarians succeeded in getting the House
to adopt language protecting library records in 2005--only to have it
stripped from the bill to which it was attached by an
Administration-friendly House-Senate conference committee.

But the librarians have not just been lobbying to change the Patriot
Act, they've been on the front lines of exposing its abuses. When four
Connecticut librarians challenged an attempt by the FBI to use a
National Security Letter to obtain records of who was reading what in
that state, the Justice Department slapped a gag order on them. But the
64,000-member ALA and its Freedom to Read Foundation stood up for the
librarians, working with the American Civil Liberties Union, the
Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers
Foundation for Free _Expression to make a federal case of the issue. In
May, after the FBI dropped its defense of the gag order--and shortly
before it withdrew its demand for the records--a federal appeals court
declared that order moot, and the librarians were at last free to speak
out. Peter Chase, director of the Plainville, Connecticut, public
library, explained that he and his fellow librarians decided to fight
because of their frustration at receiving the National Security Letter
even as "the government was telling Congress that it didn't use the
Patriot Act against libraries and that no one's rights had been
violated. I felt that I just could not be part of this fraud being
foisted on our nation."

The ALA isn't the only group challenging the Administration's disregard
for basic liberties. The American Bar Association is investigating
whether George W. Bush exceeded his constitutional authority when he
reserved the right to ignore more than 750 laws enacted since he took
office. The American Medical Association has adopted guidelines that
make it unethical for physicians to participate in interrogating
detainees. And 399 communities and eight states have answered the Bill
of Rights Defense Committee's call for passing resolutions upholding
civil liberties.

Those defenders of basic rights are the patriotic heroes of this Fourth
of July, as are those who exercise those rights, like the Code Pink
members, who will fast for peace outside the Bush White House on the
Fourth, and the Raging Grannies, who will join parades and picnics
around the country. Fittingly, in the city where it all began, a
fife-and-drum corps will lead a parade of anti-Iraq War activists
through the streets of Philadelphia on the eve of the Fourth to a
gathering where they will sign a Declaration of Peace. They are
responding to Paine's call, as relevant now as it was more than 200
years ago: "Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant,
stand forth!"