...and this is how the librarians and city attorney converse about the people and community they represent. Very caring indeed.
In Focus 3/25/2009: Vic Eliason, FOIA, West Bend Library from Crosstalk America on Vimeo.
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13 comments:
This moderator lost any credibility when he compared being gay to being a pedophile or a necrophiliac. That is absolutely irresponsible, reprehensible reporting - talk about trying to appeal to the "prurient interest".
i agree with the first comment. the moderator lost me after that...and then again when he said that leading a homosexual lifestyle is a risky behavior that can take 10 years off your life. i understand the idea of hiv/aids, but they occur in regular heterosexual sex as well. i wish they would just come out and say, "we want books that promote a christian way of life. we want books that send the message that no sex before marriage is right, and one sexual partner is the only way. anything other than that is wrong"
that's what they mean right?
i am not gay, i don't support exposing children to pornogrophy. but i believe that the material should be there, and that PARENTS should be watching what their children read, not the community.
I think you should ban religious speech as I find that offensive. Your religious program is PROMOTING these books by making a huge fuss over them instead of leaving the books collect dust as they have for years.
Your views are nothing short of treason. I as an American have the right to read whatever I want to. The library is a public library and as a member of the public I have the right to go there and read whatever I want to without you screening it. Next you will want to shut down the internet too. Do you have a clue what you can find there? Hitler burned books and I think you would have been standing right behind him given the chance.
The host of this program is a bit off - it's not the Freedom of Information Act that's allowed him to receive these emails. It's Wisconsin's open records statutes.
My question? Given the wide range of adult topics covered in parts of the Bible (rape, incest, murder, erotica, human sacrifice) should anyone be giving it to children?
Should it be moved behind the desk with "The Joy of Sex" and restricted to adults or kids only with adult permission?
John,
Why don't you hip-hop over to Widgerson's?
I answered your redundant, and ridiculous Bible question over there...
http://wigdersonlibrarypub.blogspot.com/2009/03/meeting-unsafe-for-children.html
Thanks!
FOIA (Freedom of Information Act)is legislation signed into law in 1966. Each state, under the FOIA, has its own open records legislation that governs documents at the state and local level.
But you can split hairs if you like.
Ooops, you already did.
(Just for the history buffs out there, Wisconsin had a policy about open records from the start. In County of Jefferson v. Besley, 1853, our Supreme Court first tested and confirmed in 1856 the statutory notion that a clerk had to "keep his office open during business hours, Sundays excepted, and all books and papers required to be kept in this office shall be open for the examination of any person.")
I sat through this whole thing and I want those 45 minutes back!
I loved how most of the "disturbing" emails the host and researcher read were other librarians offering their support to the library. What is wrong with that? Colleagues support each other. Big deal. Librarians are generally against censorship....go figure. No surprises here, just like there were no mysterious schemes or agendas uncovered.
I also loved how Vic got people's gender wrong continuously. Gotta respect those research skills and the amount of preparation he did.
Actually, I thought it was quite revealing as far as how these people feel about their community. Us and them mentality. Not that the community could possibly be someone they should LISTEN TO, or whose thoughts and concerns should be CONSIDERED. No, only that we needed to find others to band together with us and "show them" that we will do what we want. And by the way, the library board president personally REQUESTS THE MEETING NOT BE TAPED? Sorry, but that looks pretty much like obstruction of information. Think maybe she didn't want the whole community to see the shameful explicit "children's books" we were presenting?
Sorry, Dorothy. You'll have to click your heels three times.... Will you get your time back? Probably not. But hey, nobody twisted your arm!
Ginny:
I would suggest the board president wouldn't want the meeting to be taped for other reasons than obstruction of information. This was to be a public meeting, correct? And probably attended by the media? In such a forum, how could they obstruct anything?
I would imagine that their other/previous meetings have not been taped, as well. They could have a policy in place that meetings are not to be filmed. I think making assumptions about their reasons for not wanting it to be filmed is unfair.
Wrong. I have copies of all policies. Nothing there about specifically NOT taping meetings.
This one is pretty easy. It could be that airing it over and over again on WBCC TV would be painful.
OK, maybe they don't have a policy in place that prevents taping the meeting, but you ignored my other point. Have they taped the previous meetings? I have seen countless Dept. of Public Works and Common Council meetings on the local cable channel, but never a library board meeting. If they have not been taped in the past, I don't think it is unreasonable to want to continue that practice.
The law allows open meetings to be recorded. End of story.
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