"Basis of a healthy democracy" should give Sarah Palin a clue or two.
I have a hard time imagining a frail Ms. Pukkila walking around in geriatric stockings slipping down over the tops of her sturdy brown shoes, her generic white blouse sporting a 'nifty' pendant, pocket protector full of pens and my overdue notices, staying warm inside an old frayed cashmere sweater, holding an old book in one arm and an even older cat in the other. For that matter, I find it even more difficult to envision the same for Mary Ellen Emmons Baker who took on the now infamous Mayor of Wasilla after being pushed time after time on the subject of banning books, books Palin as Mayor found too objectionable to be included in the stacks of the Wasilla Public Library, pushing Emmons Baker all the while yet refusing, or maybe was simply unable, to articulate even the title of one book she found so utterly offensive or why. Library Director Mary Ellen Emmons Baker? Certainly no frail or wussie librarian there!
Looks like we can cross off the term wussie and hopefully that of frail from our list of clues about the founder of Librarians Against Palin. But what about the cat? Personally, I can picture the founder of LAP in jeans with some old stray named Hemingway on one arm and a well worn book in the other. I'd stake money on the cat and, yes, on the Librarians Against Palin when it comes to a showdown between LAP and Governor Sarah Palin.
We may never know all the reasons this LAP mystery person became a librarian, but knowing what personally drove them through years of hard work necessary to become one would tell us a lot about the person themself. It would help explain why they felt the need to create Librarians Against Palin. It would certainly explain why he or she fights today against a politician with a mindset that would allow herself to consider the banning of books she refused to name from a small town free public library. Why did Palin as Mayor not simply trust the Wasilla librarians and their Board to do their job? (Sarah, was it another one of “God's” plans like the Iraq war or your Canadian pipeline? Or, was it simply more about the 'power' than the books, Sarah Palin?)
Did the LAP founder want to work in an intensely dynamic and fascinating field or were they led to this career choice because they are excited about technology and dealing with interactions within a world of information? Or is it simply because they want the best education possible for all of our children?
How did the LAP founder come by such a passion for knowledge and how did they foster and develop it? I doubt we need Blue's Clues to help us figure this one out.
Why is this founder, this librarian, and their Librarians Against Palin group so determined to enable and empower all of us to develop our own knowledge in our own areas of interest by defending the very purpose of a free public library? Who is this unknown librarian and why their need to turn us all into information specialists? Is it because people like Sarah Palin keep creating the need for librarians to help us become Constitutional experts?
We don't know the color of this person's eyes, but we may have a few clues as to the color of their soul. We don't know what his or her name is or if they like Chevys or Fords, prefer Bach to Johnny Cash, or both, much less what they read. They may have a dog, possibly even a pitbull but I doubt they call it Sarah. My bet still holds that the founder of Librarians Against Palin has an old scruffy cat somewhere or at sometime in their life named for some dead author and that Governor Palin may have bitten off more than she can chew by her actions leading to the creation of LAP.
I have attempted to find clues as to who the founder is and what led them to create Librarians Against Palin by finding out what a librarian is. As a result, we know one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt - Sarah Palin should never underestimate the power and dedication of ANY librarian nor should she underestimate the power of librarians working though groups like Librarians Against Palin.
Is a growing movement by people like these librarians going to deny Palin the job she wants, a job full of duties she didn't even bother to research through the Wasilla Public Library reference section or Google? I believe so.
Will Palin lose out on this opportunity and the very real possibility of becoming President of the United States because she couldn't muster the nerve to make her own phone call to her own local reference librarian to ask her own 'stupid' question? Someone should have told you Sarah, "That is what is called willful ignorance."
My money's on the librarians and the cat.
Come November Sarah Palin will be asking herself "Who was that masked librarian?"
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