[Publib] Anti Diversity Candidate

Kathleen de la Peña McCook kmccook at tampabay.rr.com
Wed Mar 28 06:59:23 EDT 2007


A truly diverse librarianship is an important goal for all of us.
Everyday I work with students who endeavor to grow in understanding 
of problems faced by immigrants,  people of color, people with 
disabilities.
Thus this posting of Mark Rosenzweig called me to action in 
distributing the hateful information that Mr. McClay, a public 
librarian, has posted on his website.
  Mr. McClay has every right to free speech,  but we all have the 
mandate to read what he says about candidates who hold our core 
values in esteem. We have the right to say this person:
"Diversity is a fundamental value of the association and its members, 
and is reflected in its commitment to recruiting people of color and 
people with disabilities to the profession and to the promotion and 
development of library collections and services for all people.'
--Kathleen de la Pena McCook
recipient of Achievement in Library Diversity Research award, 2004.
[http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governingdocs/keyactionareas/ke
yactionareas.htm]

========
From:
Mark C. Rosenzweig
ALA Councilor at large.
f you are a candidate for ALA Council in the present election, you 
might be interested to know you may have been identified onthe Web 
(for posterity) as amember of the vast left-wing conspiracy to 
dominate ALA, by a fellow who is running for Council himself. 
Candidate Greg McClay, on his blog for the "conservative librarian", 
has just published his list of who he thinks should NOT be elected to
Since many of you will not likely venture across the river Styx to 
the Hades of the blogosphere where this wannabe Rush Limbaugh resides 
and reigns, I thought I would bring you this "subversives" list of 
his, still reeking of the sulphur of the nether regions of the far-
Right. See below.
Many on the list will be surprised by the distinguished company they 
are keeping in this exercise. For instance  anyone --literally--who 
Right mentioned "diversity" in their candidate's statement is 
summarily eliminated as
worthy of a vote and often derided. Yes, we have an ANTI-diversity
candidate running for Council.. and he may have YOU on his racist hit 
list
as "soft" on diversity!

You really owe it to yourself, candidate or not, to check out this 
list.
It , with its explanandum and annotations, tells you all you need to 
know
about a candidate for Council who hates everything ALA (and Council)
stands for (including most Councilors).  Check out his reasons for 
telling
people who NOT to vote for.

Hoping you find this illuminating,
Mark C. Rosenzweig
ALA Councilor at large

_______________________________________________________________

Who I´m Not Voting For On Council /Greg McClay
March 27th, 2007 


(*´d names are Progressive endorsed)

 Nadine Flores - #1 goal "recruiting and retaining multi-ethnic
 people" Jim Bennet (Council 85-2002) intellectual freedom, 
diversity,
 yadda yadda yadda James Casey (Councilor, Twit List, Twit List II) 
Thomas
 Brogan - "I believe that diversity should be represented in all 
library
 collections and that library workers should be sensitive to the 
needs of
 all ethnic groups." Angel Batiste - "As a candidate, key issues of
 professional concern to me are diversity, equity of access to
 information, intellectual freedom..." *Tiffani Conner - "my
 professional concerns include open access to informaiton, human 
rights
 and social justice for libraries..." *Ismail Abdullahi - "[strong
 advocate for] continuing education for library personnel and 
libraries to
 play important role in creating global cooperation and understanding
 among communities of the world." Trevor Dawes - "...we are more than
 information keepers; we are leaders, not only in the information 
front,
 but also in the social, educational, and political areanas." Nann
 Blaine Hilyard (Executive Board, Twit list II) *Elaine Harger - "My
 greatest concern is the erosiion of the social, political and
 environmental fabric of our country." *Loida Garcia-Febo Plummer 
Jones
 - "As a Council member, I will be a staunch advocate for minorities 
and
 minority rights." (I really wanted to vote for this guy just because
 his name is `Plummer´.) Janet Hill (Executive Board, Twit List, Twit
 List II) Susan Gregory - "The two most urgent professional concerns 
I
 have are a lack of ethinic diversity in librarianship..." Marti 
Goddard
  - (ASCLA active) "Working in disability communities and 
participating
 in avrious ALA diversity initives has made me passionate about 
ensuring
 that all kinds of libraries have the ability to provide access to 
their
 services and materials for users of all abilities and ages, and who
 represent all racial and ethnic groups." Larry Grieco - "I am
 concerned about the state of intellectual freedom in public 
libraries,
 the right of privacy of the individual library user, and the equal 
access
 of all information, to library materials, and to the Internet." 
Carolyn
 Garnes - former Councilor, SRRT member, is on the Twit list II 
Verlia
 Hoggard - no statement of concern, a library trustee who simply 
lists her
 accomplishments with other social programs
  Allene Hayes - "As a minority I am very interested in working on
  diversity issues in librarianship." Charles Pace -
  (Councilor)"During the course of my career I have become 
increasingly
  concerned by the devaluation of the profession of librarianship and 
the
  MLS degree." *Clayton Garthwait - You would never know by his 
profile
  that he´s a progressive Sue Kamm - (Councilor, Twit List II)
  "Continued vigilance against those on the gamut of political and
  social opinion who seek to foist their beliefs on society." Oh the
  irony. Elizabeth Ridler - Councilor, Twit list II Linda Mielke -
  "Challenges to our collections must be fought from the floor of 
COunil
  to the Board room of the smallest libraries and in the Supreme 
Court."
  Heather McClure - (Councilor, Twit List II) Gladys Smiley Bell -
  (Councilor, Twit List II) M. A. Oettinger - (Former Councilor, Twit 
List
  I) Melora Norman - (Councilor, Twit List II) *Alan Mattlage - "I
  applaud actions by ALA to defend the right to information against 
these
  threats, but believe we must take a more proactive stance. If we
  don´t, no one else will." Cristina Ramirez - "As a multi-lingual,
  Hispanic woman, I feel that I bring fresh perspective to Academic
  Libraries." Bernard Margolis (Councilor, Twit list II)
   *Patricia Wand - (Councilor, Twit List)
   Lian Zhou - diversity, diversity, diversity
   Amy Wells - talks about her work for "local and national
   candidates" and then talks about being able to "effect change both
   within and outside of our organization", too many red flags. Mary
   Stansbury - some interesting codespeak about being "knowledgable
   about and involved in the political processes of our communities,
   states, and nation" and that it is "critical to those we serve."
   I´m not going argue the point but where is it coming from? And of
   course the obligatory diversity line at the end. Claudia Sumler -
   (Councilor, Twit List II) If it wasn´t for the Twit list I might 
have
   voted for her for saying this: "I am concerned that in the rush to
   fillpositions vacated by the Baby Boomer generation that the
   professionis not stopping to consider how best to organize and 
staff
   the libraries of the twenty-first century." I might still if I 
need
   to fill quota. Thomas Weissinger - "My professional concerns 
include
   value theory, professional ethics, and racial/ethnic diversity in
   librarianship. We should be wary of people like Andrei Codrescu 
who
   make political points on the basis of our association´s values." 
   Believe it or not it gets worse after that. John Reimer - (ALCTS
   active) "An admirable strength of ALA among professional 
associations
   has been its ability to advocate and influence policy on a wide 
range
   of issues affecting the library world and greater society." Tom
   Wilding (Councilor 01-04, Twit List, SRRT active) - "[ALA] needs 
to
   aggressively to defend its traditions around intellectual freedom 
and
   social responsibility to foster the growth of well-informed 
citizens in
   an information-rich democratic society." Thomas Schneiter - (LAMA
   active) His statement bounces back and forth between addressing 
the
   needs of the members and addressing "issues of the day". I´m not
   sure what his point is. *K.R. Roberto - (Councilor) #1 important 
issue
   "promoting diversity with regards to race, ethnicity, sexual
   orientation, gender identity and expression, and levels of 
physical and
   mental ability in librarianship". Mental ability in librarianship?
   Can you be a librarian with a mental disorder, or does being a
   librarian mean you have a mental disorder? Kay Runge - (PLA 
active)
   "Whether they are academic, public, school, or special, the 
mission
   is the same-to provide, deliver and impart information in all 
kinds of
   formats. AND to do this in an environment of inclusion, no matter 
what
   may be the user´s age, race, creed or econmic status..."
    Sally Smith - (PLA active) #1 accomplishment: "successfully
    explaining our reasons for not filtering Internet terminals to a
    hostile audience". Define "successfully". John Szabo -
    "ALA´s continuing efforts to develop a more diverse professional
    workforce which reflects the communities we serve is incredibly
    worthwhile and worth of continued investment." And this is one of
    the reasons I´ve come to hate the word diversity. The profession 
may
    be diverse but if a librarian "reflects the community" they serve
    and many communities aren´t all that diverse what is really being
    accomplished?

  I feel somewhat awkward about writing off candidates based only on 
the
  Twit List votes but after the past week of reading posts and emails 
on
  politics and  professionalism I´m just not feeling that generous. 
Let
  some new blood in, a clean slate. 

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