Don't Mess with Librarians

Not long after John McCain named Sarah Palin his running mate, I heard some rumbling that she had tried to ban books in her town's library while she was mayor.

Because I have a general belief that free and open libraries are one of the pillars of a democratic republic (and honestly, in part because I have numerous family members and friends of the librarian persuasion), I was dismayed to hear it. What kind of town is it that elects a mayor who even considers banning books, I wondered, if the story turned out to be true? And, somewhat facetiously, had Palin really been foolish enough to mess with a librarian?

Since then, the facts have solidified:

• When Palin became mayor in 1996 she asked the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, if she would be amenable to censoring some books.
  
• Emmons replied (of course!) that she would not.
  
• A few months later, Palin sent Emmons a letter telling her she was fired because (as reported in the Anchorage Daily News and repeated in a McClatchy News Service story) "the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and had to go."
• After seven years in the job, however, Emmons was well-liked, and citizens rallied to her defense.
  
• Palin backed down and Emmons kept her job until 1999, when she resigned.
  

The initial letter was sent early in Palin's first administration, at a time when she was firing a lot of other town staffers, according to the Ann Kilkenny letter that has been widely distributed on the web (linked here from Snopes). As Kilkenny describes it, Palin "hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal..."

The McLatchy report says that Palin told the Anchorage Daily News "that the firing letter was just [emphasis added] a test of loyalty. Emmons had publicly supported her opponent."

As if firing civil servants because they didn't support you in an election makes it any better?! Doesn't this sound an awful lot like the Attorney General's recent hiring practices?