Common Sense Comes to ALA Council

In her usual inimitable way, Annoyed Librarian notes the triumph of common sense over ideology at ALA Council's recent Midwinter meetings in Seattle:

At Library Juice, you can find the SRRT's own report about the success of their shenanigans at ALA Council in Seattle. The two resolutions totally unrelated to librarianship were defeated, I knew, but I hadn't realized just how soundly. I hadn't noticed the actual numbers when reading about the ALA Council votes regarding defunding the Iraq War and lobbying to have President Bush impeached, but considering the vote count the SRRT report should have been called "We Got Our Collectivist and Collective Ass Kicked."

The resolution on the Iraq War was defeated 98-48. That's a pretty good ass-kicking by anyone's standards. According to the balanced and objective author of the SRRT report, "Almost everyone we talked with was in favor on a personal level, but there is a disconnect between their personal views and their professional lives. We just have to work harder to connect our issues and break down these barriers to fundamentally change our society."


Or, maybe the SRRT/PLG types could just do their political activism on their own time? An outrageous demand, I know.

Greg McClay was there, and has recorded all the gory details. Talk about taking one for the team.


Anyway, this seems to continue a welcome trend from last summer's ALA Annual in New Orleans, where the PLG/SRRT bloc threw a hissy fit over Laura Bush's appearance, to no avail. For now at least, it looks like the radical fringe who are openly bent on politicizing our profession are being marginalized.

Jack Stephens also has a post on this topic. In the meantime, I leave you again with the words of Annoyed Librarian:

The SRRT folk who are so dedicated to "diversity" are still going after the poor little Boy Scouts. This is despite the fact that the majority of Scout Leaders are allegedly pedophiles, which should endear them to the open-minded SRRT radicals. Fortunately, their latest jab has been stalled until Annual. Maybe for the SRRT, diversity means that the ALA has room for both Stalinists and Trotskyites. At Annual they'll probably introduce a resolution that anyone who is a Boy Scout isn't even allowed to use libraries. Because you know the motto of the SRRT: Intellectual Freedom is the Freedom to Think Like Us!