I missed Banned Book Week BBW 2008

I just found out that LAST WEEK was Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 27–October 4, 2008. In light of that I thought I would post this information from the NATION from the October 20, 2008 issue.

WASILLA, FAHRENHEIT 451: As we commemorate Banned Books Week in early October, we are reminded of the many attempts to restrict our right to read. Nearly 400 challenges filed at schools and libraries were reported in 2007, most probably constituting a fraction of incidents nationwide. This year's banned-book focal point goes back to 1996 in Wasilla, Alaska, when the director of the local public library, Mary Ellen Emmons, received at least three requests from the newly elected mayor asking whether Emmons would object to censoring books. When the mayor raised the issue at a City Council meeting, town resident Anne Kilkenny told the Anchorage Daily News, Emmons responded, "The books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of this size, and I would absolutely resist all efforts to ban books."
Emmons was supported by a particularly strong library reconsideration policy that states, "This library holds censorship to be a purely individual matter and declares that--while anyone is free to reject for himself books and other materials of which he does not approve--he cannot exercise this right of censorship to restrict the freedom of others."
Fortunately, no titles were removed from the library, but shortly after the incident, the mayor sent a termination letter to Emmons and other city officials, charging them with failure to support the new mayor. In the public uproar that followed, citizens rallied around their popular librarian, resulting in her reinstatement. All this would now be forgotten, except that the mayor, Sarah Palin, is now a candidate for vice president of the United States.
Back in 1996, the local newspaper, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, reported that Mayor Palin explained her inquiries as "rhetorical" and "simply part of a policy discussion with a department head 'about understanding and following administration agendas.'" Yet at about the same time, Palin's church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, pushed to remove the book Pastor, I Am Gay from local bookstores. Around the time of Palin's inquiries, school libraries in Alaska also received challenges to books like Go Ask Alice and Daddy's Roommate, a book that helps children understand homosexuality. When Laura Chase, Palin's first mayoral campaign manager, asked if she had read the book, Palin responded that "she didn't need to read that stuff." Chase now says she finds it "disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn't even read it." In the end, Palin did not succeed in her crusade.
When we observe Banned Books Week, we celebrate heroes like the former librarian of Wasilla, whose courage represents a measure of freedom. Fortunately, in public libraries across the country, books, hated by some but loved by others, remain on the shelves because of the dedication and commitment of librarians like Mary Ellen Emmons, who proudly uphold their principles even when called upon to stand up to those who bully and abuse power by NANCY KRANICH

For more information on BBW check out this ALA site:http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.cfm