1253 McClay for ALA

If Greg McClay is elected to ALA, it will be like a breath of fresh air in the stacks. McClay is running for an office [Councilor at Large] in the American Library Association, aka ALA. Silly guy thinks the professional organization representing 60,000 should stick to its knitting and resolve issues important to librarians, like abysmal salaries, accreditation, education, technology, library funding and budgets, child safety and so on. Instead ALiAns sing on command like warbling canaries in a mine shaft about various socialist and anti-war issues. Recently he posted the resolution against the war in Iraq (like the President is going to be very afraid of all the power librarians hold), which concluded:

“[long list of resolves into which are thrown the words “libraries and archives“] Resolved that the American Library Association calls for the withdrawal from Iraq of all U.S. military forces, and the return of full sovereignty to the people of Iraq.”

Interestingly, this is the administration’s goal. Finally, ALA is in step. But I think even a non-expert on military affairs can go back and re-read the newspapers in the library from the mid-70s and see that our withdrawal from Vietnam killed thousands, some say millions, of our allies and condemned others to prison reeducation camps. Our hasty withdrawal after the Gulf War planted the seeds for this one.

And so Greg comments after the bombing last week:

“In light of the bombings in London today this is an absurdity. We're fighting a culture, a mindset, that despises the concept of libraries, of public information, of both a man and a woman's right to improve their own lives through self-education and the brain dead boobs of Council who voted for this are whining about the bill.”