Sarah Palin wanted to ban books
Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom! Visit and bookmark our new site. Buzz is bigger and better, including sports, world news, gadgets and the entertainment news that you're used to. Same staff, just more stuff! Why Fark, Drudge and Huffington when you can Buzz!?Back in 1996, when she became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.
According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason.
After a wave of public support on Emmons’ behalf, Palin relented and let her keep her job.
It all happened 12 years ago, and the controversy long ago disappeared. Until last week. Under intense national scrutiny, the issue has returned to dog Palin.
But did Palin actually ban books at the Wasilla Public Library?
In December 1996, Emmons told her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her—starting before she was sworn in—about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose.
Emmons told the Frontiersman she flatly refused to consider censorship. Emmons, now Mary Ellen Baker, is on vacation from her current job in Fairbanks and did not respond to messages left for her.
When the matter came up for the second time in October 1996, during a City Council meeting, Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla housewife who often attends council meetings, was there.
“Sarah said to Mary Ellen, ‘What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?’ ” Kilkenny said.
“I was shocked. Mary Ellen sat up straight and said something along the line of, ‘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.’ ”
- from Chicagotrib