The Change Agent: An Adult Education Newspaper for Social Justice. No. 496.

The Change Agent is a biannual newspaper for adult educators and learners published since 1994 by the New England Literacy Resource Center at World Education. It was conceived as a tool to educate and mobilize teachers and learners to apply advocacy skills in response to impending federal funding cutbacks for adult education.

_Is Democracy Possible Here?_ Holberg International Memorial Prize 2007 to Ronald Dworkin. No. 495.

Holberg International Memorial Prize 2007: Ronald Dworkin.

It is to Dworkin’s great credit that he has raised his voice eloquently and clearly against the American Academy’s dubious complicity with its Administration’s harsh and illiberal anti-terrorist ‘Patriot Act’ and executive measures and practices. In articles and speeches, and most recently in Is Democracy Possible Here? (2006) he warns that such measures constitute a dangerous compromise of the values that underpin US legality. He worries that the ‘Bush government’s dubious laws, practices and proposals have provoked surprisingly little protest in America.’ He rebuts all this hysteria forcefully and eloquently. He says:

‘It is true that the rights that we traditionally recognise impair our security to some degree. We might well be a safer society if we allowed our police to lock up people they thought likely to commit crimes in the future ... But we must decide not where our interest lies on balance, but what justice requires.’

This is admirable stuff. And it is brave stuff too, given the pressure that American academics appear to be under to run to the call of patriotism, whatever those who dictate the agendas of public life demand that to mean, require and excuse. Let us finish with a statement of Dworkin’s that captures what community values, and therefore patriotism, mean to him:

‘The US government has already gone too far in displacing the constitutional and legal rights that we have evolved as our own national standard. ... What our enemies mainly hope to achieve through their terror is the destruction of the values that they hate and we cherish. We must protect those values as well as we can, even as we fight them. That is difficult: it requires discrimination, imagination and candour. But it is what patriotism now demands.’

See Librarian 442.

Response to Julia Stephens' Anti-Spanish Screed in American Libraries. No. 494.

November 10, 2007


In January 2007 REFORMA passed the "Resolution in Support of Immigrant Rights" which was submitted to the American Library Association and approved and adopted by ALA Council on Wednesday, January 22, 2007. This resolution combined with information advocacy and commitment to social justice and human rights provides librarians with a solid ethical and organizational history to stand up to help immigrants.

Given this profession´s commitment to pluralism and diversity the screed by Julia Stephens (November 2007)against any language but English demonstrates her lack of knowledge about the political process, world geography or history. She has a right to her opinion, but American Libraries should correct her facts or at least provide the disclaimer that the editorial staff is aware of her incorrect statements.

In June, 2007 WebJunction sponsored the program "Effectively Dealing with Anti-Immigrant Sentiment," which focused on how libraries can create effective strategies for ensuring access to information to all people in their communities. Advocacy, federal legislation, issues and options for academic, public, and school libraries were addressed. Ms. Stephens demonstrates complete ignorance of these resources.

Kathleen de la Peña McCook, Distinguished University Professor
University of South Florida, Tampa
kmccook@tampabay.rr.com

Librarian’s Toolkit for Responding Effectively To Anti-Immigrant Sentiment.
May, 2006