What he said

T. Scott, a librarian I admire, has an excellent entry on his opinions of the Bush Administration and his hope that the damage done may be repaired, called Truth and Reconciliation. Check it out.

It's sad when an institution of learning censors someone for reading a book

IUPUI says sorry to janitor scolded over KKK book

A book, mind you, that was a historical account of a clash between another university's students and the Ku Klux Klan (in which the students came out ahead)--a book in the college's own library. A janitor/student who was reading the book on break was threatened with disciplinary action for bringing materials that would be offensive to Blacks, and it was likened to bringing pornography to work.

Fortunately civil liberties groups and the blogosphere got saner heads at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis to issue an apology and make sure that none of this affects his personnel file.

My favourite quote, by the attorney for the ACLU:

'I am sure you see the absurdity of a university threatening an employee with discipline for reading a scholarly work that deals with the efforts of Notre Dame students in the 1920s to fight the KKK.'

Indeed. Universities of all places should be places of learning and enlightenment. I could almost see people being upset about someone reading KKK tracts at work--but even so, he or she should have a right to. But this was a different matter altogether. Anyway, I'm glad it worked out despite the fact that his immediate supervisor really mishandled the situation, in my opinion.

Thanks to YKWIA for telling me about this, as well as the magazine cover flap.