Is this true?

[Steve James]

I usually don't do this, but I got this message in my "school" e-mail so I decided to read it. Then, I didn't know whether to believe it. Otoh, I figured that maybe the guys at EF might be interested and be able to poke holes in it. Anyway, here is the part I wanted confirmed/denied. Below that is the message in its entirety. {***I found out that this is an untrue allegation (or "disinformation"). It was particularly effective with me because it was in my school mail, and you know how we feel about books. Anyway, I just hate it when you can't tell what's true and what's not. It did remind me though, why I shouldn't take any of the slung mud too seriously. The choices in the list are still interesting, though].

"Below is a list of the books Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla, Alaska Library. When I was in Anchorage two years ago, residents of Wasilla I met described the place as a growing, more-and-more suburban community north of Anchorage. In her speech, Palin called the area "the valley." Mayor Palin would seem to be a strong force in the suburbanization of the village of Wasilla. When the Wasilla librarian refused to trash these books, Mayor Palin tried to have her fired. This caused a stir in Wasilla which then turned into a drive to protect the librarian. Some of my favorite examples of American literature are on this list.

This is a pivotal moment in American history, and we all need to expose this cult of personality for what it is, a cynical sham. Please pass this on far and wide.

John Grant

This list is taken from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library Board.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween
Symbols by Edna Barth
""

As I said, I got this in an email --that's below. I'm not interested in calling anyone a fascist. I'd like to know what everyone felt about banning these books if the claim is true. Although, I'm still trying to figure out whether the absence of Fahrenheit 451 is a good or bad thing.

S

**I just edited out the repetitions and name-calling.

[shawnsegler]

What, like all the good ones.

Censorship is ass. It makes me want to rebel a lot.

S

edit: They will pry my copy of Tarzan from my cold dead fingers.

[Steve James]

I'll answer it myself. It AIN'T true. It was just more spam smear that screws up my inbox. Jeesh. My sincere apologies.

[Mike Strong]

Not True: www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_palin.html

[CaliG]

Blubber...?

Btw, all that link says is,"It didn't happen. It didn't happen. It didn't happen."

Here's what Wikipedia says, there are footnotes if anyone wants to check the sources...

According to city librarian Mary Ellen Emmons in October 1996, Palin inquired as to whether Emmons would object to library censorship.[32] Palin later spoke publicly about the issue, saying she had no particular books or other material in mind for removal. [32] No books were removed from the library.[33][34][35] Emmons recalls Palin raising the possibility of people circling the library in protest, to which Emmons replied that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would get involved.[32]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

[C-Hopkins]

It's untrue because Palin says so?

she inferred that books should be removed.

Not direct, just hinted so people could "get the picture".

I don't know if these books are her list or not.


By the way, just because fact check checks into stuff doesn't mean they get it right.

[Mike Strong]

wikipedia

If you scroll down to the bottom, sources are listed, along with related articles ...

... Factcheck.org treats both BO and McCain with an even hand, - wikipedia is dubious, at best.

And yeah, - if it backs up your preconceptions and personal bias', then they get it right, - but if not, - it's just "spin".

[Steve James]

I agree that factcheck.org is a fair source.

I think there's a difference between having books banned and wanting to have them banned. If she didn't succeed, that's the truth. If she failed to get them banned, that's the truth. It's not necessary to lie. And, especially when they waste my time.

[CaliG]

I never said it did happen only that I wouldn't rely on one source that it didn't happen.

Besides I don't really care I think she's a bimbo who doesn't know jack about the world outside Alaska.

[dragontigerpalm]

The way I understand it Palin was inquiring of the librarian as a test of 'loyalty' - adherence to the Palin program - if she would go along with the banning of certain books. That the librarian objected to the proposition and that nothing materialized in the form of censorship does not IMO make Palin's inquiry innocent.

[qiphlow]

i hope this email won't circulate around the web like those ones about boycotting gas stations for a day.