LIBRARIANS HONORED BY ACLU--And Murfin Doggerel
The AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION (ACLU) will honor four Connecticut librarians and an anonymous internet service provider. Each had the temerity to stand up to the pernicious NATIONAL SERVICE LETTERS (NSL) authorized under the PATRIOT ACT. And each were persecuted-er, prosecuted-under its draconian and star chamber provisions.
The story of the plight of librarians BARBARA BAILEY, PETER CHASE, GEORGE CHRISTIAN, and JANET NOCEK and the announcement of their prestigious ROGER BALDWIN AWARD, was posted on TRUTHOUT. Check it out.
Reading about their experience reminded me that one of the first groups in America to speak out against the strictures of the Patriot Act and urge member non-compliance was the AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. I was so impressed by the chutzpah of the organization at the very height of Bushist terrorism hysteria, that I commemorated the occasion in verse.
That's right, ready or not here comes another damn poem. It is part of my next collection, in search of publisher (hint, hint.)
LIBRARIANS AT THE BREACH
Who would have thought it?
That prim spinster,
severe hair in a bun pincushion
for a slanting pencil,
erect index finger epoxied
to permanently pursed lips
sssshing to the recalcitrant
in a thousand cartoons.
That iron gray matron
of the Cheyenne Carnegie Public Library
hovering date stamp in hand
taunting my nightmares
demanding my two cents a day
for the Teddy Roosevelt biography
days AWOL under a corner of the davenport.
That pale, tweedy nebbish of the stacks,
guardian of arcane tomes,
leather books with marbled edges
unmolested for decades
but ever ready for his urgent call.
That smiling story lady
perched on her high stool
rapt, worshipful and fidgety
acolytes at her feet
sing-songing the words
of dreams upon the pages.
Who would have thought it?
That these unlikely heroes
would be called to unsheathe
Excalibur from stone
and set upon a Quest of Virtue,
would need to set once more
Liberty’s Red Cap upon the pole
and storm again the Bastille,
would resurrect the half forgotten promises
of Jefferson, Madison, Adams et. al.
against aspiring despots.
Who would have thought it, indeed?
--PATRICK MURFIN