Book burner?

Sarah Palin has been criticised for trying to ban books while mayor of her small Alaska town. Others have argued that she was only speaking hypothetically, as if that somehow makes the idea of book banning okay. However, new evidence is emerging that backs up earlier suggestions that she did indeed have specific books in mind.

Palin’s apologists have been saying that she never had a list of books to be banned from the town library, basing their assertion on alocal news story written and the time, and the lack of written evidence since. But Paul Stuart, the reporter who wrote the story about the library 12 years ago, has told "PolitiFact" in the St Petersburg Times that the librarian told him after his story was pubished that Palin mentioned three books by name that she wanted removed from the library:

Stuart told PolitiFact that in a conversation with Emmons after his article ran, she listed three titles. He said he could recall only two, and initially said they were I Told My Parents I’m Gay and I Asked My Sister. We looked for these titles; they don’t appear to exist.

“Mary Ellen told me that Palin asked her directly to remove these books from the shelves,” Stuart said. “She refused.”

Asked later if the first book could have been Pastor, I am Gay, a controversial book written by a pastor who lives just outside Wasilla, Stuart said that was it.

Howard Bess, author of Pastor, I am Gay and former pastor of Church of the Covenant in nearby Palmer, recalls that his book challenging Christians to re-examine their ideas about and prejudices against gays and lesbians was not well received in Wasilla when it was published in 1995—the year before Palin was elected mayor.

Virtually every book store in Wasilla refused to sell it.

Bess said he gave two copies to the Wasilla Library, but they quickly disappeared. So he donated more copies.

The controversy over the book was part of the context of that time period, he said. “Knowing Sarah’s religious connections and the people involved, I would be surprised if my book was not one of those at issue,” Bess said. “But I don’t know that for a fact.”

“I don’t think anyone has the facts except Mary Ellen, and she ain’t talking,” Bess said.

Palin’s apologists will dismiss this as irrelevant. But if Palin feels she has the right to impose her extremist views on everyone, it matters very much if she were one heartbeat away form the presidency. For the past eight years, Bush-Cheney have arrogantly imposed their far right ideology on the nation. America can’t risk someone with even more extreme views becoming president. Sarah Palin is too big a risk.

Tip o’ the hat to Librarians Against Palin for the pointer, and Roger Green for the tip).