Palin plays Librarian?

Currently, the Republican campaign seems to consist of blowing irrelevant things out of all importance (like 'lipstickgate') while also trying to dismiss important things as 'minor flipperies' - like Sarah Palin's impractical suggestion to declare war on Russia.

One such 'non-issue' is Palin's former quest to ban certain books from the Wasilla, AK, public library.

When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, she approached local librarian Mary Emmons on three separate occasions to ask the question: "What is your response if I ask you to remove some books from the collection of the Wasilla Public Library?"

Mary Emmons immediately answered: "The books in the collection were purchased in accordance with national standards and professional guidelines, and I would absolutely not allow you to remove any books from the collection."

As it happened, no books were removed from the library - but Mary Emmons found herself fired a few weeks later for her refusal to go along with Palin's hypothetical demands.

She was only reluctantly restored to office by Palin after the people of Wasilla protested vehemently against the popular librarian's dismissal.

Now people are asking: What books was Palin thinking about banning?

According to the Republicans, Sarah Palin never had any intention of banning books from Wasilla public library. It was a purely hypothetical question.

However, Paul Stuart, a reporter for the Frontiersman newspaper, has a different story: "Mary Emmons told me directly that Palin asked her to remove Pastor, I Am Gay from the shelves."

Pastor, I Am Gay is a book by controversial local pastor Howard Bess. He wrote it while a churchman in California, in response to what he learned dealing with gay parishioners. The book was well known in Wasilla because Bess lived in the neighbouring town.

Pastor, I Am Gay examines the misconceptions and intolerance the Christian community has for it's homosexual members and (this is where the controversy comes in) suggests that Christians should act a bit more 'Christian' towards them.

Wasilla, being a rather conservative town, was no fan of this liberal pastor's book or it's ideas. No book store in the little town would stock the book and the two copies donated to Mary Emmon's library conveniently disappeared. Bess donated a further two copies about the same time Sarah Palin started asking Mary Emmons about banning books.

The controversy here is two-fold.

First off, no Vice Presidential candidate should be going around banning books. It's not just unconstitutional - it's wrong. Censorship and book-banning is the stuff of fascist and communist regimes and a fundamentalist mindset.

Secondly, it neatly reveals that Sarah Palin isn't the fluffy 'gay friendly' candidate she claims to be ('I have gay friends,' she claimed, despite changing the Alaska constitution to limit marriage as 'between a man and a woman.') Pastor, I Am Gay was controversial in conservative Christian circles because it challenged the bigoted status quo and forced 'good Christians' to actually start looking at their own behavior and exactly how 'Christian' it was.

The 'Moral Majority' have a long history of repressing any such self examination, because what it reveals is never pretty. In trying to get Pastor, I Am Gay banned from Wasilla public library, Sarah Palin reveals just where she stands when it comes to the choice between The First Amendment and 'good, old fashioned family values.'

Of course, there is the possibility that this is just a manufactured 'non-story' like the Republicans claim. Maybe Paul Stuart is lying and Sarah Palin never intended to ban any books from the Wasilla library.

But in politics, just like in everything else, there's a a certain wisdom in remembering: 'Where there's smoke, there just might be somebody burning books.'