Democracy in INaction
The following is a fairly simple and most reasonable proposal, yet not one library director (Lucy Loomis et al) or library trustee (Dan Santos, Ted Lowry et al), nor Town Manager Thomas K. Lynch, Town Attorney Ruth Weil, or local newspaper (Cape Cod Times editor Paul Pronovost et al) deigned to respond. My next step will be to drive into town to determine if a citizen without political/commercial clout can in fact present a proposal.
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Proposal to Mandate Democratic Procedure and
Public Accountability
For Any Library Seeking Public Funding in the Town
of Barnstable
Background
My tax dollars help support institutions that reject both democratic procedure
and public accountability. This is
simply not acceptable. Sturgis Library,
which permanently banned me last June without warning or due process, serves as
an egregious example. The President of the
Library Trustees, Ted Lowry, refused to even respond to my request for due
process. My “offense” comprised simple
written criticism of the library’s own written policy, especially regarding
censorship and openness to all points of view.
When I asked director Lucy Loomis why she made the decision to ban me,
she said: “You’ve been critical of me,
you don’t like it here, so now you can’t come here anymore.” Several days later, the police officer, who’d
taken Loomis’ phone call, informed that Loomis had said, I’d made her “feel
uncomfortable” and “said inappropriate things.”
The officer noted Loomis did not provide any further information or
details. Nothing is written about any of
this in the police report, not even the precise duration of the trespass
order. Sturgis has refused to provide
any written documentation regarding the trespass order.
The
Proposal
1. Publicly-funded libraries in
the Town of Barnstable shall not punish patrons, who simply and peacefully
criticize a library—staff, policies, events, etc. Such
libraries should encourage criticism, not crush it.
2. Publicly-funded libraries in the Town of Barnstable
shall not be permitted to dismiss peaceful criticism as “harassment,” a term
clearly and legally defined. Instead,
they should follow that legal definition.
3. Publicly-funded libraries in the
Town of Barnstable must provide a written warning to a patron, prior to
punishment, noting the precise “offense” and precise punishment if said
“offense” continues. In fact, a list of
punishable “offenses” should be posted on the bulletin boards of each
publicly-funded library.
4. Publicly-funded libraries in the
Town of Barnstable must not only offer, but also clearly define, procedure for
due process in a written document, so that punished library patrons have the
opportunity to question and challenge the “offense” and penalty before an
independent committee.
5. Publicly-funded libraries in the
Town of Barnstable shall hire library directors with the expectation they
possess sufficient spine to be able to deal with criticism in a fully
democratic manner, as opposed to in an authoritarian one.
6. Publicly-funded libraries in the Town of Barnstable
shall make their records available to the public.
7. Publicly-funded libraries in the
Town of Barnstable that choose to ignore the above points will be excluded from
further public funding, though given the opportunity to rectify errors in the
framework of due-process procedure.
Update
Citizen Russell Streur noted regarding Sturgis’ trespass order: “I am outraged. And I want to know how this can happen in the
United States of America. I filed the
enclosed Public Access Records request to find out, citing 950 CMR 32. I received the enclosed denial, claiming the
library was not subject to the Regulation as it was not a Government
Entity.”
Streur then appealed the denial, to the Supervisor of Public Records, Office of the State Secretary,
“on the grounds of 950 CMR 32.03, which defines a Governmental
Entity as ‘any authority established by the General Court to serve a public
purpose.’”
Streur notes “The argument that the
Sturgis Library is not subject to the Regulation is specious. It is obvious that a town library serves a
public purpose. The authority of the
Town of Barnstable devolves upon an entity to which it contacts to serve a
public purpose. The library cannot claim
the rights of the public purpose and at the same time hide behind the skirts of
its organizational structure to evade the responsibilities of the public
purpose it undertakes.”
Streur also notes: “My purpose in filing this request is to
discover the truth of this thing, how an individual can be permanently banned
from a public library for no reason, with no hearing, and with no recourse; and
how the individuals who have protested this action also end up without a voice
in the matter.”
Shawn A. Williams, Supervisor of Public Records, replied on January 4, 2013, “I
have directed a member of my staff, Attorney Donald White, to review the
matter.”
Loomis’ arbitrary decision and the silence of her
colleagues have served to reduce democracy in the publicly-funded libraries of
the Town of Barnstable. Why should
taxpayer money be used to fund institutions that seem scornful of democracy and
individual liberties? Quite simply, it
should not be used to do so!
