Organizations et al Contacted Regarding
Sturgis Library’s Removal of My Civil Rights
(In 2012, Sturgis Library director Lucy Loomis permanently banned me w/o warning, w/o due process, and w/o a written notice. Sturgis is my neighborhood library. My taxes help pay for it. Loomis' decree prevents me from attending any political or cultural events held at my neighborhood library, thus truncating my civil rights. Since 2012, the following organizations and people were contacted in an effort to obtain justice. Only the State Secretary of Records of Massachusetts proved helpful by forcing Loomis to open her records to public scrutiny. The only reason for the banning appeared in an email she wrote to Ted Lowry, President of the Trustees: "for the safety of the staff and public." Yet I do NOT have a criminal record of violence and never make threats! Indeed, Loomis never states I made threats. Since the banning, not one person has been harmed or threatened by me. Scan down my blogs to read entries posted on this despicable assault on FREEDOM OF SPEECH in Barnstable County on Cape Cod...
-Town Manager (argued no jurisdiction/no interest, though the former was false considering that he was forced to contact the library by the State Records chief)
-Town Attorney (no jurisdiction/no interest)
-ACLUM (interested at first, contacted Sturgis, then silence, then a simple, no)
-Police Station (paid 50 cents for the police report, which does not mention precise reasons or even the duration of the trespass order)
-Barnstable Patriot (no response)
-Barnstable Enterprise (no response… and now defunct)
-Cape Cod Times (no response)
-Eleanor Claus, President of the Town Library Committee at the time (no response)
-Ted Lowry, president of the library trustees (no response)
-American Library Association (no jurisdiction over libraries and disinterest)
-ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (no response)
-ALA’s Freedom to Read Foundation “Defending the First Amendment in Libraries and Beyond” (No response)
-25 library directors in the Cape Cod Clams Library System (No response) Dan Santos, Sturgis Library trustee, responded to the directors, arguing that my argument was mere “intellectual masturbation”
-Barnstable Council of Aging (No response)
-New England First Amendment Center (Northeastern University/called me/worked on the case, then slowly disappeared)
-PEN New England “defending freedom of expression” (No response)
-First Amendment Center, Nashville, TN (suggested Town Attorney… who said it was out of her jurisdiction!)
-Institute for Justice—Arlington, VA (No response)
-State Senator O’Leary (presented Sturgis with a whopping check. No response)
-State Representative Sarah Peake (also presented Sturgis with a whopping check. No response)
-Elizabeth Hacala, Executive Manager, Massachusetts Library Association (No response)
-Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (No response)
-J. Gregory Milne, candidate delegate to the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates (No response)
-Ann Canedy, town council rep (would do nothing)
-State rep Cleon Turner (got angry, labeled me impolite, then no response)
-State rep Brian Mannal (expressed interest, then no response)
-Massachusetts Secretary of Records (ordered the library to make public all documents with my regard, a minor victory)
-Cape Cod Poetry Journal, editor Bonnani (no response, held workshop at Sturgis)
-Cultural Center of Cape Cod, poetry curator Gouveia got angry because I questioned his sincerity
-Massachusetts Common Cause (11/14/13) [No response]
-Freedom House (11/18/13) [No response]
-Cape Cod Community College English instructors- one puerile, indirect response from Prof. John French “Hi Sally, I suppose I will be a target soon...LOL I hope he brings it on while I am at 60mg of Prednisone. John” [Pathetic non-response]
-PEW Research Center [No response]
-Center for Individual Rights [No response]
-Center for Inquiry—Campaign for Free Expression [No response]
-Cape Cod Writers Center (Dir. Nancy Rubin Stuart) [3 or 4 different times and never a response]
-Barnstable Village Civic Association [No response]
-Barnstable County Human Rights Commission (sent 12/27/13) (Zero interest)
-Library Journal (1/09/14) Irrelevant, evasive response
-Center for Civic Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chris Peterson, Research Assistant [No response]
-Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Church of Barnstable (3/28/14). Apathetic response.
-Brandeis Center for Human Rights (3/30/14) No response.
-Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (May 2014) No response.
-National Coalition Against Censorship (June 2014) No response.
-Banned Books Sponsors (July 2014): NCAC, National Council of Teachers of English, American Book Sellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, Freedom to Read Foundation, National Association of College Stores, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Project Censored, and Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. No response.
-Adam Kessel, Principal in the Boston office of Fish & Richardson (July 2014) No response.
-Dr. Nancy Dempsey, Professor and Coordinator of Criminal Justice, Cape Cod Community College, organizer of the local National Human Rights Day forum [No response]
-sunshineweek@asne.org. Requested sunshine success stories, so I sent mine. [No response]
-NPR (Cape Cod) WCAI (Woods Hole) [No response]
-National Endowment for Democracy [No response]
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