A Decade Later: No Longer Permanently Banned from Sturgis Library

The following is the recent email exchange that I had with the director of Sturgis Library, who had permanently banned me verbally in 2012.  

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From: George Slone

Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2022 10:49 AM

To: sturgislibrary@comcast.net <sturgislibrary@comcast.net>; sturgisreference@comcast.net <sturgisreference@comcast.net>

Cc: Bardetti, Andrew <abardetti@sccls.org>; edith@edithvonnegut.com <edith@edithvonnegut.com>

Subject: A citizen's request for an update

To Director Lucy Loomis, Sturgis Library:  

Ten years later and at age 74, I am left wondering if your no-trespass order is still in effect today.  Recall that your reason for issuing the order was “for the safety of the staff and public” (see theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_email.html).  To this day, however, I have never made any threats and have no record of physical violence at all.  Nevertheless, I have been an open critic of librarians, libraries, and the American Library Association.  Is such criticism unsafe?  

When freedom of expression is punished, democracy dies.  Your mission statement seems to be in line with that thought:  “[Sturgis Library] Promotes the free exchange of ideas and serves as a community meeting place.”  However, how can it not be hypocritical when those like me, who openly express critical opinions, are not permitted at that “meeting place”?  Perhaps from your perspective, my criticisms might seem angry, but I certainly do not hate you or Sturgis Library.  I am a critic, not a hater. 

On another note, the email addresses of your trustees ought to be included on the Sturgis Library website.  I would have liked to have been able to cc this email to John Littlefield, President, Board of Trustees, and the others.  However, I cannot find their email addresses.  Perhaps those who wish to remain uncontactable ought to stay out of the leadership limelight.  

In any case, I shall wait a week and a half for your response.  If I do not hear from you, then I shall assume the trespass order is no longer in effect and shall then peacefully walk into Sturgis Library as a local taxpaying patron.  As you can see, however, I shall remain openly critical… in accord with your mission statement.  Thank you for your attention.  

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From: Lucy Loomis <sturgislibrary@comcast.net>

Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2022 9:18 AM

To: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>

Cc: Bardetti, Andrew <abardetti@sccls.org>

Subject: Re: A citizen's request for an update

 

Hello Mr. Slone: 

I received your recent email regarding returning to Sturgis Library, and shared it with the members of  the Executive Committee of our Board of Trustees.  I am copying this email to them.

The 2012 trespass order was officially issued by the Barnstable Police Department, and any questions about whether it is still applicable should be referred to them.

If you resume visits to the Library, please know that the following policies, adopted by the Board of Trustees, must be followed by all Library visitors.  

Acceptable Behavior Policy

https://www.sturgislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sturgis-Acceptable-Behaviour-Policy-final.pdf 

Posting of Non-Library Materials on the Bulletin Board

https://www.sturgislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/DisplayandPostingofNon-LibraryMaterials.pdf

Thank you. 

Lucy Loomis, Library Director
Sturgis Library, Barnstable Village
An independent nonprofit library
http://www.sturgislibrary.org
508-362-8448
Please support Sturgis Library

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From:George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>
Sent:Monday, January 30, 2023 7:16 AM
To:Lucy Loomis <sturgislibrary@comcast.net>
Subject:Re: A citizen's request for an update

 

To Director Lucy Loomis, Sturgis Library: 

Thank you for the response… several months ago.At your suggestion, I finally went down to the police department and mentioned you now have given me permission to enter Sturgis Library.A woman there handed me a sheet of paper, the only thing in my file.And it was the same sheet I’d paid fifty cents for a decade ago.This time it was free of charge.Nothing on it mentioned permanent trespass at all.For a copy of that report, see https://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.htmlon the bottom of the page.The woman explained that the police do not even have to hand me a written document when they trespass a person. All they have to do is tell the person verbally, which they never did with my regard.And of course, since it’s not written, I can’t prove that.The woman also stated that such a verbal order would only be valid for two years.And yet you’d stated permanently.How sad that our laws in America are often vague to the point where they can work against common citizens… to the benefit of directors and, of course, the great legal industry. 

In any event, what you did with my regard was certainly not democratic in nature, but rather authoritarian: permanently banning me with no warning and no due process at all… and justifying your decision that somehow I was a public danger, as in “for the safety of the staff and public”?After all, never did I make any threats of violence and certainly do not have a police record with that regard.And how sad that your library trustees fully backed you on that authoritarian decision.Hopefully, former trustee Vonnegut is still rolling in his grave.Such authoritarianism seems to rule here on Cape Cod in the cultural sphere.Alas.

In any case, I am glad that you finally decided to permit me to enter Sturgis Library, my neighborhood library, once again.However, at this point in my life, I just might never do that for I have no desire whatsoever to see you again.Also, in contrast with Sturgis Library, the women at Yarmouth Port Library have been very kind.We have gotten along quite nicely over the past decade since your banning decree. 

Please forward this email to the Executive Committee of your Board of Trustees, including John Littlefield, President; Marcia Lay, Vice President/Secretary; and Paula King, Treasurer, since trustee email addresses, for some reason, are not publicly divulged on your website.As Chief Justice Brandeis had rightfully stated:“sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”Oh, well…

By the way, to this day, not one library on Cape Cod has been willing to subscribe to the nonprofit 501 c3 journal I publish on Cape Cod devoted to literature, democracy (i.e., freedom of expression and vigorous debate), and dissidence.What might that imply? 

Au plaisir,

G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)

The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence

www.theamericandissident.org

wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com

todslone@hotmail.com

217 Commerce Rd.

Barnstable, MA 02630

Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 6:47 AM

To: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>; Lucy Loomis <director@sturgislibrary.org>

Subject: Re: A citizen's request for an update

 

Hello Mr. Slone:

I am glad you were able to clarify the trespass order with the police. To be clear, we never stated that the trespass order was permanent.  I have copies of all of our correspondence and  neither the Trustees nor myself ever declared it a permanent ban. That was an assumption you made at the time, and chose not to clarify with the police or legal counsel. 

It is therefore your choice to return to the Library or not, as long as you are willing to abide by our policies. At the time you asked to be reinstated in 2015 and 2017, our Board did not feel, from your correspondence with me and them, that you were willing to do that.  I hope that you will be going forward. 

Please be aware that if you visit this week and possibly next week we have limited services and hours  because we are getting new carpeting. If you plan to visit please enter through the front door. We’ll be open 10-3. We hope to resume regular services and hours next week. 

Thank you. 

Lucy Loomis

Library Director 

Sent from my iPhone

From: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 12:39 PM

To: Lucy Loomis <sturgislibrary@comcast.net>

Subject: A citizen's request for an update

 

To Lucy Loomis,

Confusion, lack of clarity, and absence of written documents always serve those in power.  Surely, you must know that… and have taken advantage of it.  

Again, the problem with verbal trespass orders like the one you issued with my regard in 2012 is that what was said cannot be proven.  My journal entry for that day (see below) does in fact note that you did say yes, when I asked if the trespass was permanent.  If you had taken five minutes to write the order on paper and give me a copy, then you could have proven you never stated such a thing.  

Also, the police report fails to mention at all the duration of your (or its?) trespass order.  See the actual report on the bottom of this webpage:  https://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html.  

In an email, I’d written to Ted Lowry, president of Sturgis trustees, in 2013, I clearly stated “permanently banning me.”  Lowry responded, but did not argue the ban not to be permanent.  Why?  See the correspondence here:  http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2013/09/ted-lowry-enemy-of-first-amendment.html.   

In the email sent by you to Lowry, the only document made available to me thanks to the State Secretary of Records, you did not contradict my statement that the banning was permanent.  You failed to mention in it the duration of the banning. 

Moreover, in the 2015 email I sent you, again “permanently banned me” was mentioned.  Why did you not correct that statement?  

In 2017, Jeanie Hill, the new Sturgis trustee president, wrote:  “There is a no trespass order in effect; therefore your request to be reinstated at Sturgis Library is denied.”  How does that jive with the police argument that it can only trespass someone for two years?  

Again, confusion, lack of clarity, and absence of written documents serve those in power.  Below is the journal entry I made on the day you permanently trespassed me.  I asked you if it was permanent and you said, yes.  I certainly did not make that up.  Why would I? 
Hopefully, you will at least have learned that you should present a written document with precisions to any future trespassed patrons. They should certainly have the right to such a document! 
Anyhow, onwards…

Au plaisir,

G. Tod Slone

From my journal:  

June 19, 2012

Tues.  I work for Rob from 745 to 245.  Exhausting shit sanding a deck all day.  Then I nap for 20 min and head to the library somewhat dazed and confused.  I check out a couple of DVDs, set up the laptop and do my thing.  Then Lucy and a cop enter the room.  “I do not want you here anymore,” she says.  “This is a no-trespass,” says the cop.  Then two more cops enter the room.  Am I dreaming?  Is this America?  “What did I do?” I asked.  “You’ve been criticizing me and don’t like it here, so now you will not be able to come here.”  “Is that permanent?” I ask.  “Yes,” she says.  “And the no-trespass includes the parking lot,” she says to the other cop.  “Why three cops?” I say.  “I have no record.  I don’t have a weapon.”  Then one of them (Foley, I later find out), twists my arm, holds it, and searches me.  “Are you allowed to do that?  Are you going to arrest me now and put me in a cell?”  “As you soon as you mentioned weapon, we can do that,” he says.  “Keep your voice down.”  “I mean this is fucked up?” I say.  “Don’t use that word!” he says.  “Is fuck illegal here?” I say.  “Is this a democracy or fascism?”  “Do you understand you will be arrested if you come here again?”  “Yes, now where can I file a complaint?” I ask.  “Town hall,” says the first cop.  Then the three of them escort me out the door.  I know it would be easy as hell to get arrested.  Somehow I resist the temptation.  “This is why people don’t have confidence in the police,” I say.

Lucy Loomis

The following email was sent to Sturgis Library director Lucy Loomis in 2015.  No response was ever received.  And yet her “Sturgis Acceptable Behavior Policy,” adopted one year after she permanently banned me w/o warning and w/o due process, clearly stipulates that “Patrons whose privileges have been revoked may have the decision reviewed by the Board of Library Trustees.”  In the absence of accountability, people in power positions like Loomis can do and say whatever they want, including adopting policies and not abiding by the policies adopted.  Hypocrites at the helm likely constitute the majority of people in power positions today in America's ever declining democracy...

From: todslone@hotmail.com

To: sturgislibrary@comcast.net

CC: sturgisreference@comcast.net; khorn@clamsnet.org; fblowrie@gmail.com; sangus@kinlingrover.com; ppronovost@capecodonline.com; editor@barnstablepatriot.com; pen-newengland@mit.edu; mgiangregorio@aclum.org

Subject: Cartoonists assassinated, free speech massacred, a plea for justice in Barnstable, MA

Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2015 18:29:48 -0400

To Director Lucy Loomis, Sturgis Library:

It has been almost three years now since you permanently banned me from my neighborhood library, the one my tax dollars help support.  No due process was offered, as you know, despite my request.  How odd to me that this could and in fact did happen in America!  My civil rights are being denied today because, as you know, I am not permitted to attend any cultural or political events held at my neighborhood library.  And yet I have never been charged with a crime, let alone misdemeanor.  

In any event, I am requesting that you consider rescinding your order because the sole reason you provided for it, that I represented a potential physical danger (“for the safety of staff and public”) is clearly an invalid one.  After all, not one person on Sturgis Library’s staff or in the United States of America in general has been harmed, let alone threatened, by me.  

As you know, my only real “crime” was NOT one of potential violence, but rather the written criticism I’d disseminated with your regard, in particular, the library statement that “libraries should provide materials and information that present all points of view.”  My point of view and the points of view of all those people published in The American Dissident, as you know, are currently banned at Sturgis Library, thus proving that statement to be hypocritical.  

Freedom of speech was massacred in Paris several months ago by Islamist haters of freedom of speech.  Do you really wish to continue siding with those free-speech hating murderers of cartoonists?  Please be reminded that freedom of speech, vigorous debate, and due process are in fact democracy’s very cornerstones, while banning speech because you do not like it or somehow think it is violent is definitely not, nor is obligatory deference to those in power, be they presidents or library directors.  

Finally, you will note that when I was visiting Sturgis almost on a daily basis, never was I informed that I might have been breaking a library regulation.  In fact, is freedom of speech not permitted at Sturgis?  If so, I should have at least been warned and directed to that regulation.  

Thank you for your attention and hopeful reconsideration.  

Free Speech Organizations--Apathetic and Pathetic

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]

Barnstable Village Cultural District

The following is an American Dissident broadside, which I handed out in front of Sturgis Library on October 10th during its Celebration of Kurt Vonnegut.  90% or more of those arriving refused to take one.  The cartoon on Vonnegut below was part of the broadside. 

What is the point of confronting ambulating brick walls like the 90%?  That question I have to ask myself every time I stand alone protesting against local corrupt pillars of the community.  Sure, I know it is 99% unlikely that I’ll meet anyone even remotely interested in the free speech issues I evoke.  No matter.  During the protests, I often have interesting thoughts and obtain grist for my mill of creativity. 

At the library, the arrived like dignitaries to a gala.  But dignitaries of what?  Bourgeois conformity and propriety?   How sad it all was.  Nobody was willing to focus on the facts I presented.  Nobody gave a shit.  The common reaction is to scorn and mock the rare person who dares question and challenge  such people. 

Barnstable is a town dominated by an elite of stepford wives and husbands, a representative microcosm of the nation.  They are why I do not love America...  

Vonnegut’s Clapboard Tomb…

And Its Gravediggers of Liberty

—An Open Letter to the Apathetic, Easily Offended, and Ignorant Citizens of Barnstable—

It really is a sorry kind of person who makes it to the top.

        —Kurt Vonnegut

     Kurt Vonnegut called Sturgis Library a “clapboard tomb,” upon quitting his job as library trustee.  A tomb, of course, is a place for the dead.  Has Sturgis gotten any better since Vonnegut’s time in Barnstable?  Experience tells me it’s actually gotten a lot worse.  Lucy Loomis, its director, is totally unaccountable and totally autocratic.  Upset her fiefdom with a dash of freedom of expression and be prepared for permanent punishment, which is precisely what happened to me in June 2012. 

     My speech crime consisted of an open letter published on my blog site and sent to the directors of the Clams Library System of Cape Cod, not one of whom responded.  Not even director Ann Speyer, who lectures on censorship and book banning, gave a damn.  Only Sturgis Library trustee and Loomis boyfriend Dan Santos responded, though indirectly, dismissing as “intellectual masturbation” my argument that Loomis was a hypocrite regarding her written collection development statement that ”libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view.”  Loomis and not one other library director in the system would subscribe to The American Dissident (only $20), published in Barnstable and presenting a viewpoint at antipodes to that of Poetry Magazine to which Sturgis subscribes.  I’d even offered a free subscription, but Loomis rejected it, thus proscribing the points of view of all those published in it… permanently. 

     Less than one week after that open letter was disseminated, Loomis and three cops approached me while I was peacefully sitting alone in a room at Sturgis, as I’d been doing almost daily for about two years.  There, Loomis said she was permanently banning me.  No warning had ever been issued.  Off I went… a tad angry!  Loomis and later trustee Ted Lowry refused to provide me with a written statement regarding the action and reason for it.  Nine months later the State Secretary of Records forced them to open their records to public scrutiny, so that finally I could read what had been written about me.  Democracy in action! 

     Due process?  We no need no stinkin’ due process!  That is Sturgis Library’s true motto.  Would Vonnegut have embraced it?  Did he embrace it?  Imagine no possibility of due process was offered!  Imagine Loomis having the audacity to deem me a public danger, arguing:  “Because of his behavior when the police were here they almost arrested him—he can go from calm to extremely agitated in a matter of seconds.  So l believe this is the correct decision for the safety of the staff and public.”  That was the only damning thing written in the documents made public.  Notice it is an aberrant after-the-fact rationale and, why two years later, has not one staff member been threatened or harmed by me, if indeed I were such a potential danger?  Of course, I have no history at all of violence or of making threats.  How many others like Loomis protect their fragile selves in layers of self-serving deceit and ignorance of democracy, including the Supreme Court (Tinker v. Des Moines Sch. Dist.) argument that “in our system, undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression.”  Trustees Ted Lowry, Sue Angus, John Ehret, Colin Campbell, and Mike Downs, and others who’ve made it to the top, seem unable to comprehend that America’s greatness lies in her unique FIRST AMENDMENT, not in political correctness!  “Any departure from absolute regimentation may cause trouble,” noted the Court, “any variation from the majority's opinion may inspire fear.” Thus, my speech crime inspired fear and caused Loomis emotional trouble. 

     The Barnstable Patriot (Noah Hoffenberg) and Cape Cod Times (Paul Pronovost), to this day, refuse to publish anything regarding the above.  Clearly those papers are not independent!  My very civil rights today are being denied in Barnstable because I have been permanently barred from attending any cultural or political events held at my neighborhood library, you know, that “clapboard tomb.”  Imagine that I was not permitted to attend Speyer’s lecture on Banned Books Week! Imagine not one community pillar gives a damn, not Town Manager Tom Lynch, nor Town Attorney Ruth Weil, town councilor Ann Canedy, state reps Cleon Turner and Brian Mannal, who’d proclaimed the matter a civil rights issue, was going to help, then didn’t (yes, vote for Mannal!), not local human rights commissar John Reed, nor artists and poets of Robert M. Nash’s Cultural Council of Cape Cod, not the Barnstable Village Civic Association, the writers of Nancy Rubin Stuart’s Cape Cod Writers Center, the instructors at CCCC, including Dan McCullough, John French, and Sarah Polito, not PEN New England, the ACLUM, etc., etc.    

     Now, would Vonnegut have been on their side too?  Surely, none of his living family members and friends give a damn.  “I don’t buy it!” snapped one Sturgis loyalist a few weeks ago.  And how shamefully easy it is for her willfully ignorant ilk to dismiss incontrovertible facts, like those presented above, and the very principles of democracy… 

 

Barnstable Village Cultural District

Anne Speyer

The following broadside was distributed in front of Sturgis Library, during librarian Anne Speyer's lecture there in 2014.  The hypocrisy of Speyer and library director Lucy Loomis is mind-numbing.  Yes, today, those who ban books and people celebrate Banned Books Week!  And those who don't give a damn about banned books in their own neighborhood present lectures on banned books and censorship.  Mind-numbing...

......................................

Librarians Banning Books Celebrate Banned Books Week

(What Anne Speyer’s Lecture Will Fail to Mention)

Of course, free speech is often precisely about pissing off other people—challenging social taboos or political values.

            —Jonathan Turley, left-wing legal scholar, George Washington University

Mostly, we have hypocrites in politics.  No surprise there.  We also have hypocrites in higher education.  No surprise there either.  We have hypocrites in the ranks of those professing to be advocates of freedom, including public librarians.  Now, that ought to be surprising.

     Is it not ironical that some (perhaps many) of the very organizations that promote Banned Books Week are either banners of books or apathetic when books are banned?  Is it not equally ironical that some (perhaps many!) of those who attend “Banned Books Discussions,” like “Bowdlerized, Banned, and Burned: An Investigation of Banned Books” presented at Sturgis Library by Director Anne Speyer of South Dennis Free Public Library, don’t give a damn when book or periodical banning occurs in their own backyards?  How to possibly understand their apathy, if not outright support?  Unsurprisingly, Speyer wouldn’t even respond to that question. 

     On June 19, 2012, Sturgis Library director Lucy Loomis PERMANENTLY BANNED not only The American Dissident and any books I’ve authored, but also me and the ideas of those published in the journal.  On that nefarious day, three cops showed up with the director in the room, where I was quietly working alone on my online college courses, to escort me out of the taxpayer-funded library without warning or even possibility of due process.  Imagine that not one library director in the entire Clams Library System of Cape Cod would respond to my Open Letter regarding that authoritarian decision, let alone express an iota of interest in it. The only response I received was an indirect one from Dan Santos, Sturgis Library Trustee at the time and now husband of Lucy Loomis.  Santos is current director of Barnstable’s Department of Public Works.  His only response regarding my Open Letter was:  “He is no more than an exhibitionist engaging in intellectual masturbation.” 

Banned for life, yet I never made threats, never made disturbances in that library, and I'd been going to it almost every day for several years!  What I did, however, was question and challenge IN WRITING, one week prior to the decree, Loomis’ hypocrisy regarding, especially, the written collection-development statement, borrowed from the American Library Association’s “Library Bill of Rights,” that “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view.”  Well, my point of view is certainly not provided in that library, which proves the point I’d made. 

     Loomis refused to present me with a written document stipulating the reason for her decision.  The library trustees also refused to do that.  It took the Massachusetts State Secretary of Records nine months later to order the library to make its records available to me (i.e., the public), since it determined the library was not only being funded by the public but was clearly serving a public purpose.  In those records, only an indirect comment by Loomis to Ted Lowry, president of the library trustees, indicated the reason for the decision:  “Because of his behavior when the police were here they almost arrested him—he can go from calm to extremely agitated in a matter of seconds.  So l believe this is the correct decision for the safety of the staff and public.”  No other reason or incident is mentioned in the library’s records!  In essence, the only reason was an after-the-fact one (i.e., after the decision to permanently ban). 

Really, I was quite pissed off when I saw three cops enter the room with Loomis!  I hadn't even spoken to anyone in the library for a week.  And yes I was quite pissed off when one of them actually grabbed my arm, twisted it behind my back, and frisked me because I’d said, “I do not have any weapons.”   I’m 66 and not a big guy.  And I was not making threats in any way whatsoever.  Ah, but it turned out that cop was the training officer and showing a new recruit how to frisk a citizen.  I have no record of violence whatsoever.  In essence, Loomis played the he-makes-me-feel-uncomfortable card.  Since that nefarious day over two years ago, if indeed I were such a danger to the staff and public, why have I done nothing at all to harm the staff and public since then?  So, here I am today with an almost-arrested police record for the crime of manifesting a little anger in public… and PERMANENTLY punished for it.  Bravo America, or rather Barnstable! 

Doggedly since that nefarious day in June, I’ve contacted scores of organizations and town officials.  To date, not one of them proved sufficiently concerned to offer to help or even write a simple letter to the director, requesting she rescind the authoritarian decree or at least provide due process.  Not even the ACLUM or State Attorney General Martha Coakley would lift a finger!  To date, not one of the official sponsors of Banned Books Week has been willing to do that either!  So, why the hell not American Library Association, PEN America, National Coalition Against Censorship, 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?   And why did not one town counselor or commissioner of the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission give a damn either? 

Essentially, a responsible citizen does not keep his or her mouth shut in the face of injustice, which is why I stand protesting here tonight next to library property.  Those attending Speyer’s lecture, who had the curiosity to take a copy of this flyer, should ask themselves after the lecture why they too likely do not give a damn.  BTW, featured in the above aquarelle are local hack hypocrites Brian Mannal, Ann Canedy, and Cleon Turner, as puppets of propriety.  Indeed, for them and so many others, some vague notion of propriety is far more important than freedom of speech and expression. 

..................................

From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: aspeyer@clamsnet.org
CC: sturgislibrary@comcast.net; nsymington@clamsnet.org; ppronovost@capecodonline.com; nhoffenberg@barnstablepatriot.com
Subject: Hypocrites celebrate Banned Books Week... what else is new, eh?
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:55:55 -0400

To Director Anne Speyer, South Dennis Free Public Library:
How do people like you and Lucy Loomis get to be such flaming hypocrites?  I’m truly curious!  How can you possibly deliver a lecture on Banned Books at Sturgis Library during Banned Books Week without mentioning that Sturgis Library bans books… and patrons like me?  Loomis not only permanently banned me in June 2012 without warning or due process for having had the audacity to criticize her hypocrisy regarding Clams library policy; in particular, “libraries should provide materials and information presenting ALLpoints of view.”  My point of view and that of those published in The American Dissident have been permanently banned.   The American Dissident and any books I’ve authored, including Transcendental Trinkets, Leaves of Democracy, and Triumvirate of the Monkeys have been permeanently banned at Sturgis Library.  And you will stand in that library in a week as a grotesque hypocrite and NOT mention that fact.  Bravo!  Perhaps you’ll be the next Mary Otis Warren award recipient.  Yes, you’d be perfect, though Loomis would be better.  Of course, you’ll remain silent in the spirit of Banned Books Week.  Bravo! 
Sincerely,

G. Tod Slone, PhD (universite de Nantes, FR) aka P. Maudit,

Founding Editor (1998)

The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence

Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2014 13:47:06 -0400

Subject: Re: Hypocrites celebrate Banned Books Week... what else is new, eh?

From: aspeyer@clamsnet.org

To: todslone@hotmail.com

Mr.Slone,

Never having met you, I have no idea why you're using my first name, but know this. The night of my talk, one I had prepared a year ago on the history of book banning around the world, I was with my much loved 89 year old husband who was facing major surgery we knew could kill him.

I was fulfilling a commitment I had made to give the talk long before the medical stuff descended, but neither that, nor someone handing out  leaflets nor much of anything else was my priority. As it happens, I read your leaflet  the night of the talk-- one of the attendees brought one in.  

You have a right to express yourself in your blog. You had a right to hand out leaflets at the end of the Sturgis Library drive. But I have the right not to engage in further discussion with you or be harassed.  I had deleted automatically the first e-mail you sent because I had never heard of you, and I never open e-mail from unknown senders. I have since heard of you so I am responding this once. 

Anne Speyer

From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: aspeyer@clamsnet.org
Subject: RE: Hypocrites celebrate Banned Books Week... what else is new, eh?
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2014 15:05:42 -0400

To Anne Speyer,

Well, that was a great non-response.  Yes, and you have a right to be utterly apathetic to the banning of patrons, books, and periodicals in your neighborhood while giving talks about banning and censorship at a library that bans and censors.   Whatever makes a person like you and Loomis tick?  I shall NEVER know.  Yes,  you and Loomis have a right to behave as autocrat punishers of FREEDOM OF SPEECH and scorners of DUE PROCESS, while collecting taxpayer funding… on Cape Cod.  That is your shame.  And if you never open emails from unknown senders then you should NOT be a public librarian.  

G. Tod

To Anne Speyer,

Well, that was a great non-response.  Yes, and you have a right to be utterly apathetic to the banning of patrons, books, and periodicals in your neighborhood while giving talks about banning and censorship at a library that bans and censors.   Whatever makes a person like you and Loomis tick?  I shall NEVER know.  Yes,  you and Loomis have a right to behave as autocrat punishers of FREEDOM OF SPEECH and scorners of DUE PROCESS, while collecting taxpayer funding… on Cape Cod.  That is your shame.  And if you never open emails from unknown senders then you should NOT be a public librarian.  Christ!

G. Tod

From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: aspeyer@clamsnet.org
CC: ppronovost@capecodonline.com; sturgislibrary@comcast.net; editor@barnstablepatriot.com; editor.camelsaloon@gmail.com
Subject: Anne Speyer lampooned in a new P. Maudit cartoon
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 10:16:14 -0400

To Director Anne Speyer, South Dennis Library,
You've been lampooned in a new P. Maudit cartoon (see http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2014/10/ann-speyer.html).  Thanks to the Internet, my voice WILL be heard.  One day, of course, those like you, Loomis, Pronovost, and Hoffenberg will control the Internet and keep voices like mine out of the arena of debate.  When that day comes, democracy will be no more...
Sincerely,
 

G. Tod Slone