The ALA Council list has had some back-and-forth on the aftermath of the Codrescu speech, two of the posts by Gentle Writer. Rather than present snippets–since as you know, snippets will make hair grow on the palms of your hands–I’ll link to the January list archives and then present my biased, one-sided, but entirely correct and on point summary of the discussion so far, which you are welcome to dispute. (Incidentally, ALA is too broke to afford indexing ALA lists through its Google Appliance. ‘Least, so I’ve been told…hence, you have to be very determined to follow ALA history through the list archives.)
First, unable to let things go, Gumby (Gorman) forwarded a post from Robert Kent to the ALA list, and then proceeded to argue with it. (Kent is the nut job who has almost singlehandedly ensured the Cuban librarian issue in ALA is too radioactive for most members to touch. I continue to believe he’s funded by Castro.)
I pointed out that Codrescu, a Romanian exile, had recently written a book critical of Cuba’s politics.
Then a couple of posts called Codrescu a racist for saying Katrina had pushed the criminals out of New Orleans. Oddly, as I point out on the list, it seems to be the ALA members (including the virulently pro-Castro Rosensweig) who assumed the criminals were persons of color. Interesting slip, indeed.
Informal transcripts of the talk indicate that someone gave Codrescu three fatuous questions, and being a writer and thinker, he rose above them to say what he thought. Was he primed in advance by the Cult of Kent? No doubt he was. But points off to Gumby for not doing his homework. A thirty-second search in the notoriously inefficient search engine he regularly reviles could have ensured he wouldn’t be “mugged” by the speaker’s opinions. I’m not sure how, once invited, one can then tell a speaker what to say, but having had to suffer through Gumby’s talk at LITA Forum–my dues at work: being lectured to on bibligraphic control in the 1950s–not to mention suffering the slings and arrows of Gumby’s well-practiced idiot statements to national press, all I can say is such, such are the joys.
Rosensweig then proceeds to spread the manure of the Big Lie, which is not surprising from someone who runs a library dedicated to Marxism. Put me in a green dress and call me Mary McCarthy, but it’s not McCarthyism to point out that Rosensweig has a strong point of view on this issue, one informed more by early Engels than by the evidence. But he’s kind of cute when he’s off his meds, at least until he decides to do real damage. You elected him, by the way–oh yes you did, either directly or because you didn’t vote. You think ALA was extreme on the Alito vote? You have no idea!
A silly tempest in a teapot, but that’s Council. This issue made me a pariah in ALA two years ago, and I’ve been hesitant to wade back in lest Kent again begin quoting me to the point of embarrassment. In one ALA position I hold, my “welcome” was an excoriating lecture on how I’m Not A Team Player; my predecessor actually “offered” (threatened, is the correct word) to accompany me to meetings and supervise my actions. I’ve even had assaults at MPOW, the sort of thing I’ll fill you in on over a Rusty Nail at Annual if you like (and what a sick puppy that person was to drag my job into this issue–but I’m not the only person to have suffered this way). I can laugh at all that now–I laugh a lot at ALA, and it helps–but if you think I have been cautious on this issue, you’re right.
I wonder what the implicit List Of Things One Can’t Talk About will look like at Annual… and what boring pot of oatmeal they’ll invite to Midwinter 2007.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Back from Rockin' in the Rockies - 2009
- FRL Spotlight Review Feature Debuts - 2005
- Bookqueuetoo, Preview display problems with MT - 2005
- Proposals and Disposals: Fry that Hen - 2005
As Karen rightly notes, Gorman has posted to the Council list a reply to Robert Kent’s latest screed. And I thank her for doing the hard work of doing links here. I’m still a relative neophyte in this arena, and have much to learn. (I’ll also note that Cuba is a topic where Karen and I have agreed to respectfully disagree.) I will take issue with some of the perception of Karen as a “pariah” because I’ll always talk to her, and respect her.
As someone who has chatted with Gorman about this incident, Gorman told me that Codrescu was paid for this appearance, and had agreed to talk about New Orleans and education for librarianship. I had a front row seat, and could see Gorman’s discomfort. And no matter how you feel about someone’s stand, it is never pleasant to see that kind of discomfort.
One source (I forget where) had the text of Codrescu’s speech, but he must of ad libbed some of it, because there was more said than showed in that report.
The version posted on Gorman’s site will be from the transcript (with the spelling errors corrected).
Karen has been campaigning for some time for real-time web captioning of ALA business. I’ll note that this particular occasion was one which buttresses the argument against that. The combination of accents (British for Gorman, Romanian for Codrescu), extensive, sophisticated vocabulary, and many proper names, cause the transcriptionist to have great difficulty.
Gumby was uncomfortable? How does he think those of us in the online writing world feel when he lets fly about blogging or Google, after running for president on the library-education-reform ticket? And is he paying out of his own pocket for every event he covers as ALA president? I doubt that.
Regarding the captioning, Michael, a poor implementation doesn’t argue against the technology. Only against the implementors.
“Cuba is a topic where Karen and I have agreed to respectfully disagree.” — about what? Can you clarify our areas of disagreement?
The man often speaks without doing his homework. Let me direct you to a funny moment in Codrescu history:
Poetry Snark delisted.
To be fair to Mark Rosenzweig, he no longer directs the Marxist Reference library in New York, he resigned a few months ago (and I sympathize with his reasons for doing so as I went through something similar at my former position).
Regarding Kent’s “screed” Gorman’s response was no less of a screed. Codrescu did in fact speak about libraries in New Orleans, and how the storm unlifted the “scandal of poverty” there. He also discussed Cuba. But the latter subject seems taboo within ALA circles, unless it is to denounce Robert Kent and those who are trying to set up their own libraries in Cuba.
Finally, however one may feel about Robert Kent, he is not living in Cuba, he is not in a prison, he is not trying to set up a library there despite government harassment. I can’t see declining to raise one’s voice on their behalf because one doesn’t want to be associated with Mr. Kent.
True, he is a pariah within the ALA, partly of his own doing, but partly from the personal attacks ad infinitum from his opponents.
But between supporting the right of these people to have their own libraries, as Mr. Kent does; and denouncing them and supporting their imprisonment, as a number of the more ideological ALA council members do, I will take Mr. Kent’s position, even if that makes me a pariah too.
Stephen, thanks for your comments. I appreciate your corrections. However, regarding Kent, he has put his methods above the cause he is supposedly advocating. Even when he is advised to work with others, to tone down the stentorian blasts on discussion lists, to not exploit people trying to take stands on this issue, he puts himself first. I don’t know if he’s truly blind to what he’s doing, wilful and selfish, or a Castro operative, but as you know, the whole Cuban issue is delicate enough without someone as hamhanded as Kent pushing himself to the forefront.
Hi, Alan–thanks for posting! I meant that Gorman didn’t do his homework, but your link gave me some interesting reading time. I’m so glad I’m not a poet. You guys are some rough trade, eh wot. 🙂
I have been reading some of the comments on the ALA council list, that Codrescu should return the money he received because his speech did not give advance notice that he would discuss Cuba. Is there some precedent for this? If it was not Cuba, but some other subject he raised without advance notice, would the principle remain, that he should return the money because all the details of what he said were not confirmed in advance with the ALA president??
Oh, that’s ridiculous list drivel. It’s like calling him a racist: it’s an easy way to avoid coping with the knowledge that real people, decent people, are in jail for a very long time, for upholding the principles we espouse.
I’m behind on everything! So here is where Karen and I differ on Cuba. I think the Association did the right thing in accepting the recommendation of the International Relations Committee. As a Chapter Councilor at the time of this, I really didn’t think that ALA should take any position. My consituents ask: Why does ALA need a foreign policy?
Karen felt (feels?) that statement does not go far enough in supporting the folks who Richard Kent is so vociferously supporting. Since I’m trying to represent Karen’s viewpoint, and she owns this site, she certainly has the option of explaining her view more expansively
I know that there are many in ALA circles who just want the Cuba thing to go away, and are tired of Mr. Kent and his voluminous, unsolicited emails.
There have been other times when we have not seen eye-to-eye on tactics. But we did stand shoulder-to-shoulder on Core Values.
I’m not a librarian but I’m a Cuban-American who has been following this debate closely. I wrote Mr. Codrescu and email requesting the full text of his prepared remarks from San Antonio. He graciously responded with said attachment. It is posted at cubanamericanpundits.com. I think its obvious that Mr. Gorman (Gumby?) has refused to condemn Cuba on ideological grounds. There is plenty of evidence as to the information embargo that castro has on his own people, my brothers and sisters on the island. Just the reaction to the news ticker that the US interest section put up on their building in Havana has to tell you how afraid castro is of uncensored information. Mr. Codrescu was well within his right to point out the hypocrisy of the ALA’s leadership in failing to condemn the regime. The whole “who is a librarian?” argument is weak. Perhaps when Cuba is free we can talk about the proper accreditation of librarians on the island but today a librarian is anyone who lends materials (many of which are officially banned) to interested individuals.
God bless the true librarians.
But it seems to me that ALA already has a foreign policy, particularly on Cuba, with top ALA officials visiting the country and meeting with their counterparts. At the 2003 ALA conference, Eliades Acosta, director of the Jose Marti National Library, defended the political crackdown that had just taken place in Cuba and denounced those who support the independent library movement in Cuba. Robert Kent makes an easy punching bag, but we all know he is a pariah within the organization, and the more persistent voices on Cuba within the ALA come from the SRRT activists who not only denounce those involved in the independent library movement but even defend the crackdown on dissent that took place two years ago.
Going to Cuba and meeting with the official agencies of the totalitarian government, which is the one perpetrating the crimes and the censorship and the violations of human rights is ridiculous. That’s like going to Saddam Hussein and asking him to show you the torture chambers and the rape rooms. Not likely to happen. C’mon get real.
Actually, I don’t think Gumby has any clear thoughts on Cuba. Most of ALA Council doesn’t, either; they just don’t want to be sucked into Kent’s vortex.
The trips to Cuba remind me of the trips to the Soviet Union people would take in the 1960s and 1970s to convince themselves what a happy-swell country that was. Just as deluded.
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