What's Wrong with this Picture?

Nothing is wrong, but neither is it what you might expect, if you are given to stereotypes, that is. The two in the middle are the librarians. OK, you can’t see their comfortable shoes, but neither Plainville’s Peter Chase nor Library Connection’s George Christian are what anyone would expect if, for instance, one were going to be a librarian for Halloween. In fact, the one who comes closest to actually looking like a librarian is the one on the left, but she would be a lawyer, specifically Ann Beeson, the ACLU’s lawyer who defended the Doe family, aka the Connecticut Four, for their challenge to the gag order imposed by the USA Patriot Act. The only one who matches a stereotype would be Kevin O’Connor, on the right, Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney who looks like central casting’s idea of what an FBI agent should look like--Irish, beefy, clean-cut, etc.

These four were gathered at Hartford’s Old State House to be interviewed for CPTV’s live broadcast of “Front and Center.” The small audience was, however, exactly what I expected, lefties all, (except for librarians Louise Blalock and Irene Iwan from Hartford Public, Mona Scully-Smith from Glastonbury, and Tony Bernardo, formerly of Suffield’s Kent Library, plus Jack Bradley, library husband and sympathizer.) They all said what I expected them to say, but I just can’t get enough of hearing about this wonderful episode, a classic case of civil disobedience led by four of my colleagues and friends who just said No to the FBI. (If you also can’t get enough, scroll down to an earlier blog, “The Connecticut Four: Just Doing their Jobs.”)

When Peter talked about the urgency of protecting patrons' privacy in the public library, my heart swelled as if I were hearing it for the first time. I was never able to attend any of the court sessions in Bridgeport or New York, but Ann Beeson was just as smart and compelling as everyone said she was. Unexpected was my reaction to Kevin O’Connor, (who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in the First District against John Larson, and who will, I predict, eventually win national elected office.) Kevin and I don’t agree on anything, but I had to admire the man’s mettle in just showing up in a venue where he was the only one on his side. (It was, however, a little hard to take when he tried to get sympathy for his agents by saying that they worked long hours and were not well paid!) Yes, it was all pretty much what I expected. Peter and George (and Barbara Bailey and Jan Nocek, two of the four who couldn’t be there) are people who will always be what you expect them to be—smart, courageous, pro-active, and secure in their convictions.

I say let’s replace that stereotype embodied in the popular culture by the shushing librarian doll and the countless media portrayals of the bun and the half-glasses sitting behind the desk looking out disapprovingly. Let’s replace that image with the picture above—our esteemed colleagues bookended, not by Patience and Fortitude, but by advocacy and adversity.