TIGER AT WORK !!!!
Florida College Ends Librarian's Anti-American Censorship
You'd think a librarian, especially at a university, would be the last one to indulge in censorship. But if a government underling who lives off taxpayers has something pro-American to censor, all bets are off.
Florida Gulf Coast University President William Merwin apologized for a library bureaucrat's ban on "Proud to be an American" stickers, the Fort Myers News-Press reported today.
"One employee made a terrible mistake, which I find to be reprehensible," said Merwin, who wore an Old Glory tie while addressing the media and the campus Wednesday.
"Library services director" Kathy Hoeth had ordered employees to remove the stickers because, she claimed, they might "offend" foreign students. And university bureaucrats had originally backed up her - until the people spoke.
The school was bombarded with hundreds of angry e-mails from around the nation and as far away as Australia.
"Everyone was talking about it on campus today," student Amber Rish told the newspaper. "Someone ... heard it on the Howard Stern show. ... It's good to get national attention, but I don’t know about this way - Howard Stern never says anything nice."
Paul Harvey and even left-wing National Public Radio also reported on the issue.
"Everyone was concerned. Even the governor's office called," Merwin said. "People were saying, 'Have you lost your mind?'"
Not one foreign student even complained about the stickers, the News-Press said.
"Librarians, through history, have been upholders of the Constitution," Merwin noted. "They have been stalwarts ... with defending the First Amendment, so it's a bit ironic that a policy such as that should be invoked."
The hypocritically intolerant Hoeth claimed that she wanted to ensure "tolerance" for foreign students.
All that Hoeth received was an oral reprimand. Provost Brad Bartel will decide whether any further discipline is necessary, Merwin said. |
