Email campaign to have "Of Pandas and People" officially designated as a "banned book"

An article on another blog reported that Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Deputy Director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, when asked if she felt that the Kitzmiller ruling would qualify Of Pandas and People as a "banned" book, answered, "we wouldn't consider it that way." That's ridiculous.

I am starting an email campaign to persuade the ALA to officially designate Pandas as a "banned book." I think that just 50 emails would be enough to attract their attention -- I knew a guy who was invited to testify at a Congressional committee hearing solely as a result of 50 form-letters of support mailed in from around the country.

I am also bringing this campaign to the attention of the Discovery Institute (which initiated the idea) and the Foundation for Thought and Ethics, the book's publisher.

You can also contact the ALA toll-free telephone: "For more information on Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, please contact the American Library Association/Office for Intellectual Freedom at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220." However, Banned Books Week is over, so I don't know if this phone number is still good.

Suggested email subject line: Officially recognize "Of Pandas and People" as "banned book"

Suggested text -- though I encourage you to add your own words:

To staffs of the American Library Association and Office for Intellectual Freedom:

I request that the American Library Association issue a press release officially recognizing "Of Pandas and People" as a "banned book."

Your website clearly indicates that you consider the designation "banned book" to include books that are banned from school curricula but not banned from school libraries or other libraries. An oral statement suggesting that students read Pandas was an official part of the curriculum in a school district in Pennsylvania. In Kitzmiller v. Dover, a federal judge banned this oral statement. The judge's written opinion referred to this oral statement as a "curriculum change" 48 times. Also, "Curriculum Committee" appears 24 times in the opinion and "curriculum controversy" appears 9 times. There is no question that the judge banned the book from the curriculum -- even the mere mention of the book was banned from the curriculum. In contrast, most of the books that you feature during Banned Books Week were not banned but were only challenged.

Thank you.

Original short list of email addresses:

library@ala.org,
membership@ala.org,
bbw@ala.org,
dwood@ala.org,
dstone@ala.org

("dwood" is the general address for the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom and "dstone" is the address of Deborah Caldwell-Stone)

cc: (Discovery Institute staff)

cluskin@discovery.org,
rob@discovery.org

Long list of email addresses:

The following list of about 40 addresses consists of the plaintiffs' attorneys of Kitzmiller v. Dover (Pepper-Hamilton and, the ACLU, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State), the Dover Area School Board, and the staffs of the American Library Association, the Discovery Institute, and the Dover Area School District administration. This list includes the addresses of the preceding list.

dstone@ala.org,
dwood@ala.org,
library@ala.org,
membership@ala.org,
bbw@ala.org,
cluskin@discovery.org,
rob@discovery.org,
alawash@alawash.org,
oitp@alawash.org,
bbecker@ala.org,
lbradley@alawash.org,
ebyrne@ala.org,
bcampbell@ala.org,
lclark@ala.org,
geberhar@ala.org,
kfiels@ala.org,
pgoodes@ala.org,
bmurphy@alawash.org,
aparker@ala.org,
nperez@ala.org,
esheketoff@alawash.org,
rothschilde@pepperlaw.com,
schmidtt@pepperlaw.com,
harveys@pepperlaw.com,
matherm@pepperlaw.com,
vwalczak@aclupgh.org,
pknudsen@aclupa.org,
katskee@au.org,
luchenitser@au.org,
pdapp@dover.k12.pa.us,
temig@dover.k12.pa.us,
hgeese@dover.k12.pa.us,
lgurre@dover.k12.pa.us,
pherma@dover.k12.pa.us,
rmcilv@dover.k12.pa.us,
jmcilv@dover.k12.pa.us,
brehm@dover.k12.pa.us,
breink@dover.k12.pa.us,
rnilse@dover.k12.pa.us,
aaumen@dover.k12.pa.us,
bholtz@dover.k12.pa.us

I have no email address for the Foundation for Thought and Ethics yet.

For background info, see:

I'm always kicking their butts -- that's why they don't like me