The idea that a Librarian is meek is stupid. The idea that you think they tried to make her appear meek by identifying her as a Librarian speaks to your prejudiced ideas of how a Librarian should act. The paper messed up by not identifying THEIR conflict of interest when reporting the story. A brief - she used to work at the post would of been good.

Librarians ARE NOT MEEK!!

Mr. Roberts,

"Sure, she's a librarian now, but she's a lot more than that..." "A meek librarian...."

Michael Roberts, may I respectfully say that you have no idea. Were it not for librarians, the first amendment would be in more shambles than it already is. For instance, if it weren't for librarians, Michael Moore's book on Bush wouldn't have been published.....(http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/01/07/moore/index1.html)

If it weren't for librarians....well, I could cite example after example.

I suggest that you do a piece about librarians to set the record straight.

Thank you for listening,

Mary M. Carr
Spokane, WA

Point well taken. Clearly, ProgressNow identified Carol Kreck as a librarian because it wanted to play off the very cliches the other comments rightfully deride -- and I certainly didn't mean to make the same mistake. With that in mind, let me emphasize that I hold librarians in the highest esteem and regard them to be a bold and feisty lot who bear precious little resemblance to persistent stereotypes.

The ALA (American Library Association) has been working hard to protect the US Constitution in our darkest decade; Librarians have been on the front line in the battle to save our rights from the Patriot Act and related abuses. If you think we've done that with meekness, perhaps you'd say bloggers don't like to type much?

Oh give me a break. Of course the term “librarian” was used to make her look like a sweet little old lady. Yes that’s a stereotype, and yes there are very strong librarians - but getting hung-up on the connotations of the word “librarian” is totally missing the point! The term “McCain’s Secret Service” in the associated clip was meant to imply that John McCain was in some way personally responsible for this incident (there is no proof of that). And yes, it is stupid to think you would be welcome in a McCain town hall meeting with an anti-McCain sign. Yes McCain=Bush is meant to type-cast McCain as a Bushie in a political season where McCain is struggling to distance himself from the unpopular president! If all these things are not obvious, then you are delusional, or a moron. With that said, it was also stupid and wrong to throw her out the way they did. She had a right to be there. Are we all so caught-up in politics that we can’t see spin, propaganda, or use common sense? It’s time to look past the political agendas of the spin-doctors and media, and look objectively at the candidates. This is a non-story about a stupid mistake made by some overzealous guards. But they were provoked by a woman that knew full-well that there would be objections to bringing anti-McCain signs into a pro-McCain event. Jeesh, this is tabloid press at its finest!

The nation is in SERIOUS trouble. The Constitution, which has held this democracy intact for over 200 years is itself being torn apart by special interests that have effectively bribed our representatives.

This incident shows the sad state of the first amendment. We used to see these types of episodes on the new in the 50s and 60s as indicative of the oppression of free speech by communist regimes. Now, it's here in the U.S.

Today, Congress is poised to tear apart the 4th Amendment with the FISA debacle, effectively giving telecomm lobbyists a clear win in their war against the Constitution.

Waterboarding, GITMO and all the rest have virtually made trash of the 8th Amendment.

IF AMERICANS DON'T WAKE UP AND ACTIVELY START DEMANDING THE RESTORATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION, WE WILL LOSE IT AND OUR DEMOCRACY.

WAKE UP, AMERICA!

Good morning.. Hope the bold woman takes the ticket to court.. there is supreme court law that argues that a Public Space ( ie not inside a building) is NOT a place anyone can be accused of Trespass.. Feel sad she did not go back in and actually get arrested.... but respect her choice to not do that...

McCain=Bush ?? With regards our freedom of speech and right of assembly... seems patently so... John

Go Carol Kreck!

Bush = McCain = Putin = Mugabe = ?

(Don La Fontaine voice on) "In a world where quick access to reliable information is vital, and where a wiki'd flood of nonsense continuously threatens to wipe out all knowledge as we now it, it's hard to know who to trust. But one trade stands out. Thousands of men and women are out there everyday, fighting for your right to know and fending for the first amendment. They're seasoned in hundreds of hours of studying, encoding and decoding now-obselete classification systems. They know what you want to know before you do, and they know where to find it, and how. They've been gathering, checking, cataloguing and indexing information long before Sergej Brin and Larry Page were but a glint in their fathers' eyes. They've heard a myriad of excuses ('the dog ate it') and have learned to detect lies at an instant. They've dealt with scissor-happy censors and nosey parkers fishing for private information alike. They've got the time, the skills and the resources to take on anyone who challenges them. They're librarians. Don't look for them coming to your town: they're already there". (Don La Fontaine voice off)

Having said that, does it really matter what job the woman had before she became a librarian? She got chased out of a US town hall for wearing a sign that expressed her opinion. For her to contact her former collegues in order to inform the people of the infringement on her rights was a natural and rightful thing to do. This is not about personal histories: it's about personal freedom, about the laws that protect it, and about the institutions that are supposed to uphold these laws and that protection.

Very disappointing by the way to see Mr Roberts trying to shift the responsability for his article to others. 'ProgressNow' isn't under this article, Michael Roberts' name is.