This is in response to a posting regarding
the librarian seeking help about "And Tango Makes Three." She wrote:
"ALA will represent you, but they won't pay your mortgage or car
payment or your children's medical bills."
I'd like to direct everyone's attention to one of ALA's sister
organizations, the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund. Headquartered at
ALA, the Merritt Fund has, since 1970, helped librarians with financial
assistance who have been “threatened with loss of employment or
discharged because of their stand for the cause of intellectual
freedom.” Unfortunately, the Merritt Fund is lacking some much-needed
exposure, so I hope everyone on this list takes a moment to learn more
about it, spread the word, and if so moved, to donate to the fund.
If you visit the Merritt Fund's website (www.merrittfund.org) you'll
see that:
It is devoted to the support, maintenance, medical care, and welfare of
librarians who, in the Trustees’ opinion, are:
* Denied employment rights or discriminated against on the basis of
gender, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, age, disability, or
place of national origin;
* Denied employment rights because of defense of intellectual
freedom; that is, threatened with loss of employment or discharged
because of their stand for the cause of intellectual freedom, including
promotion of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom of
librarians to select items for their collections from all the world’s
written and recorded information.
The Merritt Fund's secretary is OIF's director Judith Krug. Its
current Trustees are Jim Kuhn, Lucille Thomas, and Martin Garner, all of
whom have spent a good deal of their professional careers in defense of
intellectual freedom. If you or a librarian you know has need for
assistance through the Fund, they can contact the office at
merrittfund@ala.org or by calling (800) 545-2433 x4226. The
application for assistance is online at
http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/othergroups/merrittfund/assistance/merri
ttfundapplication.pdf.
None of this is to say that the poster is wrong - there can be, in fact,
serious consequences to standing up for what’s right. As a donor to
the Merritt Fund, I know that its resources are limited, and that the
Fund is nowhere nearly as large as it needs to be, given the need that
exists. So I'd like to conclude by calling on other members of this
list to join me in becoming a donor to the Merritt Fund. You can mail a
check to the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, 50 E. Huron St.,
Chicago, IL 60611 or call with your credit card - again, (800) 545-2433
x4226.
The Merritt Fund is a unique and often indispensable lifeline FROM
librarians, TO librarians who are facing highly stressful situations.
Thanks, everyone!
************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
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