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WORDS |
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WORDS |
...he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words,
which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
2nd letter of Paul to the church at Corinth,
chapter 12, verse 4, KJV
| A one pound can of coffee is
shrunk to 13 or even 11.5 ounces to bamboozle consumers about a price increase.
-The concept of "vegetable" is debased to bring
in ketchup for the purpose of saving money in school lunch
programs.- During the Reagan era, when these
and other standards were systematically eviscerated under the cold, watchful
eyes of so-called conservatives, the generous tradition of liberalism came
under a sustained assault so withering that many progressives shied away--and
later fled headlong--from identification with the term "liberal"
itself.- Eventually, the word became unspeakable;
in "polite" circles, it came to be referred to as "the 'L' word" when mentioned
at all.
The fortunes of liberalism have continued to fade despite the 1992 publication of The L Word An Unapologetic, Thoroughly Biased, Long-Overdue Explication and Celebration of Liberalism by psychology professor David P. Barash. Now, another noble institutional pillar of our culture has been threatened with the prospect of becoming known by the "L word" tag: recent references in Library Journal have highlighted efforts within several agencies including the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) to, in the words of John N. Berry III, "disassociate library education programs from the institution and word library" in the rush to embrace non-traditional, information age program priorities; indeed, as Berry notes, the ALISE board , apparently cringing at the possibility of being considered old fashioned, has voted five to one to completely remove the term "library" from its mission statement. Other fine old concepts and traditions designated by words beginning with the letter L have become unfashionable and been subjected unfair attack and opprobrium. "Labor" and the "Left" in general leap to mind.- It is the purpose of the L Words page do some rehabilitation in this area.- WE will wear the "L" proudly à la Laverne De Fazio. |
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LIBERALISM | |
LABOR | |
LIBRARIES |
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This page was last updated September 20, 2000.