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Tag Archives: sponsorship
Virginia priest visits 16 friends sponsored by parish
Father Henry Diesta from Newport News, Va., recently traveled back to his home in the Philippines to visit relatives and family. While he was there, he had an exciting opportunity to meet not just one, but 16 friends sponsored by members of his parish.
A special birthday celebration for sponsored aging friends in Uganda
By Alexah Nabayinda and Sylivia Wendidda, CFCA-Uganda staffers
Everyone in life deserves to feel special.
For many elderly, the CFCA birthday celebration was the first time in their lives they had participated in such a special event.
For the CFCA Kampala office in Uganda, the Birthday Fund made the party possible.
When a natural disaster hits, does CFCA tell sponsors if sponsored friends are affected?
Q. When a natural disaster hits, does CFCA tell sponsors if sponsored friends are affected?
A. We do our best to inform sponsors personally whenever their sponsored friend has passed away from a natural disaster or any other cause.
We don't have the resources to contact each individual sponsor if their friends have been evacuated or otherwise affected from a natural disaster. We're always working to update our records about sponsored friends who were affected: whether they need a new house, for example, or other support we can provide as they recover from tragedies.
Shortly following a natural disaster, CFCA local staff will typically survey the impacted communities and assess if there are specific family needs that CFCA could help address through special funding from donations to the disaster assistance fund or through direct services from our staff.
If your sponsored friend lives in an affected area, please feel free to contact our Sponsor Services team to see whether any specific information about your sponsored friend has been received. We'll be more than happy to share that with you.
We also post stories on our website whenever disasters strike areas where our sponsored friends live. While these stories generally don't contain information about specific children or aging friends, they report on the disaster's impact in the area and how CFCA is helping.
For more information, please email email@example.com or call Sponsor Services at (800) 875-6564 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time.
Mother in India starts family business
We recently heard from our Hyderabad project in India about several mothers of sponsored children who are exemplifying the potential of families living in poverty. Here's the story of Sathya – enjoy!
My family and I live in a remote village in India.
My husband used to be a contract worker; the income he earned was not enough to support our family.
I had an opportunity to take out a loan through my mothers group.
I talked with my husband, and we both shared the idea of opening a store in our village.
He supported my idea and agreed to purchase the required materials for the store.
First, I opened the store in our home.
I soon repaid the first loan, and I took out another loan to purchase a kiosk made with wood.
After that was repaid, I asked for a third loan to buy a refrigerator to keep a few cool drinks in the store.
After a few years, my husband left his job and is helping me run the business. Read more
Food prices rise around the world
Food prices have increased in recent months, and families in the CFCA program have been affected by the higher costs.
Thanks to CFCA sponsorship, many families have access to direct nutrition benefits or livelihood programs that help them increase their earning potential.
Read the full story about rising food prices and what CFCA is doing to help sponsored friends and their families meet their nutritional needs.
'A blessing in my life:' Kasey's sponsorship experience
By Kasey, who sponsors Amelia through CFCA
I heard about CFCA through an online search.
I knew I wanted to sponsor through a reputable program, and after extensive research and finding that CFCA's values lined up with my own beliefs, I knew I had found the right place.
I searched the profiles and determined that a woman named Fabiana needed my help most.
Her story resonated with me. For $30 a month, I could help this elderly widow off of her straw bed on the ground and change her whole life.
When I got her first letter, I cried. I read it over and over and then wrote back saying that, although she thought I was a blessing to her life, she was also a blessing in mine.
The gratitude I felt through her handwritten words spoke to my heart.
I carried them close until about a year later when she passed away. I mourned her passing but rejoiced in knowing that I brought her great comfort in that past year.
CFCA then found me Amelia, and although from a different continent and telling a different tale, I was written into her story. Read more


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He's a man the judge called "selfish" and a "monster" -- and Sheldon Parker faced up to 800 years in prison for the sex crimes he committed against a young teen over a four-year period.
But Parker is sentenced to 40 years, in part, because of a request from his young victim.
As Parker's trial was to start, he pleaded guilty as charged to 40 aggravated sex crime charges.
David Palay prosecuted the case.
"If it had not been for his guilty plea as charged, the District Attorney's Office would have sought the maximum, 800 years," said Palay.Prosecutors say allowing Parker to plead guilty was in no way aimed at helping him. Instead, it was to prevent a young victim from having to testify during a trial.
"We were concerned in consultations with the victim of the trauma that she would suffer if the trial were to ensue and she would have to relive these events, so we're pleased that the victim was not required to testify in order for justice to be served," said Palay.As part of the plea, prosecutors promised not to argue that Parker deserves to die in prison.
The defense put on witnesses to show Parker, now 43, has a shortened life span that should be considered so that maybe he walks out of prison one day. Ted Hartman is Parker's defense attorney.
"A lot of people die in their early fifties or have serious heart problems in their early fifties, so, regardless of how heinous his crime was, which it was, and it was heinous, he still should be sentenced consistent with what negotiation took place. I felt he should have been able to get out of jail in his early fifties," said Hartman.
Hartman predicts Parker will die in prison if he has to serve 40 years.
"Because I think people in his family have serious heart, health problems that impact them in their fifties and I can't imagine he would get the same level of care in jail and he would out of jail," said Hartman.However, Palay disagrees.
"I didn't hear any testimony that Mr. Parker had any peculiar health issues. Rather he was relying upon some unfortunate circumstances of family members who had histories of smoking and other bad behaviors," said Palay.Parker himself testified since being jailed he's quit smoking and his blood pressure is under control. Judge David Ritchie called Parker a monster and a predator who manipulated circumstances to victimize a child for four years.
The judge says he expects Parker to stay in prison for 40 years.
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Bank counters were holding firm on Wednesday with the BSE Bankex emerging the biggest sectoral gainer in the morning trade, up by about 103 points.
The only stock in the red was Kotak Mahindra Bank. The bank had announced that it has been asked by the RBI to cut promoter holding to 20 per cent by 2018, though the announcement itself may have no link with the marginal decline the stock had witnessed. Kotak Mahindra Bank declined to Rs 575.85, a loss of Rs 3.85.
Axis Bank was up Rs 11.05 at Rs 1,014.30 and SBI had gained Rs 11.90 at Rs 2,128. Bank of India was trading at Rs 346.65, a gain of Rs 2.30.
Bank of Baroda was up Rs 9.85 to Rs 716.50, while Canara Bank moved up Rs 4.25 to Rs 419.20, HDFC Bank gained Rs 6.50 to trade at Rs 550.60 and ICICI Bank jumped Rs 12.55 to Rs 858.00. PNB was trading at Rs 787.25, a gain of Rs 6.60.


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Investors buy Santa Barbara luxury hotel Bacara Resort and Spa
Pacific Hospitality Group in Irvine says it has bought a Santa Barbara luxury resort, the Bacara Resort and Spa, for an undisclosed amount.
The hospitality investment group says its affiliate, BRS Ventures LLC, bought the property from SB Luxury Resort, an affiliate of Ohana Real Estate Investors and Rockpoint Group. SB Luxury Resort had owned the property since 2011.
Pacific Hospitality said it bought the 50,000-square-foot coastal resort to expand its portfolio of properties that cater to group and leisure travelers. The company also cited increasing revenue, employment and tourism in Santa Barbara.
As a result of the deal, Bacara will partner with the Foley Food & Wine Society wine club, the investors said.
Bacara General Manager Kathleen Cochran Bacara will continue in her position, and the Bacara Resort and Spa name will remain, Pacific Hospitality said.
Bacara sits on 78 acres of the Gaviota coast and has 360 rooms and suites, four restaurants, three pools and a spa, according to Bacara's website. Room rates start at $299 a night.
The acquisition follows Pacific Hospitality's recent purchases of the Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa in San Diego, the Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach and The Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa. The company also owns and operates the Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort, Doubletree by Hilton Irvine Spectrum and Doubletree by Hilton Santa Ana/Orange County Airport.
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Rwanda: Colonizing Eastern Congo with U.S. support
by Ann Garrison
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones: The secession of South Sudan rekindled calls for secession around the world, including those of the Rwandan lobby for redrawing the map to make the Democratic Republic of the Congo's North and South Kivu provinces on Congo's eastern border with Rwanda part of Rwanda.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Friends of the Congo's pilot film "Crisis in the Congo, Uncovering the Truth," which was shown at San Francisco's African American Cultural Center this week, points to evidence that the U.S. armed and trained the Rwandan and Ugandan armies who have invaded and occupied Eastern Congolese provinces, beginning in 1996.
Former university Professor Yaa Lengi, author of "Genocide in the Congo" and leader of the New York City-based Congo Coalition, says that many policy makers in the U.S. have backed the lobby pushing to fold the mineral and natural gas rich Kivu Provinces into Rwanda.
Professor Yaa Lengi: These provinces have been occupied by Rwanda since the invasions of 1996 and 1998 and, as Herman Cohen wrote in the Washington Post in 2003 and in the New York Times in 2008, these two Congolese provinces' economies have been integrated 100 percent into the economy of Rwanda, meaning that Rwanda controls these two provinces 100 percent.
Since Bill Clinton's administration continued on even under Bush and now under Obama's administration, Rwanda still occupies those two provinces, controls them. Bill Clinton, with the mining companies backing him, has given carte blanche to Paul Kagame and Rwanda and that control of the Eastern Congo continues.
KPFA: Professor Lengi says, however, that 15 years of aggression have only strengthened the resolve of Congolese people in the Kivus not to become part of Rwanda:
Professor Yaa Lengi: Until today, the Congolese people in Kivu do not want to be part of Rwanda. Therefore what Rwanda's been doing is killing those millions of Congolese, trying to bring in Rwandans to occupy those territories and, therefore, maybe later they can have a referendum and the Rwandans who have been occupying the Congolese territory can say "we want to join Rwanda." But as of now, the Congolese people refuse to join Rwanda − those who are in those Kivus territories.
KPFA: The Kivu provinces are mineral rich, most famously in coltan − a mineral found in cell phones and other electronic gadgetry − but also in cassiterite, whose common name is tin, and in other minerals essential to military industrial technology. Lake Kivu, on the border of Rwanda and Eastern Congo's South Kivu province, has huge stores of natural gas claimed by Rwanda − although the dangers of extracting it are shared by Rwandans on its eastern shores and Congolese on its western shores.
For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.
San Francisco writer Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Global Research, Colored Opinions, Black Star News, the Newsline EA (East Africa) and her own blog, Ann Garrison, and produces for AfrobeatRadio on WBAI-NYC, Weekend News on KPFA and her own YouTube Channel, AnnieGetYourGang. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
34 thoughts on "Rwanda: Colonizing Eastern Congo with U.S. support"
Ann Garrison, as always, you're no journalist, you just a falsehoods monger!!↓
Some morgan person believes that throwing around insults is the way to make a point.↓
Fred Johnson
On what planet do you live on? Funny, I live in Rwanda and can tell you that everything you have written is a lie. There is a new Ambassador from the Congo in Rwanda and relations between the two are getting better. The two countries also signed an accord on sharing the methane gas in lake Kivu. And the danger of the methane is not extracting it. If they leave it there, it will eventually escape and cause mass extinction around the lake (although no one knows if that will be a 100 years from now or 10000 years from now). The Americans do help train Rwandan soldier, but to be peace keepers in Somalia and policemen and in Hati. Conspiracies are a great way to evoke strong emotions from people who don't know the truth. What it accomplishes is distract people from talking about, and dealing with real issues, and there are plenty of real issues in both these countries. So in the end, if your job is to confuse people to reality, you are doing a good job. If you are really trying to report the news, then you suck and you should go find yourself a new line of work.
I don't know any Congolese people who would consider it a surprise that relations are getting better with Joseph Kabila, a.k.a. Hippolyte Kanambe, in power in Congo.↓
Tshimanga H. Mubiayi
You're right in your analysis. The US is using MONUC to maintain Kabila in power. Kabila is from Rwanda, and the US is supporting him despite the misery Congolese people are experiencing. How would the US react if their president was not american? We've seen how the "birthers" continue to think about President Obama birth certificate. The Congolese people have suffered a lot because of the US foreign policies implemented in the Congo. They started by eliminating Lumumba, then they imposed Mobutu as a president for more than 30 years. Now it is Kabila's turn to stay in power regardless of the fact that he is not Congolese.↓
To Fred Johnson and Morgan
I lived in South and North Kivu and i know exactly what is going on. You and yours, who are comfortably living where you are enjoying peace while thousands of women are raped and killed, families displaced on a daily basis because of this devilish plan which in fact is real, have the guts to come here questioning the integrity of one of the few journalists who are crudely and truthfully doing their job?
On what planet do you live?
Shame on you ignorant selfish human being!
On behalf of the victims of this war, i say thank you Ann for reporting this truth. The Congo is immensely thankful for this. Keep doing your job and ignore those ignorant comments.↓
jean kisombe
Serge, i live in goma and what you are saying is lies, the problem is not rwanda the problem is your country that has failed you. you are raping your own people ,You guys are great that playing the blame game. If you used the same effort on resolving the problems you are facing, you would have been far in development. Keep looking like a victim may be ann will help you.↓
I don't know what part of Goma you live in, but probably not in DRC. You and your Kagame friends have long be known for misrepresentation, hypocrisy and lies. You have been using violence, rape, killings as tools of fear in order to displace population to later replace them by non Congolese pretending that they are returning refugees! Do you think that Congolese are dupe?
You and your Rwandan friends are the champions of deceits who have been blaming and using the whole world for what happened in 1994. And guess what, before that, the DRC was at peace!
Like some one said above, the DRC will rise very soon and you who pretend to be Congolese will run like cockroaches in the abyss of shame.↓
By using the term "cockroaches" I, and many others, will think you are somehow connected to the FDLR or have Interahamwe connections. If you want to be taken seriously and make intelligent comments you should choose your words more carefully. Not that anyone is really taking you seriously anyway!↓
I pray always for Congolese and the whole region of the great lakes. A criminal like Kagame Paul and his military who terrorize the whole region will face justice one day and be accountable of the many atrocities they committed and are still committing in the region.The Devil is just ruling them.↓
Makuwa jean p
pray that you get smart and resolve your own problems and stop blaming kagame. Congolese have failed congo. All of you have big stomachs and that's all you care to feed not your people the less advantaged. You get want you want and leave the poor to suffer shame on you. And now you what to look concern on internet. I am congolese and i am sick and tired of you guys always looking like victims come and help us build congo. I am a doctor and i make alot of difference in people's lives, here in goma and bukavu. Ann is nothing, but a usless white trash, she should come here and work with us if she care enough. I am sick of her talking about what she doesn't know.↓
It is sad that in this Information age many black people still believe in multinationals propaganda… This is our slavery was perpetrated but those days information was difficult to come by. Please my brothers and sisters stop sleeping into a new slavery…↓
Makuwa jean p AKA jean kisombe, you pretend to be a Doctor?I don't know where you got your degree from but one thing is clear from your writing: You are a disrespectful person, to summarize, an impolite human being insulting a journalist doing her job! Congolese doctors are well educated my friend. You are probably a thug hiding behind your screen.↓
Elpanzo Didier
I cannot believe that the USA can come up with this evil idea. First of all Tutsi cannot live together with their Utus and Congo is full of Bantus which are commonly known in Rwanda as Utus. How can this people live together in peace. Please give me a break, we know your plan and working heavily against it, This will never happen or I should say, the idea is no going to work.
How can you fight terrorist like Qaeda but ignoring that you are trying to create another one. Please we will do 'whatever it takes to defend ourselves even if we have to get help from our brother Arabs.↓
Ann Garrison, you are a great journalist despite what some people say. Congolese people salute you and are grateful for your reporting on behalf of Congo and on behalf of the simple truth. Most of your detractors have a vested interest in the partition of the Congo and are behind Rwanda and Uganda. The people of Congo are aware of these plans and will work hard to have them fail until the day all congolese are be wiped out of their land. Congo belongs to Congolese and no portion of Congo land can be donated to friends to repair any guilt Clinton and the west might have for what they didn't do to prevent mass killings in Rwanda. Why don't the give Rwanda or Uganda a piece of the USA or UK to name a few?
A message to looters, invaders, proxies and multinationals, Congo will rise and will demand accountability.↓
Thank you so much, Elie. Re what you call "any guilt Clinton and the west might have for what they didn't do to prevent mass killings in Rwanda," this idea that Clinton and others felt bystander guilt is mistaken. The U.S. was no bystander to the Rwanda Genocide; I did an earlier KPFA interview about this with Peter Erlinder and Ed Herman: "Rwanda is no excuse to intervene in Sudan," http://sfbayview.com/2011/rwanda-is-no-excuse-for…. If Clinton felt any guilt about this, and he may have felt a twinge, it was simply because the collateral damage for putting Kagame in power in Rwanda was expected to be a few hundred thousand Rwandan people and it was, in the end, closer to a million. And, the world was aghast, so the cover-up, including the bystander lie, began.↓
keith harmon snow
Dear Ann Garrison:
What planet do you live on? Seems you live on the same planet I live on. It's very interesting that these NASTY examples of so-called human beings can make such NASTY comments, but this is clearly becuase they are complicit in genocide in eastern Congo and war crimes in their own country and genocide in their own country as well. So, don't even bother reading them and just keep telling the truth as it is.
keith harmon snow http://www.ConsciousBeingAlliance.com↓
Thanks for making room for me on your planet. The "white trash" aspersions are a kick, but best yet was the scream that I must be a lesbian!!!! (OMG) because I wrote, and recorded Aimable Mugara and Charles Kambanda and you to say that the Rwanda Genocide is no excuse for the U.S. to send Predator Drones "to stop genocide" elsewhere in Africa.↓
Frank LeFever
The record is very clear, documented (reluctantly) by the UN in a report it was forced to acknowledge after somebody leaked it to LeMonde almost a year ago, and by other sources: Kagame led an army of killers from Uganda tho Kigali and on into Congo. Part of "Congo failing Congo" can be attributed to Kagame's installing a crypto-Rwandan in Kimshasa as its "President".↓
Kagame and his criminal network is not different from the Taliban. US has trained Kagame and his criminals the same way Bin Laden and his criminal network was trained. I know for sure that it will cost the US and the people of Rwanda to uproot Kagame and his partners in crime. Kagame and his fellow criminals have no conscience.↓
It is amazing how people living in the cosiness of the modernity of Kigali are blinded by the shrewdness of their leaders. To all Freds in that capital: if you want to develop your own judgement capacity in stead of being a puppet in your leaders' hands, don't rely on diplomats and politicians. Come to the Congo, and find out for yourselves: evidence on Kagame's intentions is piling up. Just last week, 10 tons of cassiterite were found in the possession of military in Goma. Admit this is not supposed to be their core business… And where do you think they planned to take it too? Just check the production and exportation statistics of Rwandan cassiterite, and you'll know. No wonder Kigali's fancy new city quarter Nyarutarama is nicknamed "Merci Congo".↓
Very interesting comment, Julien. If you have any documentation about this, please send. You have my e-mail address below.↓
The info on the cassiterite catch http://www.provincenordkivu.org/saisi_dix_tonnes_…
That seems to say that the police busted the army with the cassiterite. Sounds like Congo. I assume it's the Congolese police, but whose army? Congolese? Of course I know that's a problematic concept. . . Congoelse army. . . is it really Rwandan or Congolese? But, I would appreciate a bit of context from Radio Okapi there.↓
The Congolese Mining Police caught Congolese military (FARDC) red-handed with a convoy of 10 tons of tin ore, right before it was to be exported to Rwanda (Grande Barrière = border with Rwanda in Goma). To whom? Investigation is ongoing, bur definitely to Rwanda.
Remember the Rwanda ban on import of Congo minerals? All pure window dressing… http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE73Q0…
Donna, u now appeal to race and slavely to divert our attention! Kagame is black. He has killed over 6million blacks in Congo He has enslaved the Hutu in the Congo mines. And u are now talking about whites and blacks then slavely? Shame on you↓
Bravo Ann, your radio is the only objective one over what is happening in theCongo. Others have been corrupted. U are great.↓
David Peterson
Friends: What Yaa Lengi and Ann Garrison are warning about sounds like the Kagame-esque dream of founding a "Greater Rwanda" in these mineral-rich regions of central Africa.
It is too bad, though, that the young documentary, "Crisis in the Congo, Uncovering the Truth," relies on so many official sources (e.g., the State Department's former Africa-hand Gregory Stanton, now the president of the quasi-governmental adjunct group Genocide Watch; Human Rights Watch's Anneke Van Woudenberg; the former New York Times reporter Howard French).
One-thousand-times worse, this documentary repeats the false history of the rise of the Paul Kagame – Rwandan Patriotic Front military dictatorship inside Rwanda, and the immediate spread of this military into the Congo, after it had successfully seized state-power inside Rwanda.
In the YouTube version, beginning at roughly the 10:40 mark, Claver Pashi of the DR Congo Forum says that "…those who committed genocide in Rwanda crossed-over into the Congo, and the Congo has become the victim — the victim — of what happened in Rwanda, and what the international community didn't do to stop it."
Then the narrator comes in [11:13] : "In 1994, the international community failed to stop the Rwandan genocide and effectively punish it perpetrators. Since then, violence in central Africa has escalated, along with a growing culture of impunity."
Followed by Anneke Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch [11:30] : "If you don't hold to account those who carry out these horrible atrocities, it leaves the door open for them to do more."
Etc. Etc.
This is nothing more than history in the service of power, and one needs to be intellectually and morally sharp-enough not to fall for it.
David Peterson
Chicago, USA↓
Thanks for the careful textual analysis with time notations, David. That point you note at 11.13 is critical: "In 1994, the international community failed to stop the Rwandan genocide and effectively punish it perpetrators. Since then, violence in central Africa has escalated, along with a growing culture of impunity."
There are so many lies and false implications in that statement that it's a chore to unpack, but the most important, of course, is that we all know who the perpetrators of the Rwanda Genocide were: "Hutu genocidaires" who fled into Congo. Here today, in the Telegraph, is another example of the argument that this forced consensus supports; "Meanwhile, 'Field Marshal' Assad is assembling Syria's version of a Hutu Power gang of butchers whilst the West remains quiescent." –Michael Weiss, mouthpiece of the Henry Jackson Foundation, http://goo.gl/nAIIa
Those arguing that the West must intervene to stop the next Rwanda never invoke Congo, despite a death toll six times as high and still climbing, though they do, however indirectly, try to blame Congo's holocaust on Hutu Power.↓
I have read and understood all comments here, but it is realy craze of Rwandese government and some Rwandese dreamers to believe that north or south kivu will be part of Rwanda one day .
Even if yu build a city called "merci congo" it is a city of "bien mal aquis"…. congolese children and future generation will know and hate you for the blood you've shed in congo, the hate you've planted in our hearts will be passed on from generation to another and the children of our children's children will know about your cruelty , now its a question of time we will come back to you Rwandese with vengeance …. It not over yet … like brother Didier said even if we it means getting help from our Arab brothers….↓
Rwanda,s people is specialist in lying. They can't agree that what your wrote is the truth. We know the history. Rwanda colonizing eastern Congo with USA and international comunitee support.
I thanks the journalist Ann Garrisson for tihs article.
Don't follow the crazy messages from rwanda's people. You're right; keep doing your job.
Thank you so much↓
June sina
"The congolese women are being raped" who is raping them? FDRL,MAI MAI etc and what is that have to do with Rwanda.You can blame it all on your Mobutu for allowing killers in your territory but unfortunately he is dead so its up to you Congolese to get off your asses and get to work other than moan .Its up to you,your neighbours have left you in development and unless you get off your lazy asses and help yourselves,you will forever be what you are.↓
Good Luck
June you will realised you mistake for what you've just said, the day tha Americans will abandonned your president. Can you explain the presence of your military in RDcongo? you may say as one of your country person said in one of the statement here above that they are in Congo for peace keeping. Then I will ask you to explain why are they stopping people from protesting the rigged election. I f you have an answers to these questions then write another statements. I am from Congo and I forcely condemned the people who are responsible for the mass killing of tutis in Rwanda(remember genocide). And for your information, Congolease are not lazy as you stated here above they are in contrary experiencing a situation whereby an corrupted intruder is ruling their contry in a dictatorship way, using the armed forced to his advantage. Believe me June his reign is coming to an end and he will reap what he is sowing.↓
Anna Garisson, and pple with similar views-
Rwanda happened to be in Congo for genuine reasons, for Fighting Genociders. I Don't think you'll have lessons whatsoever to teach this country, after-all the tragedy happened when everyone was watching including UN, UN security council and Journalists like Anna 0garisson. About this idea of Parting North Kivu to Rwanda is not only vague but also unrealistic in the modern times.↓


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- In the Library with the Lead Pipe - http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org -
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Posted By Audrey Barbakoff On March 25, 2011 @ 8:26 am In Uncategorized | Comments Disabled
In the Library with the Lead Pipe welcomes Audrey Barbakoff, a librarian at the Milwaukee Public Library, and Ahniwa Ferrari, Virtual Experience Manager at the Pierce County Library System in Washington, for a point-counterpoint piece on filtering in libraries. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and are not endorsed by their employers. We thank them for their time and energy in writing this piece!
I felt pretty hypocritical about last year's Banned Books Week. Don't get me wrong; I love Banned Books Week. I adore it. Without the reminder provided by events like this, it's too easy to get drawn into the day-to-day concerns of library work and forget about the essential issues of intellectual freedom, battling censorship, and embracing the sharing of ideas even when they are unpopular or unpleasant. It's because I find it so critically important, so essential to who we are as librarians, that I'm upset.
Because libraries are complicit in one of the most extensive censorship campaigns in history.
Even right under the nose of Banned Books Week, we are censors. Every single day, we prevent people from accessing content that makes us uncomfortable – online. We take the single greatest advance in the open dissemination of ideas since the printing press and slap filters on it. I just don't understand how librarians can allow and encourage patrons to read books full of graphic sex and violence while simultaneously denying them the opportunity to access the same content online. Think of a popular urban fiction author, like Keith Lee Johnson. We'll buy a kajillion copies of Little Black Girl Lost, we'll display them in a place of prominence, we'll replace them when they're stolen, we'll recommend them to patrons, including minors, who like Wahida Clark. But would our own computer filters let you see that exact same text on the screen? No way.
So why do we let this happen? I think it's because public librarians fail to talk about filtering in an ethically important way. Even articles that address the controversy around filtering and intellectual freedom fall into the trap of dickering about smaller issues, such as how restrictive filters should be, how well they work, or which product is best1. It's easy to do, and part of me wonders if we haven't intentionally let the ethical issues slip into the shadows out of a little bit of shame over our print/digital double standard. Perhaps we just find it easy to write off digital content because we're format-ists. Perhaps it's because CIPA or COPA or whatever vowel they're using these days has leveraged our funding to quash our resistance. Perhaps we've just had filters for so long we've accepted them as necessary, or at least "grudgingly come to terms."2
Whatever the reason, we have to take our heads out of the e-sand if we're going to offer our patrons the service and access that is their right. There are certainly serious concerns about the efficacy and cost of filtering which need to be addressed. However, these smaller decisions on how to filter must come out of a broader understanding of why we filter at all – and of what the higher-level effects and implications of that choice may be. Basically, we need to have a frank, moral conversation to remind us what exactly we're doing. Only once we have a clear understanding of what it means to filter can we legitimately ask ourselves how we're going to deal with them in the real world.
For all of you who are not public librarians, or who are public librarians but are way too busy struggling to keep your library running with not enough budget, staff, or technology to waste time nitpicking over a bunch of obscure legal documents, here's the quick and dirty background.
The current federal legislation affecting filtering in public libraries is the Children's Internet Protection Act, or CIPA. Implemented in early 2001, CIPA does not actually require all public and school libraries to install filters. However, only libraries with mandatory filters are eligible for certain federal discounts on communications technology, including Internet access.4 Since few libraries can simply turn their collective noses up at funding, especially in the high-demand, high-expense area of technology, many smaller libraries have only the illusion of choice.
The ALA filed a lawsuit to overturn CIPA in 2002, alleging that it violated users' first amendment rights. A series of similar laws meant to control the dissemination of pornography online had already been repeatedly declared unconstitutional on these grounds.5 The Eastern District of Pennsylvania unanimously agreed with the ALA, but the U.S. Supreme Court did not. On June 23, 2003, the court ruled 6-3 that CIPA was constitutional.6
CIPA was meant to apply only to children,7 but recently state legislation allowing constitutionally protected speech to be denied to adults has been gaining hold. In Bradburn v. North Central Regional Library, the Washington Supreme Court allowed the library to refuse to disable a filter for an adult patron.8 (That's pretty scary to me. I became a librarian to be a guide to an overwhelming world of information, not a stony-faced gatekeeper, judge and jury of what is acceptable.) The state argued that filtering is not censorship but a form of collection development; just as a library can choose not to buy a book, it can choose not to offer access to a website.
However, that argument doesn't get to the heart of the issue. It's a spurious debate that gets us bickering over semantics rather than closely examining the impact of the action we are taking when we force filters on our patrons. After all, we're doing the same thing no matter what we call it. A rose by any other name, and all that jazz. On that note, and with a sense of the increasing pressure on libraries to use filters to deny people of all ages access to constitutionally protected content, let's drop the semantics and the politicking and take a look at just what exactly it means to our communities when we mandate filters.
Filtering is generally cast as the uneasy equilibrium between Freedom and Protection. We want to give our patrons maximum freedom while still protecting children. It sounds logical, right? However, it's quite frankly ridiculous. Consider what it really means, in practical terms, to "protect" somebody from information. It means systematic denial of access. It means that people from group X are barred from accessing information on topic Y. We would never, ever consider systematically denying printed material – even "dangerous" material – to entire groups of people. Would you designate whole categories of books on certain subjects unequivocally off-limits to Muslims? To a particular political group? To women? Of course not, and there's no reason to start just because we're dealing with e-content.
Now, you might argue that children are not like these other groups. After all, when it comes to children and even teens, most people will recognize that not everything is appropriate for every child of every age. That does not – I repeat, does not – make it ethically permissible for the library or the librarian to categorically deny all children access to any single subject, even a taboo one. Just as with books, the librarian's job is to offer access and guidance; the decision of what to actually utilize belongs solely to the individual child and his or her family. That choice must always be individual, never imposed by systematic discrimination based on age or any other external characteristic.
This isn't a radical position. In fact, it's completely consistent with how we manage children's intellectual freedom for printed materials. Many libraries have formalized in their policies that it is the prerogative of the child and his or her guardians to make the individual choices appropriate for that particular child. Although a librarian might try to guide a child away from a resource that doesn't seem developmentally appropriate, it's still the choice of the child and his or her family whether or not to heed that advice. In the absence of parental instructions, we won't prevent children and teens from checking out pretty much any book in the library, regardless of where it's shelved or what it's about. We recognize that this value is at the very core of our work, and I cannot believe that we would intentionally sacrifice this primary ethical mandate just because the information is on a screen.
If not Freedom v Protection, what is the debate really about? It's Intellectual Freedom as opposed to Not Offending Anybody. Offending people is a hassle. Offended people stomp up to the desk and holler at some hapless librarian or clerk in the hearing range of every other patron in the room. They point brazenly at the poor sap who had the misfortune to be minding his own business (offensively!) in other people's line of sight. They hang around for ten minutes filling out complaint forms and demanding to speak to whoever's in charge. They leave a trail of paperwork and hastily-scheduled departmental meetings in their wake. Letting patrons look at whatever information they choose results in loudly offended other people.
Infringing on people's intellectual freedom, on the other hand, is easy. It's silent. Most things that get filtered are at least potentially embarrassing, so people will slink away rather than ask for the filter to be disabled. Think the rape victim who can't access the rape and incest hotline number (true story) will ask the librarian to come turn off the filter? Will she file a formal complaint? Probably not, and neither will a hundred other people looking for information on sexuality, health, gun rights, domestic violence …. No, taking away someone's most basic right at the library is simple and quiet.
Ok, we've traded the rights of just a few people in a few select circumstances for a whole lot of peace and quiet. I have to ask, although I don't want to: is that really such a bad thing? We have limited resources, especially now, and they could be used much more effectively than having librarians deal with angry people's paperwork all day. And it is an important aspect of intellectual freedom that all patrons feel comfortable and safe in the library; if they are so offended they feel they can't walk in the doors, their access is surely hampered. In all seriousness and objectivity, I have to ask myself: Is it so bad to
trade a little freedom for a lot of calm?
Yes. Yes, it is. Because intellectual freedom is a moral imperative for libraries; avoiding offense is decidedly not. In fact, our moral code often intentionally offends. Demonstrating to people that there is a worldview other than their own – and that it's just as valid – is frequently offensive. And it's darn important. Most libraries acknowledge the importance of representing all viewpoints, regardless of personal preference, by having a balanced collection development policy; we collect materials on all sides of controversial issues and all along the political spectrum, even if our communities have a strong proclivity one way or the other. We've got something to offend everybody. In fact, we recognize that some things are valuable precisely because they offend people. (Banned books week comes to mind again.) Of course, it's extremely important that we don't offend selectively – that we aren't actually biasing our collection toward or against any particular group or viewpoint. No, libraries are and should be equal opportunity offenders.
So offending people now and then is OK, and probably proof that we're doing our job right. But it's still a hassle. Let's look at the other affected party – the person who doesn't get information we consider "legitimate" because of over-blocking. Let's even assume the filter works pretty well (although many studies would disagree9), and that "most young patrons probably don't care as much [about filtering] as we intellectual freedom advocates do; they are not there to access forbidden websites…mostly… they want to play games"10. In short, let's even assume the relative rarity of a "legitimate" site being blocked. If just one person is denied the access promised to him the by Library Bill of Rights, but a hundred complaints are obviated, is it worth the tradeoff?
No. Librarians serve the community by serving individuals. By giving each and every patron my full attention and care, regardless of his or her background or views, I am also doing my best to help the community as a whole. I am creating a safe space where any and all members of the community can come to access any kind of information. I am creating community gatekeepers11 who will go out into their social circles and teach others.
Although I don't often hear library service discussed in exactly this way – serving the whole by serving the individual – I do think that the library profession generally agrees that this is effective. Look at the way we structure our everyday service. The meat and potatoes of our work is helping patrons at the reference desk one at a time or in small groups, essentially as individuals. We don't make them wait while we weigh the merits of their individual needs against what might be best for the community – we just do our best to help. Furthermore, we embrace a Library Bill of Rights, and human rights by definition are meant to apply to each and every individual.
All of this means that when we allow a single individual to lose access, we are causing much, much greater harm than we realize. We negatively influence the entire community. Not only have we made that person uncomfortable in the library, we have also adversely affected anybody he or she tells about the experience. We have contributed to creating a restrictive, oppressive space for the whole neighborhood. If we serve the community best by serving the individual best, we're just plain lowering the quality of our service. Worst of all, we are violating somebody's right. Yikes. The library is frequently upheld as a shining symbol of democracy, a "cornerstone of the American Dream,"12 and we are seriously compromising our symbolic purpose if we can't even uphold the most basic rights we promise to all people. And that means all people – even kids, even teens, even people who smell bad and carry their stuff around in garbage bags, even people who want to look at something controversial. Perhaps especially them, since the barriers they face to access are so high.
Is damaging the community, creating an unsafe space, and violating the public trust in our purpose worth a little (or even a lot) less hassle? No. No, it definitely is not.
I've demonstrated that it's immoral to impose filters on our communities. But some might argue that this leaves one possible loophole: a community with strong traditional values might decide as a whole to embrace filters for itself. Could it be ethically permissible for the community to choose mandatory filters, for children or even for adults? Dean Marney, director of the North Central Regional Library (the library which blocks online constitutionally-protected speech from adults; see "First, A Little Background" for a refresher), thinks so. He argues that "we must be responsible to the communities we serve."13 "Community values" often seem to be the rallying cry for censorship, especially for children, and especially online.
However, what we call "community values" are really only "majority values," or sometimes even "loudest minority values." Making sweeping generalizations based on "community" values assumes that your community is perfectly homogenous. It's not. No matter what the most vocal members of your community assert, no matter how small, how insular, or how traditional your area may be, it is full of sub-groups, dissenting opinions, and individual diversity. There will always be people who want to view the legal content you have blocked, even if they remain silent about it. If a library believes in serving individuals, if it purports to value human rights, it cannot morally allow the preferences of the majority to trample on the rights of the minorities.
That's not to say we can't take into consideration the majority opinion, and craft policies that will best serve its members. In fact, I believe strongly that libraries should be responsive to their patrons' needs, and that's why I don't offer a one-size-fits-all filtering solution. Within certain ethical boundaries, there are many ways to tailor your policies and services to your majority community. However, there is a moral line that must be drawn when majority-serving policies begin to infringe on the rights of other individuals. As we've long believed for print materials, which we collect even when they offend the political or social sensibilities of the majority, the tastes of 99% of your population do not override the rights of those remaining few.
Whether analog or digital, libraries have a moral obligation to represent the minority opinion as fairly as the majority one; we have a responsibility to serve the individual who disagrees as fervently as the one who conforms. If we make intellectual freedom a privilege for those who hold the predominant local viewpoints and values, we don't really uphold intellectual freedom at all. As the great revolutionary and social philosopher Rosa Luxemburg wrote, "Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently."14
Hopefully I've convinced you that mandatory filtering in libraries is incompatible with our core values. Now what are we supposed to do about parents who want their kids on filtered computers? How are we supposed to deal with a community that by and large clamors loudly in favor of filtering? How will we afford to provide sufficient computer and Internet service when CIPA will cut our already-meager funding if we don't filter?
In real life, some form of filtering is probably necessary in most cases. While I don't personally agree with policies that restrict legal content, even pornography, I understand that in most communities patrons expect and want such restrictions. A filter may be a more practical solution than having librarians spend their entire day running around playing computer police.15 The option for a parent to enable a filter for his own child may make him feel that his child is safer on library computers. And most of us can't afford to spit in the eye of federal funding. So how can we balance a practical need for some form of filtering with our moral responsibility to provide access?
In Filters and the Public Library: A Legal and Policy Analysis16, Mary Minow details the many options for mandatory, optional, or lack of filtering and their implications for patrons' rights. Since I really can't do a better or more succinct job, I'll direct you to her for the nitty gritty details involved in selecting the right option for your library. Her overarching conclusions are similar to mine: mandatory filtering is morally impermissible, but there are a variety of acceptable ways to make filters optional or remove them altogether. (She calls possibilities in which individuals can choose for themselves to enable a filter or work at a filtered machine "pro-choice", which I love.) I'd like to use my little soapbox here to offer what she does not – some suggestions to help you respect the more conservative values of your community while implementing one of these less stringent filtering policies.
There are some practical ways to make all patrons feel safe in the library, even with optional or no filters. These can be as simple as "turning computer screens away from foot traffic and installing privacy screens"17 so that no patron of any age will accidentally stumble upon what another is viewing. Children's computers can feature prominent links to preselected sites "such as the ALA's Great Web Sites for Kids … and search engines specially designed for children."18 More important, however, is creating a use policy consistent with the library's mission and its treatment of print materials. However liberal or restrictive your computer use policy (and the ethics of that is well beyond the scope of this piece), "viewing of inappropriate images [is] a behavioral issue… the best approach is to address the matter with the end user, rather than trying to make the material inaccessible."19 Clear rules and consistent, enforceable punishments for breaking those rules are already our primary tools for governing acceptable behavior in the library's meatspace. Done right, they should be just as effective (read: not perfect, but pretty good) in governing computer use.
However, these small, practical measures are clearly not sufficient on their own. The best way to make public computers more useful and safe for all patrons, including but not limited to children, is education. As the National Research Council so eloquently states in Youth, Pornography, and the Internet, "Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one's children is to teach them to swim."20 By relying on an automated system to block content, we are missing a critical and valuable opportunity to teach children (and adults) to "swim" in an online world. When we deprive them of this opportunity to learn, we do them a disservice both in the library and when they are outside the reach of our computerized safety net.
I recognize that trading an electronic band-aid for deep education is not easy. Education is expensive and difficult to implement. As far as I know, there are no studies that document how effective various forms of education may be in improving appropriate behavior and safety on public computers, which means we have no roadmap. And all pro-education, anti-mandatory-filter options mean no e-Rate funding. And yes, that stinks. I tried to think of an option that would be morally acceptable and let you keep the money. I really did. But, as happens so often, it's your money or your soul. A good bargain is just not a morally weighty counterbalance to a violation of children's rights and the core values of our profession. Sorry. If your library absolutely cannot maintain public Internet access at all without the discount … weeeelll, ok. While it's difficult to embrace solutions with a high price tag, especially in a time of severe and widespread budget cuts, it is possible to take steps in the right direction. On the bright side, if we can free ourselves of dependence on strings-attached government funding, we can be a more objective and free institution in the long run.
Eliminating filters is possible, and some intrepid libraries are paving the way for the rest of us each day. The Sonoma County Library is an especially good example of a system that overcame the concerns of its community and even the objection of its own grand jury to implement a no-filter strategy that benefits all users. Their fantastic response to the jury is one of the best pragmatic defenses of the power of a filter-free library out there.21 The San Jose Public Library took an equally staunch, if somewhat less inspiringly documented, stance.22
Of course, what works for them may not work for you. The best real-life solution for your library will be individual. Your community's majority values, its size, the physical constraints of your space, the condition of your budget, and many other factors will influence what the elimination of mandatory filters would look like in your library. I hope the few suggestions and examples I've offered have at least convinced you that this is both worthwhile and possible in your community. We all deal daily with practical concerns that make honoring the big-picture issue difficult and that require compromise. What matters is that we address these realities through an ethical lens; that rather than blithely accepting the status quo, we recognize that our decisions have serious moral implications for library service.
The debate about filters is not really about two ethical issues, freedom and safety. It's about the ethical issue of freedom pitted against the more practical issue of offending patrons. Mandatory filters create a double-standard for intellectual freedom by denying users digital materials we would happily give them in print; they unfairly bias against open access for children and those looking up sensitive or controversial information; and they reduce the quality and value of the service we provide to all. In the real world, sometimes we have to bend a bit on principles in favor of practicality; but we must always recognize that this is what we are doing, and consider the damage we may cause.
Audrey provides some excellent arguments against filtering, but if you ask me she's a little gaga23.
Also, she's wrong.
Okay, so not wrong in the sense that she isn't right. But she is wrong in the sense that there's no simple solution for filtering and, more importantly, we can't say that filtering is bad. We can't say it's good, either, because filtering isn't bad or good on a broad scale, but it's something that needs to be looked at in every individual case to determine if it is, or is not, the appropriate tool for the job.
And the job is a tough one.
My job is tough, too. I'm supposed to provide the PRO-filter argument in this little pro/con piece. I was asked to fill this role because I was vocally supportive of the decision to uphold filtering in the controversial superior court case here in Washington involving the North Central Regional Library. The problem is, though, I'm not pro-filter, and in that particular case, my argument was much less pro-filter and very much more pro-library.
You see, library filtering is a lot like abortion.
Okay, not really, but a similar approach to the two issues is useful. For instance, nobody is actually pro-abortion. Those people picketing outside the clinics are against abortion, and their opponents don't fall on the opposite end of the spectrum – they hang out in the middle. Similarly, those who choose to picket outside the library (usually on the interwebs) are not pro-filtering, they're against it, and again their opposition isn't on the other side of the spectrum, but in the middle.
We're not pro-abortion, and we're not pro-filtering. We're pro-choice.
Why are we pro-choice? Because libraries operate in vastly different communities and each one, dealing with its own particular set of circumstances, must make the choice that it feels is appropriate. That there are two libraries in California who decided to take a stand against filtering and, by extension (if you take their and Audrey's word for it), censorship, is great. I'm glad that worked out for them, and I'm sure they did it because they felt it was in the best service to their communities. But every community is different, and what is right for one is not right for all.
Let's take the North Central Regional Library case as an example.
Demographically, there are 28 libraries in the NCRL system; 14 of them serve as the de facto school libraries for their school districts. 16 of them only have one computer in the building. Most of them are very small libraries (the largest about 2000 sq ft), in very small communities. These libraries are essential to these small communities where people can't afford broadband and where kids need a quiet place to study.
I'll repeat part of that, since it seems fairly important. Half of the libraries in NCRL are also the de facto school library for their school district. Yeah, they're public libraries, but they aren't public libraries like they have in Sonoma County or in San José. In terms of being a de facto school library, in being completely understaffed, in having only one single computer for public use – how can we judge filtering in a library like this unless we've been there? Shouldn't we trust that the librarian in charge of a particular library has the best knowledge of what is the right course of action for that library? I'm willing to do so when it comes to libraries making anti-filtering choices in California. I'm even willing to applaud them. But I think that the North Central Regional Library system deserves applause, too, because it's taking a very unpopular stance to do what it thinks is appropriate in terms of serving its community.
Jan Walsh, Washington State Librarian at the time (now retired), stated her support of the decision24in terms I couldn't agree with more. She said:
I am pleased that our state Supreme Court has handed down a strong, sensible ruling that gives our public libraries flexibility to reflect their community values as they adopt Internet policies and use of filters on certain content.
I know that the library community is divided over this issue and certainly as a veteran librarian I understand the points of view about unfettered access versus policies that protect our school children and others from pornography and other objectionable and potentially harmful material. I believe this 6-3 Supreme Court ruling, and the federal ruling that we expect will follow, provides public libraries with permission to adopt a reasonable filter system if that fits the needs of their community. We support libraries listening to their patrons. If that value is to have no filter, then that's fine.
This is not a free speech issue, in my mind. It is about what your community needs. It is about the use of our taxpayers' limited resources and our libraries' limited resources.
Dean Marney, Director of the North Central Regional Library, also provided a response25 that I feel is worth repeating here in full:
NCRL is pleased with the Supreme Court's decision validating our approach to Internet filtering. We embrace the Internet as a resource and encourage its use by all patrons. NCRL will continue to provide broad access to a wealth of rich and diverse online content consistent with our Collection Development policy and our mission to promote reading and lifelong learning.
More generally, we are heartened by the Court's acknowledgement of the multi-faceted role many public libraries must perform today. In fulfilling its role, NCRL must balance many important interests, some borne of tradition and some arising as a consequence of an increasingly complex world. First and foremost, NCRL is a traditional, full service library serving Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Ferry, and Okanogan Counties. We must consider the diverse needs of all our patrons, adults and children alike, in shaping our print and online collections. We strive to offer resources of depth, breadth, and quality yet we must do so within ever-tightening budget constraints. We also provide vital support to public schools throughout the region, including services that in some instances children might go without were it not for NCRL. We also have important workplace and safety responsibilities to our staff and our patrons. We are gratified to know that the highest Court in our State understands the context in which NCRL operates and the discretion we must exercise to perform our essential functions.
It's about choice. Libraries make choices every day about how to best serve their communities. The libraries who do this best are the ones who don't take a standard approach, but think about their communities, in particular, and their particular needs, and creates a policy that responds to those needs. Sonoma County did this, and San José did this, and North Central did this too. All three libraries acted courageously and made tough decisions, but what is more courageous: acting in a way that draws accolade from your peers, or making the tough, unpopular decision because you feel it best serves your library's community.
The Supreme Court decision was that filtering the internet is actually an application of collection development. This seems to me like a strange approach, one no doubt conceived by lawyers as well as (if not more so than) librarians, but let's run with it.
Libraries have collection development policies that they use to determine which materials get added to their collections. These policies act as a filter, basically, through which our purchase of materials is made: Item one, book on the holocaust written in a fair manner showing both sides – Purchased; Item two, book on the holocaust written by a known anti-Semitic group which makes no attempt to be fair and distorts historical fact – Rejected. While libraries will do their best to represent both sides fairly in any controversial topic, they must use their discretion to determine what "fair" means and reject items that don't meet that standard.
These decisions happen all the time, though they're mostly invisible to the public, for whom items magically appear on the shelves. The fact is, librarians do their best at all times to provide the best information to their patrons while removing the information that they feel is of no value or harmful to the community. This is filtering, absolutely, but is it censorship? Is the argument really that different when we talk about filtering practices on the internet as opposed to the filtering practices we incorporate into our purchase of physical materials?
You may argue that buying books is opt-in while internet filtering is opt-out. In other words, in book purchasing we select items to buy, while with internet filtering we select items to keep out. There's also a cost issue; we pay for each book we purchase, but we don't pay for each website, they all come included as part of the great wide interwebs. These arguments have some merit, but they're really just distractions when you remember the underlying purpose of collection development: to provide good content and filter out bad content. Whether you opt in, out, or sideways, the idea is to not only provide the best books, but also the better websites, so that people can find quality information and avoid being fooled by sophistry and scam.
More and more the filtering of physical materials is not a completely human process. Our lovely vendors offer to do a lot of the filtering for us26, and it becomes very hard to tell what falls through the cracks. All the same, we'll assume that there is much more human intervention in the selection of physical materials than there is in the filtering software that libraries use to select what internet sites are viewable. And we'll even assume, as the Librarian in Black insists27, that all filtering software available to libraries is pretty much ineffective, both by block "good" websites and not blocking "bad" websites.
At this point I should make a confession. I have a ten-year old at home, and I filter his web access. I'm not ashamed of this decision, being that it was born of a situation where he had searched for and found porn and had, at the end of the day, been so overwhelmed and ashamed at what he had seen that he literally burst into racking sobs when he told us about it a couple days later. It had obviously been eating away at him, and this in a house where we had never been anything less than honest and open in talking about sex and where everyone saw each other naked from time to time without it being a big deal. We talked to him about it, of course, to help him make sense of what he saw, to get over his shame, and to set his mind at ease. Then we decided to create an environment where he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
The filter we use at home is a very simple Firefox add-on called ProCon Latte28, and it just plain works. It has without exception blocked all objectionable sites, and while it has also blocked a handful of legitimate sites it was short work to make those sites accessible by adding them to a white list. Maybe the web searching patterns of a ten-year old are not indicative of those of the general public, but my experience with filtering has been positive and I find it hard to believe that my completely free add-on filter is so much better than every other commercial paid filter that libraries can utilize.
Obviously, filters aren't perfect, and most libraries' filtering policies are probably not perfect either. In a perfect world, every library would have a filter that aligned perfectly with the needs of its community – for some that might mean only blocking the very worst of sites, for others it may mean blocking more. And in every case, should a user find their access blocked to a website that they feel should be accessible, there should be a way for them to access that site without the need for direct appeal to a librarian and without having to wait for the site to be reviewed by some committee. Access should be immediate, and review should come afterwards to determine ongoing accessibility, without impacting that user at that time, and without causing them embarrassment in having to ask to have the filters turned off.
Lacking a perfect world, we'll continue to do the best we can. For some libraries that may mean removing filters entirely. For others, that may mean forging ahead with whatever filters they have because they don't see a better alternative. Libraries serve their communities first, and one must assume that they're doing so as effectively as they can. Whatever high-minded ideals are involved, and the ideals are important, we must allow libraries to choose how to interpret them. It is a balancing act, to be sure, between issues of free speech and appropriate service to a specific community. It's a choice that we as spectators should not presume to make, but one that each library must grapple and come to terms with. Our job, as outsiders who claim to advocate for libraries, is to support those decisions, whatever they may be, within the communities in which they are made.
ALA Office for Literacy & Outreach Services. (2010). The American Dream Starts @ Your Library. http://www.olos.ala.org/americandream/
American Library Association. (2010). CPPA, COPA, CIPA: Which Is Which? http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/ifissues/issuesrelatedlinks/cppacopacipa.cfm
American Library Association. (2003). Libraries, the Internet and Filtering. http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=litoolkit&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=164201
American Library Association. (1996.) Library Bill of Rights. http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/index.cfm
Federal Communications Commission. (2009). Children's Internet Protection Act. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html
Goldberg, Beverly. (2009). On the Line for the First Amendment. American Libraries. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/05272009/line-first-amendment
Goldberg, Beverly. (2010) Ruling: Washington Libraries Can Deny Adults Unfiltered Internet. American Libraries. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/05102010/ruling-washington-libraries-can-deny-adults-unfiltered-internet
Houghton-Jan, Sarah. (2008). Internet Filtering Software Tests: Barracuda, CyberPatrol, FilterGate, & WebSense. Report to the San Jose Public Library. http://www.sjlibrary.org/about/sjpl/commission/agen0208_report.pdf
Houghton-Jan, Sarah. (May 07, 2010). Why internet filters don't work and why libraries who filter are wrong. Librarian in Black. http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2010/05/filtering.html
Janes, Joe. (October 6, 2009). Censorship Gets Smart. The Internet Librarian. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/internet-librarian/censorship-gets-smart
Luxemburg, R. (1961). The Russian Revolution, and Leninism or Marxism?. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Marney, Dean. (November 1, 2010). The Internet Is Not All or Nothing. Library Journal. http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/communityopinion/887222-274/lj_backtalk_the_internet_is.html.csp
Metoyer-Duran, C. (January 01, 1993). Information Gatekeepers. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (arist), 28, 111-50.
Nichols, S. (January 22, 2009). COPA Child-Porn Law Killed. PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/158131/copa_childporn_law_killed.html
Oder, N. (2007.) Proposed state filter law would go beyond CIPA. Library Journal. http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/community/legislation/851065-270/story.csp
Oder, N. (2009.) After 18 Months, San Jose Council Says No to Internet Filters. Library Journal. http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/community/legislation/854791-270/after_18_months_san_jose.html.csp
Oder, N. (2010). ACLU still concerned about whether individual libraries overblock. http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/community/intellectualfreedom/869102-269/rhode_island_pls_fix_filtering.html.csp
Plumer, D. (2001). Literature Review and Analysis: Internet Filters and Intellectual Freedom. University of Texas at Austin Graduate School of Library and Information Science. http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~i380kdcp/SP04/Plumer-research.pdf
Sobel, D. (2003). Internet Filters and Public Libraries. First Amendment Center: Washington D.C. http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/PDF/Internetfilters.pdf
Sonoma County Library Commission. (2010). Sonoma County Library Commission Response to the 2009-2010 Grand Jury Report. http://www.sonomalibrary.org/agenda/Grand%20Jury%20Response/Grand%20Jury%20Response%202010_final.pdf
Walter, V.A. (September 23, 2009). The Children We Serve. American Libraries. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/09232009/children-we-serve
"Librarians Do Gaga." Youtube: Athenasbanquet. May 27, 2010. <http://bit.ly/gyYXd1>.
Oder, Norman. "Updated: Washington Supreme Court, 6-3, Backs Library System's Full Filtering Policy." Library Journal. May 6, 2010. <http://bit.ly/ef9GdJ>.
Marney, Dean. "Washington State Supreme Court Opinion." North Central Regional Library. May 06, 2010. <http://bit.ly/i3QKxs>.
Houghton-Jan, Sarah. "Why Internet Filters Don't Work and Why Libraries Who Filter Are Wrong." Librarian in Black. May 07, 2010. <http://bit.ly/h4oDcN>.
"ProCon Latte." Add-ons for Firefox: corvineum. July 17, 2009. <http://bit.ly/i0KFxC>.
Many thanks to Linda Johns, Ellie Collier and Eric Frierson for reading earlier drafts of this post and for all of their helpful comments and suggestions.
Article printed from In the Library with the Lead Pipe: http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org
URL to article: http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2011/filter-this/
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UPDATE: Italy 2-1 Germany, Final Score
Right! Riccardo Montolivo blew a chance to put Italy 2-0 up, so the half-German makes amends for his error with a jaw-droppingly beautiful through ball for Mario Balotelli. Seriously, that was great - he picked out Balotelli's run perfectly and twisted the German centre halves inside and out. There was still plenty for the Manchester City man to do, of course, but he was calmness personified as he strode towards Manuel Neuer's goal, waiting for him to come out before dispatching a vicious shot into the top corner.
An absolute beauty, and Italy are in dreamland - you can't imagine that they'd ever have been expecting a 2-0 first half lead. Even Mario Balotelli, who early claimed that he doesn't celebrate goals because scoring is his job, is thrilled. Sort of. I mean, he ripped off his shirt, but didn't smile. My postman doesn't do that when he delivers my mail, Mario.
We have live coverage of the match in our Germany vs. Italy, Euro 2012 Semifinals StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.


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Limits on number of: copies, prints, pages image-PDF downloadable – in QuickView
There are variable limits on the number of the following that can be made per book in a single user session:
- copies that can be made
- pages that can be printed
- pages that can be image-PDF downloaded
The restrictions are as follows for ebrary sites both within and outside the United States:
- 60 = Max number of copies (InfoTools, Copy) per book, per user session
- 60 = Max pages printed (InfoTools, Print) per book, per user session
- 60 = Max pages downloaded as image PDF per book, per user session
There are a few publishers who have set more restrictive limits on books they provide. These publishers include:
- CQ Press
- Duke
- Elsevier
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – does not allow any copies, prints, or page-range downloads (but it does allow full-document downloads)
- Taylor & Francis (except Informa) – print and download limit of 30 pages
- Wiley
- University of North Carolina Press
- Note, in most of these cases the print or page-range dialog box will indicate the limits. However, for publishers that set different limits for purchased and subscribed titles, the dialog box will not indicate the restricted limit.
- If you are not on a reseller site and you experience a limit lower than the above, it is for this reason.
There are a few resellers who have different limits on ebrary SITES they provide. These include:
- Al Manhal
- Irwin Law
- Cengage
- Business Expert Press (BEP)
Subscribe to these categories: Copying and Printing, Download: pg range, chapter, English


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Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies
Department of Psychology
Currently accepting students for Fall 2015
Phone: 617-573-8017
Fax: 617-367-2924
Email: email@example.com
Office: Donahue Building, Rm. 636H
- PhD, Brown University
- BA, Cornell University
Specialty Areas
Developmental Psychology (Social & Emotional), At-risk Youth, Culture & Immigration, Identity & Mixed Methods.
How do cultural and social contexts like immigration influence youth development? How do adolescents navigate competing cultural contexts (e.g., home, school, peers) as they form their identities? How can every day social settings such as schools and peer groups promote positive development among at-risk youth? My students and I are interested in exploring person-context interactions such as these, particularly within vulnerable populations. Vulnerability can come in many forms – through poverty, discrimination from being a "minority" group member, or through legal status as an undocumented immigrant, for example. Learning about how children and adolescents from vulnerable groups thrive (or don't thrive) is a central goal of our research. Because many of our research questions are process and context oriented in nature, our lab draws from a variety of mixed qualitative-quantitative methodological techniques. We also rely heavily on positive youth development and resiliency perspectives to inform our work. Graduate students in my lab have recently applied these methodological and theoretical orientations to dissertation topics related to adolescent female sexual identity development, health behaviors and outcomes among immigrant youth, characteristics of the college context which support ethnic minority student retention, and drug misuse patterns among ethnic minority adolescents.
Selected Publications
Garcia Coll, C., & Marks, A. K. (In Press). The Immigrant Paradox in Children and Adolescents: Is becoming American a developmental risk? Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Marks, A. K., Patton, F., & Garcia Coll, C. (2011) Being Bicultural: A mixed-methods study of adolescents' implicitly and explicitly measured multiethnic identities. Developmental Psychology, 47(1), 270-288. PDF
García Coll, C., & Marks, A. K. (2009). Immigrant stories: Ethnicity and academics in middle childhood. New York: Oxford University Press.
Marks, A. K., & García Coll, C. (2007). Psychological and demographic correlates of early academic skill development among American Indian and Alaska Native youth: A growth modeling study. Developmental Psychology, 43(3), 663-674.
Courses Taught
PSYCH 334 - Adolescent Development
PSYCH 428 - Psychology Honors Seminar
PSYCH 722 - Graduate Statistics in Psychology I
PSYCH 723 - Graduate Statistics in Psychology II


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Help Us Do More Cool StuffAll donations are tax-deductible.
What Is The Hacktory?
Hack (def): to find a new (sometimes inelegant) solution to a problem
Factory (def): a place where products are made, or art like Andy Warhol's Factory
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Taxes in Hamilton County are going up despite promises from lawmakers.
The property tax rollback promised in 1996 is going to disappear by half to pay for Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ballpark.
So where is the protection for taxpayers in all of this?
As Ben has been finding, problems with these publicly funded stadiums is nothing new. So what to do about it?
This is a Reality Check you won't see anywhere else.
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Five students were taken to a hospital Tuesday after a bus accident in Woodstown, New Jersey.
According to New Jersey State Police, the students were taken to Elmer Hospital for precautionary reasons.
The bus accident happened in the area of Daretown Road and Slabtown Road. The accident involved the bus and two other vehicles, police said.
Video from SkyFOX showed emergency responders helping to get students out of the bus from its emergency exit.
Police say nearly 30 students were on the bus at the time of the accident.
FOX 13 / WTVT-TV3213 West Kennedy Blvd.Tampa, Florida 33609Main: (813) 876-1313Newsroom: (813) 870-9630Fax: (813) 871-3135


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Students majoring in Spanish education must complete a 33 credit Education Core (please refer to the Spanish Education B.S. Checksheet for a list of courses that constitute the education core), as well as 33 credits of Spanish courses, as follows:
*SPAN 251 (Spanish III)
*SPAN 252 (Spanish IV) OR SPAN 250 (Intensive Intermediate Spanish) (6 credits)
*SPAN 265 (Intermediate Spanish Conversation)
*SPAN 270 (Introduction to Spanish Phonetics and Pronunciation)
*SPAN 281 (Advanced Spanish Grammar and Composition I)
*SPAN 282 (Advanced Spanish Grammar and Composition II)
*SPAN 301 (Spanish Civilization)
*Four additional Spanish courses (6 credits) above SPAN 252
In addition, Spanish education majors must take 6 credits of supplementary courses, as follows:
*ANTH 211 (Anthropology)
*ENG 457 (Introduction to Linguistics) OR ENG 262 (Introduction to the English Language)
All Spanish education majors should remain in close contact with their advisors, both in the Education and Modern Languages and Cultures departments, so that both your required Spanish and education courses are taken on a timely basis. For example, the three-week "block" experience, which takes place in a school environment, should be scheduled on the semester that the Spanish education major takes ED 338 (Methods of Teaching Modern Language), which is offered once a year in the Fall Semester and is taught by a member of the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures. It is the student's responsibility to ensure that all required courses and field experiences are completed in a timely and satisfactory manner.


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Exposure to radiation from cell phones during pregnancy affects the brain development of offspring, potentially leading to hyperactivity, Yale School of Medicine researchers have determined. The results, based on studies in mice, are published in the March 15 issue of Scientific Reports, a Nature publication. "This is the first experimental evidence that fetal exposure to radiofrequency ra...
SMART METERS IN THE SUPREME COURT (23 May): Recording of arguments from hearing in Supreme Court (Maine) on 10 May 2012
SMART METERS CONFERENCE CALL (27 Apr): Archive posted (via YouTube) for important public conference call on Health and Privacy key info
» View conference video (YouTube)
AUSTRIA OBJECTS TO SMART METERS (17 Apr): Austrian Medical Association objects to smart meter rollout
Smart meters - solving emerging problems by Dr. Isaac Jamieson, PhD
» View addendum: Vulnerability to Space Weather Manmade EMP & Cyber Attack (pdf)
We are currently in post-production with our feature-length film, coming soon. In addition, we are also releasing a short film worldwide this summer... which will be available exclusively on this website. Subscribe to our mailing list and get notified of launch!
'Take Back Your Power' is a hard-hitting documentary feature film which exposes the technocratic "smart" grid agenda, by which corporations are currently attempting to quietly assert the basis for further control in the lives and homes of the world's citizens. The film will also highlight specific solutions - which are presently available - to leapfrog outdated ideas of control, and co-create a better future.
This undemocratic global smart metering program is emerging as a truly massive issue with many areas of focus, such as greatly increased utility bills, decimation of privacy rights, an array of health problems from radiation, hacking vulnerability, corporate fraud, democracy vs. corporatocracy, uninsured fires/damage... and how the entire story fits in with the big picture on our planet. With this crisis comes tremendous opportunity. Human beings everywhere come together, and we take back our power.


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Greensburg —
WESTPORT — The South Decatur Junior Senior High School Drama Department is proud to announce the upcoming production of "Who Dunit...and To Whom?"
This is a play within a play, within, a ... well, it's a comedy that will keep you guessing. The play is a spoof of classic detective stories from the 50's.
Directed by Robyn Davis and starring the wonderfully talented SDHS drama students, this show is sure to entertain.
The show runs Thursday, Nov. 9 through Saturday, Nov. 10. Each production begins at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are on sale now through cast members for $5. They will also be available at the door for $7. Concessions will be served during intermission. All proceeds go to the drama department, allowing them to continue offering the wonderful experience of theater to the students as well as entertaining the community.
Additionally, on Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 10, the After Prom Committee will be hosting Soup Nights prior to the presentation of "Who Dunit... and to Whom?" Soups will consist of chili, potato, or broccoli cheese. Hot dogs, drinks and dessert will also be included. Serving starts at 5:30 p.m. Event is a free will offering.
— Daily News


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Oxsrad users get £40,000 worth of new gym equipment (From The Oxford Times)
When It Happens Panel Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting 'OXFORD NEWS' to 80360 or email
Oxsrad users get £40,000 worth of new gym equipment
12:20pm Wednesday 20th February 2013 in News
A SPECIALIST sports centre has raised more than £40,000 to fund new equipment for its gym.
Oxsrad, the Oxford and District Sports and Recreation Association for the Disabled, has unveiled three new treadmills, an upright bike and recumbant bike.
The money, raised through donations and fundraisers, has also paid for new projectors for the sensory room, a spa bath, new carpet and a MOTOmed – specialist movement therapy equipment for wheelchair users.
Paul Saxton, manager of the centre in Marston, said: "The new equipment has allowed able-bodied users to come back in to the centre.
"It has also allowed us to sort out the gym, and more of our disabled users are coming in."
The centre, which has more than 1,200 members, has helped disabled Oxfordshire residents for more than 23 years.
To celebrate the centre's fundraising success, a social evening is being held at the centre on Saturday.
Tickets are £7.
Call 01865 741 336 or to make a donation to Oxsrad, visit localgiving.com/charity/ oxsrad
Comments are closed on this article.


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The next time you drive through a busy intersection - look up. You'll likely see cameras pointed your direction. An NBC2 viewer asked us to look into what they're used for.
Darrel in Fort Myers noticed and sent us this good question:
"What are all of the cameras on the intersections in Lee County? Where does the video go and what are they used to do?"
To get the answer, NBC2's Chad Oliver was granted access to a place rarely seen by the public.
The eyes in the sky belong to the Lee County Department of Transportation and officials we spoke with explained they monitor traffic flow. Fiber optic cables send real-time video to the Traffic Operations Center. Dave Loveland, with Lee DOT, explained the cameras will often catch crashes and congestion on Lee County roadways.
"We're able to process it and react to it," he explained.
A computer program uses the video feed to keep traffic moving by adjusting signals.
"It can tell there's a car that's in that approach - it will light up with a color and say okay there's a car there. So as that cycles around, we need to make sure there is green time for that cycle," he said.
Loveland explained that of lee county's 400 intersections with traffic signals, half of them have cameras.
"Ultimately all of our signalized intersections will be video activated," Loveland said.
The state's DOT gave Lee County $7-million to put cameras at 50 more intersections.
"I hope people understand, the goal is to try and make the existing transportation system that we have - more efficient," Loveland said.
We also asked Loveland about privacy concerns. He says they only use those cameras for real time information. Intersections aren't recorded and that video isn't kept on file.
Click here to submit your Good Question.
3719 Central AvenueFort Myers, FL 33901Main Phone: (239) 939-2020Newsroom Phone: (239) 939-6223


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Welcome International Customers
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CATEGORIES Horror, Independent, Thrillers, Cinematical Indie, CinematicalIt only takes one true-blue classic for the horror fans to embrace a filmmaker -- just ask Sean Cunningham -- but in the case of Mr. Stuart Gordon, we have a solid handful of goodies to choose from. Yep, 1985's Re-Animator is the guy's big hitter, obviously, but over the years Mr. G has turned out some fairly entertaining pieces of genre, most notably From Beyond (1986), Fortress (1993) and Dagon (2001). The Chicago-bred filmmaker recently gave William H. Macy some great opportunities in a big-screen adaptation of David Mamet's Edmond -- and now it looks like it's back to the horror scene for Stu.
Gordon's next film will be a thriller called Stuck, and it's about the terror that pursues a woman after she stupidly bails from the scene of a nasty hit & run accident. The director will be co-writing Stuck, which is reportedly based on actual events, with a guy named John Strysik, who once wrote a truly awful horror flick called Deathbed ... for producer Stuart Gordon.
Stuck begins production in New Brunswick next week. We'll let you know if any cool casting news hits the 'net. And there's been no new word on Gordon's apparent involvement in House of Re-Animator, but I have my fingers crossed.


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Second dry ice bomb explodes at Los Angeles airport
A small device thought to be filled with dry ice exploded at Los Angeles International Airport late Monday, the second one to detonate at the transport hub in 24 hours, police said.
No injuries or damage were reported and officers said they did not think the blasts were linked to terrorism. The airport said there was only a minor impact on its operations on Monday.
"Our understanding is that there is no nexus to terrorism," said Los Angeles Police Detective Gus Villanueva.
Officers also found two devices on Monday night that had not gone off, he added.
The airport temporarily closed its Terminal 2 on Sunday night after a report a bottle filled with dry ice had exploded in a staff bathroom.
The FBI, along with Los Angeles police, airport police, the Transportation Security Administration and other law enforcement agencies are investigating the blasts, police said.
In May, a similar device went off at Disneyland, forcing the evacuation of part of the park in Anaheim, California.
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Johny Hendricks is one of the top ranked welterweight fighters in the world, but if he wanted to preview what the effect that a loss on Saturday could do to his career, all he would have to do is tune in to the preliminary fights a few hours before his own bout.
Relegated to the Facebook prelims is a man who Hendricks fought and lost to just a little over 2 years ago, Rick Story.
(Remember him?)
Back then, both Story and Hendricks were regarded as rising prospects in the welterweight division. Both had 4 consecutive UFC wins against, back then, fighters who were regarded as being middle-of-the-pack fighters in Sadollah, Hazelett, Brenneman, etc.
The two collided, and Story emerged victorious on the night. However, since then, their respective progress within the shark tank of the UFC's WW division has taken completely different paths.
For Hendricks, a loss to Story at the time wasn't too bad. As mentioned, Story was considered a tough, durable competitor, who had a bit of momentum going into the bout. It wasn't as though Story was a bum, or a can; back then, he was regarded as a potential title challenger, and this win just pushed him further up the ladder. Story would then move from 'potential' title contender to 'legitimate' title contender with an upset win against Thiago Alves, back then (and possibly still) a top 10 welterweight.
But just as Story was on the pinnacle of success, perhaps just that one fight from securing a title shot, it happened. Story took a fight against Charlie Brenneman, who stepped up on short notice, and lost. Almost overnight, Story went from being a title contender back to the middle of the pack. His 6 fight win streak, the fact that he had previously beat the former number 1 contender, the fact that he was just possibly 1 more fight away from challenging for the title - all of that just didn't matter anymore.
Almost as crushing was the effect that defeat had on his career to date. A loss to Martin Kampmann, an uninspired win against Brock Jardine, then getting his brains literally squeezed out of his nose by the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu demigod, Demian Maia, has led to Story being put on the undercard of UFC 158, in a fight where he has an incredibly lot to lose, should he lose, and not a lot to gain if he wins. No one talks about Story as a title contender anymore, everybody expects him to beat Mulhern, and if he does:
- 1) It's on the Facebook prelims,
- 2) With all due respect, who is Mulhern anyway?
So although the circumstances are slightly different (Brenneman was never considered a title challenger, or anywhere near), perhaps Johny Hendricks should take note. He has taken a huge risk regarding his status as the number 1 contender in accepting a fight against Condit, who is a dangerous opponent, and he would do well to remember the story of Rick Story:
One loss, and three fights later, he could well see himself fighting on the prelims as a gatekeeper against a newly acquired fighter from another promotion.
As Krusty the Clown once warned:
"One day you're the most important person in the business, the next you're some schmoe working in a shoe factory".


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"Wise men are not always silent, but they know when to be." This inspirational wall sign combines time-tested wisdom with vintage black and white style. Hang in your home, kitchen or office for an old school, feel-good vibe. Sign measures 5.5 x 4 x 1.5 inches and weighs 0.25 pounds. Includes hanging wire for easy display.Signs may vary slightly in appearance: minor imperfections, such as tiny bubbles and small scratches, may be apparent as an intentional design feature.
Inspirational Door Pillow, Friends Quote