Portside

A librarian in Kansas City, Missouri was arrested for standing up for a library patron's free speech rights. The right to read, to think, to discuss and listen to ideas in a public forum is essential to an open society, as is our individual privacy. One hopes that the Kansas City case-only the most recent of many-will be resolved, and that librarians there and everywhere will be able to do their jobs without taking on the added burden of battling for our freedom.