For a couple of weeks now, I've been meeting with Norman researcher and activist Michael P. Wright and he has a very strange story to share.
Basically, Wright's problems began March 8 when he was banned from the Norman Public Library by head librarian Susan Gregory after he mailed an Open Records Act request to her and Pioneer Library System Director Mary Sherman about the online videotape copy of the "Big Read" event focusing on John Steinbeck's award-winning novel "The Grapes of Wrath."
The event was sponsored by the Norman Public Library and held at the Sam Noble History Museum at OU back on February 15.
Wright said that the day after he had mailed the OR request, the librarian approached him in the corridor leading out the door and stopped him, saying she wanted to talk to him about his request. Wright said he believed he was entitled to a written reply and did not want an off-the-record conversation. He invited Gregory to send him a email. Then he attempted to leave. That was until she allegedly became angry and an accompanying cop gave him a warning.
What is this? Soviet Russia? "Papers, please." Well, here's the background leading up to this whole sad tale of librarians-gone-wild.
A few weeks back, Wright, 60, was looking for the online version of the video on February 24 and when he found it, discovered that it had been severely edited, specifically the portion where he questioned "The Grapes of Wrath" expert and retired OU professor David Levy about statements made by U.S. Congressman Lyle Boren in 1940 about "The Grapes of Wrath."
As you may or may not know, Lyle Boren was the father of OU President David Boren and on the congressional record had called Steinbeck and his novel all sorts of names including his calling Steinbeck a the "creation of a twisted, distorted mind." Was Lyle Boren pandering to his constituents or was he just anti-great literature? Wright seems to think Lyle Boren's comments are being covered up by his powerful son who rubs shoulders with bigwigs from Rudy Giuliani to Al Gore to Watergate reporter Bob Woodward.
In fact, in February, Wright had an article about Lyle Boren's statements and Oklahoma's acceptance of "The Grapes of Wrath" in the California newspaper the Monterey County Herald.
Interestingly, Wright notes, one of the Big Read panelists, Rilla Askew, quoted from Lyle Boren's 1940 tirade and Wright points out that this was when the video appears to have been cut in the original version of the video as posted with Google video and placed on the Big Read website.
Wright, meanwhile, is a medical sociologist and researcher who has researched everything from AIDS to the mysterious case of Nick Berg and his ties to OU and convicted "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui. In the 1990's he was also a four-time federal research grant recipient. He said he is shocked at how he was treated like a "low-life vagrant" by Gregory.
Wright said that he was kept from leaving the NPL after waging his inquiry by Gregory and a Norman Police Officer named Flores who kept Wright and took down his driver's license information. He was told if he returned to the library, he would be arrested.
"Nobody should treat anybody the way she treated me," Wright said during an interview at OU's main library.
The Red Dirt Reporter did interview Gregory, as well as Anne Masters, associate director for system services for the Pioneer Library System and an Internet systems person named Adri.
They claim that the problem with the online version was easy to explain, that it was simply technical difficulties and that there was no desire to conceal or censor Wright's remarks or anybody elses.
"I was horrified that he would think we'd edit his remarks," Gregory said in an interview at her office in the Norman Public Library. "For a customer to accuse us of censoring something is a slap in the face."
As they explained, while the video was filmed at the museum, it was videotaped by an employee of the Norman Public Schools. Gregory said she didn't even know this until later and Adri and another tech person with the library said they didn't even attend the event and wouldn't have known about Wright's comments about Lyle Boren.
But back to the story at hand. Basically, after Wright made these inquiries about the edited video (still available via Google cache) and how he believed the library was abusing federal funds, since the Big Read is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The video, Wright explains, was returned to its full version but back-dated Feb. 23, to leave the deceptive impression that before his complaint the libray had intended to put the full version online at the Big Read site. That was the same date the edited version was posted on the Big Read site.
"I find it very coincidental that my comments and Rilla Askew's comments were conveniently missing," Wright said.
Gregory, Masters and Adri make it clear that when Wright checked the site and didn't see the full video, the audio was on the site in its entirety.
Wright said he is currently looking for an attorney to take on his case. He is wanting to sue the city over the way he was treated.
In an email, Wright wrote: "The administrator of the Norman library, ONLY after I made my
OR request and refused to hear her off-the-record reply to it, announced that I was 'banned' while saying 'I'm in charge here and I make the rules.' Later, through (OU Police Detective John) Bishop, she greeted me with the false accusation that I was 'loud and aggressive."
When asked if he was being unruly in the library on the day in question, Gregory said she can't comment on specifics in order to protect Wright, as well as the library staff.
"We want to give him all the respect and privileges as expeditiously as possible," Gregory said.
Wright counters that he's a peaceful, inquisitive citizen of Norman who is not afraid to research controversial subjects, even if it makes the establishment uncomfortable.
As for Gregory's description of Wright as loud, Wright said he has complained about the noise in the library, primarily from cellphone users and whiny children whose parents refuse to keep them under control. He even shows this reporter a copy of a January 2000 letter he received from Gregory where he had complained about the excessive noise in the NPLin a letter to The Norman Transcript. She had written him, saying "We will share the information in your letter with various staff members to ensure they understand procedures to follow when dealing with a scenario such as you outlined."
"My guess is that the promised "procedures" were never even developed," said Wright via email. "The library certainly hasn't become any more quiet since January 2000."
Gregory said she really would like for Wright to come in and meet with her and smooth this whole situation over. Wright is firm that he won't do that, that he only wants to communicate with Gregory via email, particularly in light of Gregory's reaction to him and the threat from the police officer.
Gregory said she has not mailed a letter to Wright, outlining specifically why he has been banned because she is hopeful he'll still come in and meet with her, so she can explain the library rules. She said that with thousands of library patrons coming through the library every month, to go back and forth via email would be "long and litigious" and she doesn't have the time for that kind of communication. She said that on March 8, she happened to see Wright in the library and wanted to talk to him right then and there.
Wright said he felt Gregory's treatment of him was demeaning and "schoolmarmish."
"I felt like she was talking to me as if I were a naughty boy," Wright said.
Gregory recalls Wright's demeanor on the day of the encounter as "dismissive, abrupt and rude."
Wright counters by saying, "And I was coerced and detained (by police) into hearing her spiel."
"When we received that mailing (the Open Records request)," Gregory said. "I did not know Mike was angry with us." Gregory then notes that she received a call from the NEA who said Wright had contacted them, complaining about the situation.
"(The NEA) said they are supporting us," Gregory said. "That we have the right to edit anything on the website."
"Not that we did edit anything," Adri added.
Wright is frustrated by this whole situation and wants the NPL staff to see that he has no desire to cause problems. He simply wants to access public information and use the facilities that are paid for with the help of his tax dollars.
"I've lived here for 40 years," Wright said. "People know I'm not aggressive. I'm law abiding. I've never been arrested by the Norman police. The only time I've ever been arrested was in 1972 at an anti-war demonstration at Tinker Air Force Base."
Wright has been in contact with Detective Bishop, who moonlights at the library, and who he says acted in an appropriate fashion when false suspicions were being circulated about Wright around the OU campus in 2003. Wright makes it clear that he is an outspoken critic of OU president David Boren.
Bishop, however, wrote Wright saying that the library has the right to ban him because of a portion of Norman City Code Sec. 15-605 which deals with trespassing; illegal entrance; and exceptions.
(a) Except as otherwise provided, no person shall enter upon or remain upon any public
or private property or in any area or structure of such property when:
(1) Such entrance or remaining is plainly forbidden by signs, markings, or otherwise,
or by verbal command of the owner, his agent, or employee;
(2) The property is enclosed.
(b) Persons excepted from the above subsection are those entering:
(1) By authority of federal or state law or city ordinances; or
(2) With the expressed or tacit consent of the owner, his agent, or employee in charge thereof.
(Ord. No. 0-7273-56)
Writes Wright via e-mail, regarding the city code:
"The ordinance gives authority to the 'owner, agent, or employee' of the
property to ban EVERYONE. That is exactly what the phrase 'no person' means. The ban of EVERYONE can be announced by a sign or by verbal command. Of course, people can ban specific individuals from their private property. The ordinance does not give Susan Gregory the power to ban people from the PUBLIC library because she doesn't like them.
And if such authority existed in law, banned persons, at the time they are being banned, would be entitled to written notification, listing of reasons for the banning, and right of administrative appeal."
This Red Dirt reporter went to the Norman Public Library and found Officer Flores in order to question him about Wright's detainment and banishment from the Norman Public Library.
A is me and F is "Flores."
A: "Hello Officer Flores."
F: "Hello, how may I help you?"
A: "Well, I was wondering if you were the officer here yesterday regarding an incident involving Michael Wright?
F: "Yes, I was."
A: "Well, I was wondering why he was detained? Was he detained after inquiring about some information?"
F: "He wasn't detained."
A: "I received some information that he was and that he's been banned from the library. Is that true?"
F: "He's been told not to return. He's been giving the staff a hard time."
A: "O.K. That's what I wanted to know." As I walked away, he said, "So, how are you connected to this? Are you a friend of his?"
A: "I know Michael and wanted to confirm that this had happened. Just for my own information."
--END--
Wright read my account with Flores and responded via email. Here is what he wrote:
"Flores was wrong to say I was not detained on February 8. I was ordered to stop in the corridor when I was trying to leave the library after telling Gregory that I wanted a written response to my Open Records Act request.
It is most interesting that the day after I was banned, Flores was making no accusations that I was being "loud and aggressive." It's obvious that Susan Gregory fabricated these accusations after she had a few days to think it over."
--END--
As it stands now, Wright is continuing his fight and hopes he, a Norman taxpayer, can return to the Norman Public Library. He's already contacted the Cleveland County District Attorney's office and he has requested a copy of the incident report from the Norman Police Department.
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