One of the most delightful and necessary functions of the liberated mind is that of being an intellectual host. Hospitality is one of the most precious of the human achievements. Hospitality is a willingness to admit human differences into one's life. One need not accept the differences, but one pays to each human being whom one hosts the compliment of courteous recognition. To be able to consider views different from one's own, nay to bring pressure to bear to have the expression of such views forbidden, is to go counter to the very spirit of democracy.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
We librarians have an enemy far more widely among us than we are in the habit of recognizing. This enemy is our private intolerance. They are not in their persons modeling the kind of democratic ideals they profess to espouse. A wise education for librarianship will stress hospitality, which is the willingness to pay courteous recognition to ideas and opinions that are at odds with one's own. It is utterly different from the attitude of intolerance, closed-mindedness, contempt.