Calif. city to shutter its libraries [View All]

[LWolf]

by John Ritter
USA Today

December 26, 2004

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20041227/a_steinbeck27.art.htm

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SALINAS, Calif. — At John Steinbeck Library, third-grader Marilu Quiroz reads to her father, Rafael, though he doesn't understand English. At another table, Marilu's sister Guadalupe reads to their mother, Celina. She doesn't understand either.

What the Mexican immigrant parents do understand is that literacy in their adopted country's language is crucial to a brighter future for their three girls. It's why the Quirozes were so dismayed when they heard that the city plans to close the public libraries.

For such a drastic move — unprecedented in the USA, the American Library Association says — to blot the hometown of one of the 20th century's greatest literary figures, a writer who chronicled the fictional struggles of earlier immigrant generations, is a bitter pill here.

“I just think it's uncivilized,” says Julianne Hansen, 60, a retired teacher. “Everybody is so incensed. It's like closing down motherhood.” Without the library, says Guadalupe Quiroz, 12, “I wouldn't know that much right now. Tell them not to do it.”

City officials say they have no choice but to mothball the library's three branches to save $3 million a year and balance a deficit-ridden budget.

As more and more budget cuts inevitably trickle down under the current misadministration's mishandling of economic policy, we see what America really values, and doesn't. What's next on the chopping block?

Edited to add link! (oops)