A pre-Oshosh visit to the public library in Evanston, Illinois.
Let’s begin in the Teen Loft…. the front door:
Books featured just inside the door:
Our Uber driver from ORD, with some corrections: “I came here from Venezuela in 2019 and hardly anyone in Chicago spoke Spanish. Now it seems that Spanish speakers are everywhere in all parts of the city. You could spend your entire life in Chicago and never need to learn English.”
Wall decor inside the teen area:
Desk/tabletop:
If you didn’t already admire Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps the realization that he was a Corvette driver will sway you?
The kid section isn’t entirely 2SLGBTQQIA+. It’s also possible to learn about how to build a Wakanda-style successful society/economy:
Kids can learn about what has become the dominant religion in the U.S. Midwest, as measured by hours spent on religious observance (featured by the librarians):
Some reading material to bring into the mosque?
The library is committed to “equity”, which means that people of all races must be forced to read books about one race: “celebrating Black lives”.
Right underneath, a book whose cover is illustrated with a family that seems to have migrated to the U.S. from Asia. Why would they want to celebrate Black lives?
Also a book on our melting planet and how, perhaps instead of celebrating Black lives, a young person should devote him/her/zir/theirself to climate activism:
Another role model is a guy who had “a very rich multichromatic sexuality” (Wikipedia) until he died from a heroin overdose at age 27:
The library offers advice, in both English and Spanish, about how to hide from SARS-CoV-2 and ICE:
Phil, on this day of celebration for Abdul Ballout in Germany it is so special to see you highlighting the Evanston library and the many Sick Parasites who inhabit it, who we collectively call Buttfuckers. Allahu Akbar!
Muhammad, we in the UK share your outrage at the terrible loss of Abdul Ballout in Germany at the hands of brutal gun violence and the Evil Islamophobic police. Thankfully, this could not have occurred in here in the UK because we have not only banned guns, but we have also trained our police to only attack and kill White British-born persons. Allahu Akbar!
I was in the Costco in Ann Arbor this summer, looking for glasses at the optical department. The sections weren’t labeled by gender. I found a nice pair of frog-green, sparkled-plastic frames with plasti-chrome stems. Not Elton John outlandish, but hippie chic or maybe boho gay.
A Costco employee came up to me and said, “Sir [presumptious, don’t you think?]…these glasses are more intended for females, why don’t you go to the mens’ section over here?” Triggered the hell out of me. I’m bald and have a pot-belly, but I think I could be a lady. Has Phil’s propaganda gotten to everyone? Et tu, Ann Arbor? My wife started trying on ones in the men’s section, but the Costco employee held his/her/its opinion to herself/himself/itself.
[Did they neuter that poor teddy bear? I think the entirety of this post is retaliation for my attempts at organizing a blog commenters union.]
Damn, Phil has almost as many hippies here as politicians and muslims. I think it’s because he culturally appropriated their tie-dyed shirts. (But continues to hate on their freak flags and drugs.)
Excellent job by Evanston comrades! Unfortunately, the overall picture remains rather grim.
According to the ChatGPT there are about 400 million children books sold in the USA per year.
Only 5 mil are LGBT (1%). Only 1.5 mil are in Spanish (0.3%)!! What can we do to improve this dismal situation?
1% are LGBT compared to 0.3% in Spanish? Now that is striking.
There might be more Japanese language bookstores in Los Angeles (Japanese population 1%) than there are Spanish language bookstores (Latino population 50%).
Comrade Che Guevara wrote a best-selling Spanish language book and was personally involved in LGBT-related issues. What can we do today to live up to his name?
Oshosh? 😉
Yes, public libraries like this make me sad. I remember they were not at all like this as a kid just a decade or two ago. I loved going to libraries like Evanston’s (not sure if I actually ever went to this one though) and these things absolutely were not present (I spent much time at them as a young person). It is truly astounding how fast libraries went to looking like this.
As per the driver’s comment, yes there are a very large number of Spanish speakers in Chicagoland. I grew up with many in the “nice” public schools. I have met many who did not seem to speak English well or at all and they seemed to get along fine.
Re: First Rule of Climate Club
1) We don’t talk about the real motives behind “climate” club:
What does climate club have to do with gay pride? I don’t think I’d let my child get involved:
https://www.carriefirestonebooks.com/s/30107_ClimateClub_DigitalGuide_22-2.pdf
WORK TOGETHER ON THE PROJECT. Continue to try to recruit new members. Troubleshoot roadblocks and adjust the plan if needed. For example, a student in our community wanted to paint a rainbow crosswalk for Pride Month. The town wouldn’t let her do this because they don’t allow signs or symbols on town property. The student designed a Pride sign, sold it to hundreds of private citizens for their front lawns, and donated proceeds from the sign to school
equity clubs.
ChatGPT says that 100 yard signs = 300 kg of CO2 = 15 mature trees working for one full year. Nice job “a student in our community”!
I also have a variety of ideas for childrens’ activities in the “Climate Club”. Raft building with discarded climate signs, knitting Keffiyehs from used fishing line and dental floss, surviving in jail with prostitutes and crack addicts, how to catfish on Tinder, Arabic lessons, etc.
Remember kids, Yalla Intifada, flying’s bad, autism power, bye bye.
Hej sister, can I sing at your club?
Oh my, it’s like a family reunion, ya. I’d be willing to get involved too. As you can see, I’m good with kids and raised two exemplary girls. Since G. won’t let me fly, I’m currently doing a woke dinner theater production of “What’s Opera Doc” in Stockholm. I play a woman playing a male wabbit playing Brunhilde. The first thing I would tell the kids is not to smoke crack when you are pregnant. I wish someone would have told me. Ya.
Thought I’d pop-in and say “Hi!” I’m up for anything too. I’m so proud of my little Swedish family and their global accomplishments. Here’s a picture of us outside the south Stockholm Ikea when G. was just a lil shaver:
https://img-msp-prod.nzz.ch/2019/8/30/015e8f31-62f0-405a-befc-eb353f23f901.jpeg
As you can see I’m an involved dad. (Mostly because I’m an unemployed actor/producer/thespian. Thanks, G. “Thespian” doesn’t mean what you think Neo Hippy.) I’m also a feminist, as you can see from my picture and the fact that I took my wife’s last name. Skol.
Philip, are you sure that time-wise Islam is the most practiced religion in US Mid-West? Do you have stats to back it up?
I think that Orthodox Judaism requires several times of daily practice time then Islam of its practitioners.
There are 900,000 Muslims in the US Midwest vs 60,000 orthodox Jews. Muslims pray 30 mins per day, Jews 90 mins.
5X advantage to Muslims.
@ME, Are you sure? Orthodox Jews pray closer to 3 hours per day + observe entire Sabbath, new months and numerous dates + all bible holidays when they prsy longer. Are you sure that all mid west Muslims are very observant? Not per my observations. Mid west has to have close to 1 million Jews of different observance levels. Orthodox Jews are making up about 20% of all Jews and growing.
All data from Google AI. I can only personally vouch that my Midwestern town had a lot of cute black squirrels, not religious zealots.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+muslims+in+us+midwest
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+orthodox+jews+in+us+midwest
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+should+muslim+pray+per+day
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+should+orthodox+jews+pray+per+day
@ME, in modern lexicon world zealot is used to describe someone who attacks others, that’s definitely does not describe Orthodox Jews and other Hebrew Bible scholars. My AI says that approximately 100,000 US Mid West Jews are orthodox, out of approximately 800,000 Jews of all denominations. That’s a lot of prayers and a lot of religious study and actual 24/7 observance of word of God as related to us through the Hebrew Bible.
Sadly, we are not, and will never be fully welcoming… at least not until election ballots are printed in Spanish as well, and optionally on Rainbow colored paper.