We had few books in the country. A 1948 encyclopedia had stale prose w/photos black & white. Alto & New London elementary schools had no libraries. A few times a year we got flyers to order books by mail. The 1965 Palm Sunday tornados wiped out schools in Alto & 1/7

Russiaville. Schools consolidated & 6th grade was in a new building w/its own library. Books about history & mythology were not simply “facts” but maps of so much that has gone before. I learned to think. My parents got an Encyclopedia Britannica w/many photos in color. 2/7

School taught civil rts hadn’t been a problem since the Civil War, but the evening news showed history as it unfolded w/demonstrations & riots. “We interrupt this program for a special report” was an oft-heard phrase. We had a non-war. News anchors reported on Vietnam. In stats 3/7

of the week, we always killed & wounded (a lot) more of “them,” to imply we were winning. Women demanded = rights. Factory jobs vanished. LGBTQ+ people were tired of dying & being shoved around. The air & water sucked. Foundations of the American legend cracked. 4/7

White males in a vibrant World of 3 networks (& maybe UHF) were made to feel insecure for the benefit of people who run things. Info is lost in chaos. All those internet sites bury us in a toxic mass of noise. Millions of images become monochromatic. At WWI’s end, Indiana was 5/7

infested by what today is called Christian nationalism. In 1920 it was called the Klan. A temporary 4-3 majority on HEPL’s board got books jerked off the shelves & put in limbo. Of course a candidate for office who claims to speak to “God” about politics, pushes a 6/7

far-right agenda & warns people to “stay away from higher education and [its] secular progressive bias,” wants to gut public libraries, among the last places where we have ready access - to things not simply “facts,” but maps of so much that has gone before. 7/7