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The Healing Power of Words
By
Raymond Brookter
In the course
of a day at the library, it can be difficult to focus
upon one task with such a myriad of elements awaiting
one behind each shelf. An active library yields
treasures that recall memories of one’s youth, or
resonates themes that one has discovered crossing the
footpaths of others in search of self. The information
available in a library challenges limitations of one’s
knowledge, which in place is the prime cause for one to
prejudge and to remain hostile against the unknown.
Efforts by
our esteemed politicians and many human rights
organizations to control information access,
communication, and thought places the nation at a lofty
precipice as to what words and books represent dangerous
speech. From local governance putting titles and genres
“on trial” to local school boards and councils to the
voluminous Patriot Act, which affirmed that searching
for information could pattern behaviors detrimental to
national security, the right to be informed has never
taken greater precedence as it has in the 21st century.
I am
currently reworking the Vertical Files section of the
reference area. In these often-yellowed sheets and
tattered pamphlets, I am discovering over seventy years
of history and culture of a city, state, and region that
sought to identify itself within social aspirations and
secular assumptions. Although some of the images,
captions, and phrases may seem intolerant and offensive
to many of today’s readers, the totality of the
documents, and the inclusion of scholars, leaders, and
citizens to the debate of “whose Mississippi” would
thrive after civil insurrection and economic strife
provide an opportunity to bring truth to the slogan
promoted over thirty years ago that “Mississippi . . .
it’s like coming home.”
An informed
public represents the highest duty to citizenship.
Whether it is reading the Bill of Rights, leafing
through the local newspapers, tracing one’s family line
through the United States, or writing a local leader to
request specifics about an ordinance that posted for
review in the library, it is the job of the people to
affect change. Like those individuals who fought and
died over the past one hundred years to embody what it
is to be an American, so it also represents one’s
heritage and way of life to be informed and not to
blindly follow those leaders not in touch with your
community’s health.
This is a
challenging time in our nation to define as a people
what we are. Reductive labels serve to keep us on the
defensive but we have come through trials as this before
to bring forth unity from separation. We must through
education and acceptance, which unlike tolerance
initiates an invitation and not a designation, tell our
communities that we are a people not destined to slip
passively into irrelevance while rulers bar the gates.
We must, in every effort, discover and teach to future
generations the lessons of the past with the zeal of
knowing that an honest assessment provides an
opportunity to change and preserve what is right about
our country.
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Raymond Brookter,
a
Slidell Katrina refugee, lost his "childhood
home" . . . house and cars . . . books. clothes,
and music went under the sludge."
He is presently a doctoral student and librarian in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
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posted 20 August 2007
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updated 19 October 2007 |
