‘The age of the library is probably ending’
MIAMI BEACH – Charlie remembers going to the library as a kid. Two or three time a weeks, at least, he said.
“In the summer, I’d play Little League baseball at Flamingo Park in Miami Beach. Games were at night. We’d practice in the mornings. On days with no games, you’d probably find me in a corner of the old library, slouched on a chair, reading a book.”
He is now in his 60s – without being specific.
“Must have been 10 or 11,” he added. “Don’t quite remember, exactly. But who cares? What’s important is I remember checking books out. Taking them home. Reading them at night. Or sometimes I’d just hide in the library – daydreaming.
“I loved to read about sports figures. DiMaggio, Mantle, Jim Thorpe. Mysteries. Loved mysteries. ‘Remember The Hardy Boys?’
“It was air conditioned inside. There wasn’t much a/c back then – definitely none at home.”
This was Charlie’s initial reaction when I asked him what he thought of the threatened library closings in Miami-Dade County. The county has 49 libraries – one central building in downtown Miami – the rest regional or smaller sites. Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced a couple of weeks ago that due to budget circumstances, the county would be eliminating 22 libraries. After much outrage from residents, it appears that six of the 22 may be saved.
Still, 16 libraries may be shuttered. This means that about one-third of them will be closed in a county with almost 2.5 million people. The Miami Herald reported earlier this week that “about eight million visited a Miami-Dade library last year.”
“Politicians… I don’t waste my time with them. The only reason I vote is because I was always taught that I should. But seriously, I find little difference between them,” added Charlie during our conversation. “They make promises they know they’re never gonna keep…
“Then you see them hopped up on selling Miamians with a new baseball stadium we don’t need. And I love baseball! Then there’s that roof they wanna build for the Dolphins; a tunnel I’ll never travel through costing us more than a billion…
“Heck, they’re building a county where those who give them money are happy. And by the way, Miami happens to be beautiful. The buildings, the events, the people. But most can’t enjoy these things. We can’t afford them.
“Thank god the beach is free. Soon they’re gonna wanna tax us to take a dip in the ocean… money to be used to subsidize a building somewhere with a rich man’s name on it.”
Charlie, turns out, is a retired stockbroker. He’s not rich, he told me, but he has enough to take him the rest of the way.
“But over the years I’ve known dozens of people I’ve met right here in this library. Persons who learned how to use a computer and surf the internet. A world they would have never known – except for this library.
“I once met a guy, they called him Bronco. He was tall, had a scraggly beard. To be honest, usually smelled bad. I think he lived in the park across the street, by the beach.
“Smartest guy I’ve ever known. I think he had read every book in this place. Could talk to you about anything. And, by the way, never attended a day of college. Self taught. Reading books. In the public library,” said Charlie.
I decided to press him a bit more. “Do you know that Mayor Gimenez told one of the TV stations that ‘the age of the library is probably ending’?”
“What a moron,” he responded with an expressionless face. “If he’d take the time to visit one of these places…”
“Hell, right here in this library I see young mothers and fathers bringing their kids. I mean hundreds of them every week. The staff reads to them. The kids run around the place. Watch movies upstairs…
“Look,” he emphasized. “I can buy my books if I wanted to. My wife died two years ago. My weekly visits to this place are as sociable as you’ll see me get. I know people here. And it’s sometimes just a nod or a welcoming stare…”
As I walked home – I live three blocks from my library – I realized the Miami Beach regional was not on the chopping block. I also understood that I’m lucky enough to live in a well-heeled area of Miami-Dade.
There’s little doubt that our society’s pyramid seems inverted. Those who need it most don’t seem to be getting it – at least from a government that promises to take care of them.
And the county commission’s solution?
Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo made this astounding suggestion from the dais, as reported by The Miami Herald: “Libraries could consider engaging in some sort of commercial activity, such as selling books or food, to make money.”
I am not surprised. In Spanish the word “bobo” is defined as silly or stupid. It applies. The commissioner’s last name seems to have been spelled incorrectly.
