The celebrated Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo grew up in Gloversville, New York. It is a small industrial town that is struggling to survive. Its major industry was leather gloves, and the town’s economy crumbled as American women stopped wearing gloves. I can still remember as a teenage girl that I was expected to wear gloves at Sunday school, when going to any dress-up occasion (like a wedding), even for going on an airplane trip. Those expectations no longer exist, and Gloversville has been hard hit by the collapse of its primary industry.
Now there is a fund-raising drive to restore its elegant Carnegie library, which sits at the heart of town and is a meeting place for children and adult and a center of learning.
Richard Russo has been helping to raise money for the restoration of the library.
He told the New York Times:
“I do think I have a debt to pay, and I’m happy to engage now in paying it back,” he said.
In a recent speech, Mr. Russo spoke about his debt to Gloversville’s schools and library, declaring: “I’m a product of public education, government-backed student loans, and publicly funded institutions like the Gloversville Free Library. If you’ve lost faith in them, you’ve lost faith in basic democratic principles.”
Repeat, for the benefit of philanthropists, hedge fund managers, and elected officials of all parties: “If you’ve lost faith in them, you’ve lost faith in basic democratic principles.”
Reworded, for clarity and re-use (as suggested in a comment below): “If you’ve lost faith in public education and public libraries, you’ve lost faith in basic democratic principles.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Too bad the VAMpires are too busy sucking the blood out of education and libraries to care about literature.
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P.S. No offense intended to actual vampires …
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lol
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Let me guess. VAMpire Diaries!
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All due respect to those public servants who truly believe in democratic principles, but I don’t believe many of our elected officials really do care about them. When you look at gerrymandered districts, the disproportionate influence of billionaires, and the cynical use of triangulation campaign strategies, it’s hard to believe that we have a true representative democracy at work. Many, if not most, politicians care first and foremost about their own political futures.
Our current fight to restore and support quality public education is tremendous test for our system. I find it somewhat ironic that Governor Cuomo claims public education is a monopoly when it seems like politicians and Ed Reformers are the ones who have monopolized education policy.
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It’s so appalling to me that we’re not going to hand anything down to the next generation. We all just waltzed in and benefited from these public institutions that generations prior built, and now we’re burning thru the inherited assets without adding any value to them, or even maintaining them.
It’s like we’ve forgotten how to build anything that lasts. It has to provide an immediate ROI or our fickle, fad-following “leaders” can’t be bothered.
They value none of it.
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How about an “I stand for public education” campaign with commercials showing notable people supporting public education? We need to counter the mantra of the so-called reformers who blame all of society’s ills on teachers and schools.
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Agree and I nominate Matt Damon to lead the charge. We need to start asking for help with this fight to save public education.
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I recall attending an in-service day with Frank McCourt who wrote “Angela’s Ashes.” He was a retired NYC English teacher. His quote,”Public libraries and public schools are the most democratizing forces in America,” has always stayed with me. I agreed with him then, and I still agree today. He described how he came here with nothing from Ireland. He spent hours at the public library. Later he attended Hunter College to train as a teacher. Hunter is a public university, and at the time, was almost free. These two institutions gave him the opportunity to be a productive member of society. Since then we have gone off the rails! Why are we so intent on slamming the doors in the faces of poor, young people today? It costs a lot more to put someone in prison than it does to educate.
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Creative fact-finding:
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/03/post_600.html#incart-m-rpt-1
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About 14% proficiency to 60% in math in one year?! This is the same population they had the previous year? Arnie Duncan should be all over them.
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I think Russo deserves one of your special recognition awards, Diane … OF THE YEAR perhaps! Certainly worth repeating when he references public supported institutions like schools and says, ““If you’ve lost faith in them, you’ve lost faith in basic democratic principles.”
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Richard Russo is one of my favorite authors. Empire Falls and Nobody’s Fool are highly recommended. They are touching and funny, and they show how those in charge have abandoned small-town America.
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Russo’s quote is so powerful. Everything those who wish to destroy public education do prove they no longer believe in democratic principles. Everyday they do not engage our protests, petitions and expressions prove they have no belief in the ideas of constitutional law–power derives from the people.
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Here! Here! For libraries, writers and language! I think the STEM thing, whether it’s a buzzword, a fad or a real initiative, is a big mistake. Someone from the last century hasn’t realized that we don’t need to memorize complex formulae or know how to triangulate in algebra: guess what? Computers DO ALL THAT FOR US NOW.
Where we really need to focus is on language and communication skills. These are required to understand the subject matter and be able to formulate a question Google can answer. Language skills are needed to communicate design intent, and to make arguments during pro/cons.
We don’t need a bunch of calculators walking around that don’t know how to interface with society, their work, trades, governments, each other…or even their computers.
As a former Fulton County resident having worked in Gloversville, I’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for Mr.Russo’s campaign!
Scott O’Connor
Sharon Springs, NY
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If I may slightly alter your last statement: “If you’ve lost faith in public schools and libraries then you’ve lost faith in basic democratic principles.”
The “them” would not be clear if we wish to use the saying outside of this blog.
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I was quoting Russo but agreed!
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yes I too agree with the last statement, Duane picked that up accurately.
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I had a single mother who worked as a waiter, barkeep, and maid to support two kids. We were, in a word, poor.
But in our town (Bloomington, Indiana), there were two great libraries–a Carnegie library (a beautiful, old stone building with a wonderful children’s department and kind, knowledgeable librarians) and the Indiana University Library (with its seven million volumes!!!). Unlike most university libraries, the I.U. Library was open, at least back then, to ANY STUDENT of ANY AGE. It belonged to the people.
I lived in those libraries. They were my Internet in the days before the Internet. They were my space ship and time machine. I spent countless hours roaming the stacks of them, like a mushroom hunter in some old-growth forest–pulling wonders off the shelves–books on everything–Old Icelandic, the natural history of the sand flea, dirigible driving. Though we had nothing–my mother, my brother, and I–we had these libraries, these public amenities, open to all.
I grew up to be a writer and teacher. My publications list now runs to 12 pages, single spaced. I’ve made my living, all of my life, writing books–as a textbook writer and ghost writer. And teaching, of course, to share my love of books.
I owe this–my career and my love of language and learning–to those libraries . . .
and to the benefactors who made them possible . . .
and to the wise public officials who believed, then, in public amenities, available to every kid, regardless of the size of his or her parents’ bank accounts.
More of that.
Much, much more of that.
Of the Commons!
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” … public amenities, available to every kid, regardless of the size of his or her parents’ bank accounts.”
This!
A beautiful post, Bob … beautiful.
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As usual, you hit the nail on the head. . . .
Words are your watercolors and oil paint . . . .
Please create more here on this blog . . . . Many of your posts are murals.
Thank you, Bob.
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It is good to hear your voice again, Bob. People need to be reminded what our public institutions have done through the stories of those who have built their lives around the treasures they found within them. We need to be able to pass those dreams that turned into realities to all the generations that follow.
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Beautiful! And good to see you again, Bob!
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Bob S,
Missed you!! Wondered if you were writing on deadline; checked your site. Curious what your thoughts re test consortia monitoring social media are.
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I doubt those driving the school privatization movement care all that much about democratic values:
“4) The primary ambition of the neoliberal project is to redefine the shape and functions of the state, not to destroy it. Neoliberals thus maintainan uneasy and troubled alliance with their sometimes fellow-travelers, the libertarian anarchists, as illustrated by the Buchanan quote. The contradiction which the neoliberals constantly struggle with is that a strong state can just as easily thwart their program as implement it; hence they are inclined to explore new formats of techno-managerial governance that protect their ideal market from what they perceive as unwarranted political interference. One implication is that democracy, ambivalently endorsed as the appropriate state framework, must in any case be kept relatively impotent, so that citizen initiatives rarely change much of anything. Hence the neoliberals attempt to restructure the state with numerous audit devices (under the sign of ‘accountability’) or better yet, convert state services to be provided on a contractual basis. However, one should not confuse ‘marketization’ of government functions with shrinking the state, as Harvey sometimes does: if anything, state bureaucracies have become more unwieldy under neoliberal regimes.
5) Skepticism about the lack of control of democracy is offset by the persistent quest for a reliable source of popular legitimacy for the neoliberal market state. Many Neoliberals seek to transcend the intolerable contradiction by treating politics as if it were a market, and promoting an economic theory of ‘democracy’. For them, there is no separate content of the notion of citizenship other than as customer of state services. This supports the application of neoclassical models to previously ‘political’ topics; but it also explains why the neoliberal movement must seek to consolidate political power by operating from within the state.”
http://www.academia.edu/10397779/Review_of_David_Harvey_Brief_History_of_Neoliberalism
“Analyses that are more influenced by post-structuralism, by Foucault in particular, look at neoliberalism more as an attempt to remake social and personal life in its entirety, around an ideal of enterprise and performance. Here, an ethos of competitiveness is seen as permeating culture, education, personal relations and orientation to the self, in ways that render inequality a fundamental indicator of ethical worth or desire. For many such theorists, economists themselves are viewed as political actors, who extend the limits of calculability. The state remains a central actor, according to this perspective, in forcing institutions to reinvent themselves and measure themselves according to this vision of agency. Distinctive neoliberal policies are those which encourage individuals, communities, students and regions to exert themselves competitively, and produce ‘scores’ of who is winning and losing.”
http://theoryculturesociety.org/william-davies-a-bibliographic-review-of-neoliberalism/
Sounds an awful lot like the education reformers to me!
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“lost father” should probably be “lost faith”
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Growing up with a super abusive stepmother after my mom died, the beautiful, old library in our town was an emotional refuge for me and an imaginative connection with my dead mom.
She had been an English and piano teacher and had taken us to the library weekly for new books. We sat in her lap and read, and you had to force me out in the sunshine some days from my perch on the couch.
After she died and dad remarried I would walk two miles to that library, sit in this lovely sunny corner, and stay away from home in every type if weather. I imagined running away and hiding in their and living among the books and beautiful woodwork. Every year that I go back to MA I visit that town and that wonderful library that saved my idealism and sense of hope.
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There!! Darn auto correct!
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The comfort of a library…your writing honors your Mother. Thank you for posting.
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Maine resident and author, Stephen King, recently spoke out against his libertarian governor.
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