Letters to the Editor - Chicago Public Library Fire by Paul Varnell
Editor - Metro section
Chicago Tribune
Dear Hanke Gratteau,
I was keenly disappointed by the Tribune's slim coverage of Tuesday's arson fire at the Merlo branch of the Chicago Public Library. It seems to me that the fire deserved more ample coverage for several reasons.
1. The fire department investigator said it was clearly arson.
2. The library is the only one in the Chicago public system, and so far as I know in any public system in the midwest, with a dedicated gay/lesbian (or GLBT) collection of books to serve the surrounding Lakeview community.
3. Books that were damaged or destroyed were primarily gay fiction--that is, examples of gay creative achievement, including fiction by gay or lesbian authors such as Jean Genet, Andrew Holleran, and popular mystery writer Ellen Hart.
4. Gays have been much in the news of late with attacks on gay marriage, the Illinois attempt to place an advisory referendum on the ballot opposing gay marriage, the publicity and controversy about the upcoming Gay Games here in Chicago, and, of course, June is Gay Pride month capped by the annual Gay Pride parade in less than two weeks. The timing and the target leave little doubt about the intention of the arsonist: Someone clearly got angry about gays.
5. Every gay and lesbian person who has heard about the fire is outraged by the clear attempt to destroy examples of the gay literary and historical heritage, just as African Americans would be if someone tried to burn books of African American history and fiction. So I am sorry the Tribune did not choose to give them more information. The burning of gay books certainly has strong historical resonances for most of us since the Nazis held a mass conflagration of gay books in 1933.
6. In addition, I am even more surprised that you did not contact prominent gay politicians, activists or community leaders for community reaction. It is as if gay people themselves, the implicit target of the attack, do not exist in the Tribune's worldview--or rolodex. I suspect the Tribune would have contacted African American or Hispanic community leaders if a library collection of their books had been targeted for destruction.
7. Gays and lesbians are a significant proportion of the Chicago population. According to "The Social Organization of Sexuality of Sexuality" (1994) by National Opinion Research Center director Edward Laumann, 9.2 percent of men and
2.6. percent of women in our largest cities acknowledge the self-label of "Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual" (p. 305). I have myself heard Laumann say that approximately 10 percent of the Chicago population is gay/lesbian/bisexual. Yet the Trib
allotted less than two column inches of text to this destructive attack.
8. Gay men, and to a lesser extent lesbians, live disproportionately on the North side toward the lake according to demographer Gary Gates' statistical analysis in "The Gay and Lesbian Almanac," which uses 2000 federal census data for same-sex couples to mark gay population density. This is the area the Merlo branch serves.
9. As any Chicago political reporter knows by now, you do not accept the word of a Daley spokesperson as the unvarnished truth or make them the only information contact. Their practice is to deny, minimize and excuse. The same is true for the city library's flak-person Maggie Killackey. Her job as the library's flak is to make no waves, minimize the event, say everything is fine, and this was a minor event. Well, it wasn't!
10. I would not accuse Killackey of homophobia--not exactly, anyway--but she certainly denies the significance of the fire to the gay community, she seemed uncomfortable and defensive when talking to gays such as myself, and she seemed remarkably incurious, especially for a spokesperson, about details of the fire.
She told callers that she could not say it was arson, although that is what the fire department determined.
24 hours after the event she still did not know what books were damaged or destroyed, not even that they were fiction by authors between the letters C and K, something I was able to determine simply by looking at the shelves.
She did not know if there were sprinklers or video cameras at the library.
She had no information about the progress of the police investigation, although you would think she would follow that with interest since it at her institution that the attack took place and her property that was destroyed.
She said she did not want people to donate books to replace the ones that were lost, not even books that were out of print and not otherwise replaceable. She said it was not worth staff time to catalogue them, even though librarians have told me in the past that it takes less than 10 minutes and closer to five.
I hope that the Tribune will be able to do a follow-up story about the anger in the community about the event. One could contact Alderman Tom Tunney, Representative Larry McKeon, Mayoral liaison Bill Greaves, activists Art Johnson, Rick Garcia, Tim Drake, lesbian author Ellen Hart (who I believe lives in Minneapolis), or gay author Mark Richard Zubro (who lives in southwest suburban Mokena, a librarian at Gerber Hart (a private gay library on the north side) or the well-informed editor of the Chicago Free Press, the gay newspaper.
Does the Tribune not know of these people? Is the gay community such terra incognita?
Sincerely,
Paul Varnell
445 West Barry Ave., Apt. 518
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 528-7446
Chicago Tribune
Dear Hanke Gratteau,
I was keenly disappointed by the Tribune's slim coverage of Tuesday's arson fire at the Merlo branch of the Chicago Public Library. It seems to me that the fire deserved more ample coverage for several reasons.
1. The fire department investigator said it was clearly arson.
2. The library is the only one in the Chicago public system, and so far as I know in any public system in the midwest, with a dedicated gay/lesbian (or GLBT) collection of books to serve the surrounding Lakeview community.
3. Books that were damaged or destroyed were primarily gay fiction--that is, examples of gay creative achievement, including fiction by gay or lesbian authors such as Jean Genet, Andrew Holleran, and popular mystery writer Ellen Hart.
4. Gays have been much in the news of late with attacks on gay marriage, the Illinois attempt to place an advisory referendum on the ballot opposing gay marriage, the publicity and controversy about the upcoming Gay Games here in Chicago, and, of course, June is Gay Pride month capped by the annual Gay Pride parade in less than two weeks. The timing and the target leave little doubt about the intention of the arsonist: Someone clearly got angry about gays.
5. Every gay and lesbian person who has heard about the fire is outraged by the clear attempt to destroy examples of the gay literary and historical heritage, just as African Americans would be if someone tried to burn books of African American history and fiction. So I am sorry the Tribune did not choose to give them more information. The burning of gay books certainly has strong historical resonances for most of us since the Nazis held a mass conflagration of gay books in 1933.
6. In addition, I am even more surprised that you did not contact prominent gay politicians, activists or community leaders for community reaction. It is as if gay people themselves, the implicit target of the attack, do not exist in the Tribune's worldview--or rolodex. I suspect the Tribune would have contacted African American or Hispanic community leaders if a library collection of their books had been targeted for destruction.
7. Gays and lesbians are a significant proportion of the Chicago population. According to "The Social Organization of Sexuality of Sexuality" (1994) by National Opinion Research Center director Edward Laumann, 9.2 percent of men and
2.6. percent of women in our largest cities acknowledge the self-label of "Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual" (p. 305). I have myself heard Laumann say that approximately 10 percent of the Chicago population is gay/lesbian/bisexual. Yet the Trib
allotted less than two column inches of text to this destructive attack.
8. Gay men, and to a lesser extent lesbians, live disproportionately on the North side toward the lake according to demographer Gary Gates' statistical analysis in "The Gay and Lesbian Almanac," which uses 2000 federal census data for same-sex couples to mark gay population density. This is the area the Merlo branch serves.
9. As any Chicago political reporter knows by now, you do not accept the word of a Daley spokesperson as the unvarnished truth or make them the only information contact. Their practice is to deny, minimize and excuse. The same is true for the city library's flak-person Maggie Killackey. Her job as the library's flak is to make no waves, minimize the event, say everything is fine, and this was a minor event. Well, it wasn't!
10. I would not accuse Killackey of homophobia--not exactly, anyway--but she certainly denies the significance of the fire to the gay community, she seemed uncomfortable and defensive when talking to gays such as myself, and she seemed remarkably incurious, especially for a spokesperson, about details of the fire.
She told callers that she could not say it was arson, although that is what the fire department determined.
24 hours after the event she still did not know what books were damaged or destroyed, not even that they were fiction by authors between the letters C and K, something I was able to determine simply by looking at the shelves.
She did not know if there were sprinklers or video cameras at the library.
She had no information about the progress of the police investigation, although you would think she would follow that with interest since it at her institution that the attack took place and her property that was destroyed.
She said she did not want people to donate books to replace the ones that were lost, not even books that were out of print and not otherwise replaceable. She said it was not worth staff time to catalogue them, even though librarians have told me in the past that it takes less than 10 minutes and closer to five.
I hope that the Tribune will be able to do a follow-up story about the anger in the community about the event. One could contact Alderman Tom Tunney, Representative Larry McKeon, Mayoral liaison Bill Greaves, activists Art Johnson, Rick Garcia, Tim Drake, lesbian author Ellen Hart (who I believe lives in Minneapolis), or gay author Mark Richard Zubro (who lives in southwest suburban Mokena, a librarian at Gerber Hart (a private gay library on the north side) or the well-informed editor of the Chicago Free Press, the gay newspaper.
Does the Tribune not know of these people? Is the gay community such terra incognita?
Sincerely,
Paul Varnell
445 West Barry Ave., Apt. 518
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 528-7446
posted by Carlos T Mock at 8:57 AM
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