The Day the Libraries Closed
Buck Eichler
April 24, 2007 - When you think of Jackson County, Oregon, you may think of the famous Ashland Shakespearean Festival, fishing or rafting the wild Rogue River, or the abundance of forests and wild life the area possesses.
On Friday, the sixth of April, 2007, Jackson County Oregon became famous for something else — the place where the largest library closure in the history of the United States occurred.
The doors at Jackson Counties exemplary 15-library system were locked up at 5 pm, with large public demonstrations occurring at most, if not all of them. More than 100 SEIU members will be laid off a week later, on Friday the 13th of April.
The array of public outcry was deep and varied. Some dressed in storybook characters, others held signs and shouted, a city councilman shook the doors after the lockup and wailed "where is the knowledge? How will we learn?"
In a pre-arranged event little children stayed in the children's section of the Ashland library after the doors were locked and were escorted outside by police to the cheers of their parents and other library supporters. Others in the crowd just quietly wept.
Nature itself seemingly weighed in, as in a Cecil B. DeMille movie scene, during the protests the normally sunny Rogue Valley became overcast, the wind began to blow hard, and a couple of hours after the library closed, we had our first major thunder and lightning storm of the year.
One might interpret that as symbolic of the triumph of evil over good, but one might also think of it as a statement that our voices will not be stifled, and this fight is far from over.
Our library employees have been unbelievably noble throughout this ordeal. They are manning phone banks, canvassing, and soliciting donations for the library levy campaign. Every one of them I've talked with has expressed more concern for the impact on their community than for the loss of their own livelihood.
Other SEIU members have worked very hard with great assistance from 503 and SEIU International to try to get our federal funding restored. We have had much success, but we haven't got a check in hand yet, and the libraries must close.
I can't say our Good Friday was all that good for our workers or our community. Some of us put in some major hours trying to find a solution before the libraries would have to close, and we felt exhausted and deflated when we saw the closure sign go up at our central library.
But that didn't lessen our resolve. We will have our day of mourning, then we will set back to work to get the lights back on at the libraries and our valued employees back on the job, and hopefully sooner than later.