Will Unwound

Yesterday I talked a bit about my sense of solidarity with the Tories or Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War.  I really haven’t run into too many British fellow travelers in this country.  The American Revolution is the cornerstone of our sacred history, and the Declaration of Independence is our most quoted sacred scripture.  Even Ho Chi Minh was fond of using snippets from the Declaration in his speeches and pronouncements. 

The reality is that American patriotism is a kind of religion.  We like to think of the United States as that shining city on the hill that Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount . In Matthew 5:14, he tells his listeners, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Among those who have made reference to this phrase are such disparate leaders as John Winthrop of Puritan fame, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. 

Every time I watch a Presidential inauguration I am struck by the fact that what I am witnessing is a religious ceremony with prayers, Gospel readings, hymns, invocations, and the whole swearing in ceremony with the left hand on the Bible and the right hand raised in the air.  We are one nation under God.

Given the divine nature and origin of our country, therefore, it is hard for anyone who grows up in this country to take sides with the Redcoats.  We were virtuous.  They were tyrannical.  Pretty simple equation.

But what always struck me about the American Revolution was the curious statistic that I think I first learned in fourth grade: the famous “a third, a third, a third” statistic.  That statistic held from fourth grade through Doctor Marshall Smelser’s class on the American Revolution in my senior year of college.  A third of the colonists were rebels; a third were loyalists; and a third were neutral.  This always bothered me.  If the revolutionary cause was so noble and so virtuous, why did it only attract a third of the colonists? 

This also bothered a very great novelist named Kenneth Roberts who wrote a book entitled Oliver Wiswell.  It’s all about how unjustly the loyalists were treated by the people with whom they had once been friends, colleagues, and fellow worshippers.  This book presents a view of the American Revolution that you will never, ever get in an American classroom.  That’s because history is typically written from the side of the victors.  This book gives the perspective of the losers…the loyalist Americans, and it’s not a pretty picture.  Suffice it to say, that our national origins are not as sacred as we pretend them to be.

A great work of historical fiction motivates you to learn more about history, and that is precisely what Kenneth Roberts did for me the reader.  After reading Oliver Wiswell I did extensive research into the post war experiences of the loyalists and tories.  I can’t think of another historical fiction title that has had that impact on me.

Question of the Day: What is your favorite work of historical fiction?

I know that you probably can’t focus very well at work today because you are in suspense about Kate Middleton’s wedding dress.  I will try to get your attention anyway. Will it have sleeves? A sweeping train? Antique lace, or bead work?

Oh good grief.

I have always been a closet Revolutionary War Tory.  From grade school through my history curriculum in college I always thought the redcoats got a raw deal.  England financed the colonies, provided defense, and created democratic governing institutions.  In return they got a guerilla war that sapped their treasury, manpower, and national will.  Had we stayed under the English flag, the slave trade would have been eliminated in 1809, and slavery would have been abolished all together in 1833.   The Civil War and our long history of segregation would never have happened.

But then there was that whole royalty thing.  Americans simply cannot stomach royalty. King George the Third was an insufferable, arrogant ruler who turned the stomachs of our founding fathers.  The Declaration of Independence is mostly directed at him.

I suppose the hatred of the genealogical transfer of political power among people of royal birth is very high on the list of things that binds Americans together…liberal and conservative; democrat and republican.   America is all about making it on your own, not on your daddy’s name or your royal bloodlines.

So then will someone please tell me why Americans love to follow the triumphs and tragedies of the English royal family?  I don’t get it.  People, these are the snobs we revolted against!

I have one bit of advice for Kate Middleton:  JUST SAY NO!  You seem like a nice, normal girl with a flair for fashion and a quick wit.  If you say “yes” your life will be over.  You will be the proverbial bird in a gilded bird cage.  There is still time to back out.  Now is the time to bail!

But of course, Kate will say yes and she will live a miserable life.  Good grief, would you want Queen Liz for your Grandmother in Law?  Please.

Anyway, let’s go with the flow and indulge in the fantasy of royalty, wealth, castles, and dukes and damsels.  The genie will make you King or Queen of England for a Day…what would you do in that 24 hour period?

There have been a lot of pleas for civility in our country since the tragic shooting of a Congresswoman in Arizona a couple of months ago.

At that time it was suggested that one of the causes of the shooting may have been the increasing spirit of rancor that has entered our country’s political dialog.  Political positions are not just ill conceived, ill informed, or just plain wrong; they are evil. 

The ratcheting up of name calling is not surprising given the terrible economy we have struggled with over the past four years.  People are angry and feel they have a right to express their anger in as angry a way as possible. The new conventional wisdom is that angry words should be delivered in as civil a way as possible.

But is civility the answer?  I hearken back to the two major events in my lifetime: the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War Protest Movement.  Both movements went through the whole civility/incivility debate over and over again.  What was more effective in advancing the ball: reasoned discussions or angry name calling?  I would suggest that in each case a combination of the two were needed.  Civility only gets you so far when you are trying to stop long standing injustices or endless wars.

The civility/incivility pendulum is an interesting one when it comes to work place issues.  We’ve seen this issue flare up in Wisconsin.  Members of the newly disenfranchised public sector unions have gone to great lengths to express their frustration at having their bargaining rights revoked.  Have they been successful?  Time will tell.

But the civility issue is also relevant in everyone’s workplace every single day.  Many years ago there was a bestselling management book written entitled Winning Through Intimidation.  Today the angry, intimidating boss runs the risk of being hit with a hostile workplace lawsuit if his or her management style is too laced with incivility.

I certainly think reason and dialog should prevail in the workplace but say you are a library director managing a large 120,000 square foot main library construction project and your general contractor and sub contractors simply won’t listen to you because they think they can walk all over you because you are a wimpy librarian and you have done nothing to show them differently.

This happened to me, oh, maybe 25 years ago, and so to get their attention I walked into the construction trailer engaged in reasonable dialog, was ignored, and then threw a chair across the trailer, walked out, and slammed the door.

Within 12 hours my 30 point “punch list” was completed.  I felt  guilty and relieved all at the same time.

Question of the day: Is civility overrated in getting your point across?

Yesterday, we had a fascinating discussion about how to create an on-line profile through Facebook, Twitter, and blogs that will be helpful in procuring a library job.   The discussion got me thinking about how to create an internet presence that will effectively limit your library career prospects.  It’s very simple.  Just write about your personal belief in conservative politics, organized religion, and a common sense view of computer filtering.

1)      Conservative politics….We all know that the library profession is extremely liberal in its political leanings.  To prove this all you have to do is look at the big name speakers at A.L.A. conferences. How many conservatives have there been among this group in the past 40 years?  Maybe one or two at most.   Librarians would rather be validated than challenged when it comes to politics.  But it goes beyond that.  Many librarians think that conservatives are selfish, stupid, unsophisticated, and ultimately evil people.  Conservatism is not an alternative political viewpoint to the library profession; it is a curse.  The unfortunate issue here is that our many city councils, county boards, and state legislatures are ruled by conservative politicians.  These are the folks who hold our purse strings.  Isn’t it time to stop demonizing them and start dialoging with them?  Don’t even think about it if you want that big promotion.

2)      Organized religion….The library profession is very wary of organized religion, because religious morality is the banner that many book censors wave.  Many librarians disdain organized religion because they think it is repressive, judgmental, irrational, evangelical, and overly structured.  If you are a librarian it is okay to freely talk about your spiritual quest as long as you do not mention that you belong to an organized church.  It’s also very okay to be openly atheistic and agnostic because this shows you are a thinking person who has overcome an early childhood attachment to superstition.  If you have to be an avowed member of a formal religion, Buddhism seems to be your best bet.  Buddhism seems to be the cool religion right now.  Protestantism and Catholicism definitely are not.  If you are a member of a formal Christian Church keep that part of your life in the closet for the good of your career.

3)      Censorship – Perhaps the most career limiting move that you could make in the library profession is to refuse to toe the line with the anything goes philosophy of the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom.  I am still getting criticism heaped on me for a series of articles that I wrote in the 1990s advocating that filters be put on children’s room computers to block out pornography.  Really!  I’m pretty sure that the library profession is the only profession in the world that wants children to have access to pornography.  Why?  Because everyone is afraid of being called a censor.  It is the death nail in the career coffin. The irony of all of this is that the library profession touts itself as the champion of intellectual freedom.  If that’s true why can’t we freely express our dissenting views of an “anything goes” philosophy of intellectual freedom…or conservative politics…or organized religion for that matter?

Today we are going to play pretend.

Sometimes “pretend” is the best way to get at the truth.

We’ve had a number of discussions in the past couple of months about the hypothetical situation in which you apply for a library job and then you google yourself and find out that someone with your name has a huge internet profile and that profile involves things like photographs of private parts, tattoos of demonic symbols, beer bongs, and a generous sprinkling of the seven words you can’t say on radio.  What do you do: a) tell the hiring authority that is not you, b) change your name, c) ignore it, or d) start building up your own internet profile in a way that you think would be conducive to getting a job?

Today let’s focus on option d…building up your own internet profile. 

Here’s where I want you to play pretend.  Pretend you are the hiring authority.  What kind of an internet profile would you be looking for in a job candidate for your library.  Here are some possibilities:

1. A twitter and Facebook account to show social media saavy or would this show a time wasting egocentric?
2. Tons of photographs showing your daily image to demonstrate a certain sense of self confidence or would this show a certain sense of narcissism?
3. A book review blog especially for a library job dealing directly with acquisitions or readers advisory or a tech blog for a job dealing directly with electronic resources or would this show a person who was using his job as a platform for his blog?
4. A blog containing controversial posts about the current issues of the day to show a sense of creativity, a commitment to the library profession, and the courage to speak truth to power or would this show a person trying to create a high profile personality in the profession?
5. An iconoclastic blog that goes beyond controversy to fuse lighting.  This would include using crude language and  purposely producing  incendiary positions to stir the pot for the sake of stirring the pot in order to get a reputation as an iconoclast.  Does this show courage or an excessive need for attention?

Questions of the day:

a…are there other ways a candidate might use the internet to garner your favor?

b…how would you rate my list above of #s 1-5 as being helpful or hurtful to a candidate?

c…would you just completely ignore what the candidate has done on the internet? 

I am fascinated with this whole issue because I see a wide variety of ways in which librarians present themselves on the internet.  I tend to enjoy reading all approaches.  My motto is live and let live, but then again I’m retired.  From my vantage point on the management sidelines, I wonder if one way is better than another in terms of career development. 

Please note…I am planning on working this issue into our Unwinders management book.  So if you do not want your real name mentioned, please use an anonymous handle.  Thanks.

Today’s blog post is brought to you by Advil, Hall’s Triple Soothing Action Throat Drops (honey-lemon),  and Benadryl.

It’s days like this one that I am oh so happy to be retired.  I am trying to think of a part of my body that does not ache and I keep coming up empty.  I have the perfect storm of maladies…a combination of bronchitis, grippe, flu, common cold, and maybe a bit of a mold infection from my raccoon house.

Like I said the only good thing about today is that I do not have to make the big decision of “to go or not to go”  to work tomorrow.  Oh, how I remember those excruciating decisions.  I typically made two lists:

Reasons Not to Go To Work

1. I’m very sick, can barely talk, and find thinking to be painful.
2. Don’t want to infect the work place and see productivity plummet over the next month.
3. Set a good example for my staff.

Reasons to Go to Work

1. I’m sick; not dead.
2. Don’t want to ruin the perfect attendance record I have set over the past umpteen years.
3. Don’t want to waste my sick leave on sickness when, hey, I might need it in the future for something really important like watching March Madness.
4. Don’t want to get Wally Pipped.  If you don’t know what that means, look it up.  After all you’re librarians and I’m too sick to explain.
5. While this cat’s away the mice will play.
6. The City Council may fire me while I’m lounging in bed indulging in a telecommuting day.
7. The pros play in pain.
8. I can be miserable in bed or miserable at work.  Might as well be at work.
9. Sick leave is for wimps.
10. I’m a dumb man.

As you can guess from the tote board above, I always went to work, and for 40 years I had a perfect attendance record.  But guess what?  Tomorrow I’m not going to work. *pops another Hall’s Triple Soothing Action Throat Drop and chases it will some Benadryl*

Ever since I was a little boy I have wondered why Christmas is such a bigger holiday than Easter.

Christianity started not with a babe in a manger but with an empty tomb.  Perhaps that is the answer.  Nothing warms the heart like a birth.  A resurrection, however, is strange, weird, and otherworldly.  It takes our breath away, stretches our imagination, stirs our cynicism, and challenges our senses of reason, logic and worldly experience. 

In short, the resurrection is not an easy event to believe in.  In fact, sometimes we’d rather not even think about the whole whipping, crucifixion, and resurrection cycle because, well, it’s rather bizarre.  Is this any way to start a religion based on loving your neighbor? 

There’s a popular trend in fact to ignore the gospel reports of the resurrection and say that the disciples were mistaken.  Something metaphysical may have happened but certainly not the physical rebirth of a man nailed to a cross.  That just couldn’t be.  Perhaps the gospel writers were using the resurrection as a kind of symbol.  After all, didn’t Jesus often use symbols in his parables?

And so it’s much more comfortable to put a high literary gloss on the gospels and regard Jesus as an exercise in multiple choices.  Take your pick.  He was:  a) a prophet like Elijah, b) a mystic like Buddha, or c) a teacher like Confucius. 

How about d) the son of God?  That’s my choice.  Why?  Because the trial, beating, crucifixion, and resurrection story is just so incredibly bizarre.  It’s not something that a ragtag group of  poor and poorly educated fishermen from a backwater place like Galilee could invent and then pull off as the greatest hoax of all time.  It’s just too bizarre.  It wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny.

And that’s precisely why I believe it.

Happy Easter, Unwinders.  Lent is over.  The Tavern is open. Let’s celebrate.  He is risen.

When I was at my mother’s large old rambling colonial house for her 90^th birthday last weekend I went up to the attic to fetch my old 1967 high school yearbook to do some serious reminiscing with my brother, my sister, my mother, and Unwinder Bill.  Her attic is a treasure trove of scrapbooks, memorabilia, photo albums, and teetering piles of books.  Among the creative clutter I found a file of old columns of mine that I sent to her over the past 40 years.  She saved them religiously, for which I am thankful.

Anyway, that night instead of reading myself to sleep with a book I chose the soporific qualities of my old articles.  Here’s an excerpt from a very old one that totally freaked me out:

• “Children’s literature is an area that I admit to having little time for.  Outside of Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Tales, there’s not a children’s book that I can honestly say I cherish.  Maybe I’m hopelessly unimaginative, but the whole kiddie lit menagerie of verbal pigs, cognitive mice, and angst ridden pre-teens is as appealing to me now as the thought of spending quality time with a toddler in his terrible twos.”

This just shows how much our reading tastes can change.  Now I spend most of my library time in the children’s department with my four grandchildren and I couldn’t be happier.  Today was an especially rewarding day because little Liam (6) and Audrey(4) read me book after book in the children’s room.  Call this a red letter day because it was only a few months ago at Christmas time that I was reading to them; now they are reading to me.  Ask me how proud I am.

Anyway, because of the grands I have been reintroduced to the riches of the children’s library.  You may think that I’m hearkening back to the books my mother introduced me to when I was Liam’s and Audrey’s age and you would be only partially correct.  Yes, I am loving my reunion with Peter Rabbit, Jemina Puddleduck, Freddy the Pig, Charlotte, Stuart Little, Hansel and Gretel, and let’s not forget Pooh, but there is another part of the children’s library that I have become addicted to – nonfiction – that I never really spent much time in as a boy.

My other two grandchildren – Connor (5) and Sophia (3) – were the catalysts who got me hooked because they basically live in the non-fiction collection when they are in the library.  We all plop down on the floor and they start pulling books and browsing.  There are no recognizable classical names among the children’s non-fiction authors and illustrators that we meet up with when we camp out in the non-fiction aisles, but these folks pack a punch.  They can write and illustrate with a directness that just draws you in.

Who’s the better author –  the PhD who writes a 700 page biography of Andrew Carnegie replete with scholarly footnotes or the generic children’s author who delivers the same basic information in a 125 page book replete with old photographs?

In preparation for the Carnegie exhibit that I am doing for the local history guild, I actually learned more from the children’s biography of Carnegie than I did from the scholarly tome.  My brain may well be softening but there is something marvelous about an author who can deliver de message de sooner de better.

Question of the day: be honest…how much time do you spend nosing around in children’s books?

Today is Fantasy Friday and I’ve already received my miracle.

Out of the blue I get one of those disturbing “Are you William L. Manley?” phone calls.  It’s the only time when you really hope it’s a harmless telemarketer but you know deep down that it’s probably a bill collector.

It was a bill collector …sort of.

Actually it was a very businesslike, but not rude, woman from the electric company.  “Mr. Manley,  our records indicate that you have requested that the temporary power pole for construction purposes in front of your property on M Street be transferred to your name from the previous owner.”

“That is correct. This is a raccoon infested property that I am rehabbing.  I’m just a little guy.”

“The transfer cost will be $800.”

“Wwwwhat?”

“Yes, that is the cost to have the power shut off and then turned back on.”

“Do they take the pole away and then put it back up?”

“No, it’s a transfer fee.”

“Do you have to send people out there to do this?”

“No, it’s a transfer fee.”

“What does it cost you to make the transfer?”

“It doesn’t cost us anything.  It’s policy.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.  You realize I am not a developer; I’m a little guy and this is a raccoon infested property that I am rehabbing?”

“That’s interesting, sir.”

“Let me ask you this: when someone sells a house to another person and that person has the power transferred to his name is there a charge?”

“No, sir.”

“Don’t you think this is really the same thing?  A temporary power source is being transferred to my name from the previous owner.”

“Sir, it’s policy.  I’m not a manager; I’m a little guy.”

“Okay, I don’t want you to get in trouble but could you have a manager call me?”

“Yes sir, I will.”

I figure my plea will fall on deaf ears.  This is the power company, a big monopoly.  They don’t care about the little guy. I keep telling my self…”Will, be civil; Will, be civil; Will, be civil….but not too civil.”

Two hours later the phone rings, and a voice asks “Are you William L. Manley?”

“Yes.”

“This is Mr. So and so from the power company.  Mr. Manley, your response to our call to you earlier this morning created quite a discussion in this office.  I have to say that your point of view is logical and reasonable so we are going to change our policy. There will be no transfer fee for your temporary construction power pole.”

“Thank you, Mr. So and So. I never doubted for a minute that the power company would be sympathetic to the point of view of the little guy.”

I hung up the phone, kneeled down, and thanked God for this early Easter miracle.

Question of the Day…If the power company can listen to the little guy, can’t your library do likewise?  This is absolutely the best customer experience I have ever had…ever!

Today I got the call I had been waiting and hoping for.

The City Clerk’s Office here in Livermore called me to congratulate me for being selected to the Library Board of Trustees.

This means that I am back in the game.

Retirement is great for many things but there is a certain segment of the profession that looks upon retirement as a kind of pre-death that strips you of your professional credibility.  More than one or two observers felt that as a retired guy I should get off stage, stop blogging about library things I now know nothing about, and by golly for good measure walk away from my American Libraries and Booklist columns before I become too senile and too embarrassing.

Now I’m officially back in the game and my critics will have to deal with it.

Not only am I back in the game but I’m back in the game in the most important position possible.  I spent my working life in local government and public libraries and in that time I learned something you can take to the bank – no one is more important to the future of public libraries than trustees.

How many thousands of barrels of ink do you think have been devoted to library advocacy over the past five years?  It doesn’t equal the national debt but it’s getting there.  Unfortunately  99.9% of what has been written about advocacy never mentions the word trustee.  Therefore 99.9% of these writings have been not only useless but counterproductive.

Trustees represent voters.  Librarians represent librarians.  Why is that so hard to understand?

So…I’m honored and excited to be back in the game.  Gotta run and update my bio.  I’m a trustee!