Friday, September 29, 2017

Liz Phipps Soeiro is a moron.

Let me tell you about one of the top five Halloweens I've experienced in my life. I was at my Sister-in-law's house in Oak Park, Illinois. I sat on their front porch with my oldest son who was a senior in High School at the time. It was after dark and we were taking our turn watching for trick-or-treaters while the rest of the family was inside the house.

Here's a picture of us. I'm in the gold mask I made from a pattern I purchased on the internet. He is dressed as Burt Macland, a frequent persona of Andy Dwyer, a character from the hit NBC show, "Parks and Recreation." But enough about us, let's get back to why this was a special Halloween.
My niece had decided to collect old books and give them out with the candy. At first I was skeptical. Would a child really want a book instead of candy? I remember my Halloweens as a kid and a homeowner handing out anything besides candy was basically asking for eggs to be thrown at their house.

Toothbush? Egg.

Rasins? Egg.

Pennies? Egg.

Pretending you're not home? Lots of eggs.

I suppose that if someone handed out eggs, we might have said thank you because eggs can get pricey, then thrown the eggs at their house.

I am a Catholic and I observe the traditions of All Hallows Eve (yes kids, that's where the term Halloween comes from) but I also dig on the secular observation of what has become, scary candy day. Notice, I didn't say the word book in there. So there my son and I sat, waiting for the eggs to come a' sailing through the air because we were giving out candy and books. Big surprise, that never happened.

What did happen was a line forming because the trick-or-treaters were thoughtfully perusing the book box for a title that would resonate with them. The parents were in on it too, making suggestions and reminiscing, albeit briefly, about when they had first read some of the titles. No one complained. No one lobbed a poultry byproduct. They smiled and said thank you. Parents came together with their children. Unlike eating too much candy, no one argued about a child reading too much that night. What I learned that night was a simple lesson. Giving a child a free book makes the world a better place. This is why I am completely furious about Liz Phipps Soeiro!

In case you haven't followed the news, she is a librarian who recently declined a box of free books sent to her by the first lady. Why you may ask? Well, after reading all about Liz at the The Horn Book Blog, it appears Ms. Soeiro is only interested in library programs that increase her bragging rights, not about what's best for her students.

She wrote a well publicized letter to Mrs. Trump about why her choice of Dr. Seuss titles was cliché and inappropriate. She also branded the good Doctor as a racist (?!?) and stated clearly that her library had over 9,000 volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree so they didn't need her books.

What a piece of work...

I encourage you to read more about Liz as I have, then you'll see how absolutely full of herself she is, and I'm not sure that's the person any parent wants in charge of deciding what books their children should read.

Now that I got that off of my chest, I just need to do one more thing. My other son will be upset if he sees that I put a picture of his brother in my blog but not him.
Done, and done.