The Books Stop Here

This is a terrible thing to write on the one holiday devoted to what this country is supposed to be: the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Tim Whitaker is an old and valued friend who is making a big difference in the lives of urban kids with the Mighty Writers program he started in 2009. More than 3,000 young people are involved in the five MW sites in Philadelphia and now this truly unique and much-needed effort is moving across the river to the Nick Virgilio Writers House in Camden. Virgilio was a world-class writer of haiku and another old friend, Hank Brann, was instrumental in the recent opening of the writer’s house.

The mission of Mighty Writers “is to teach kids ages 7 to 17 to think and write with clarity so they can achieve success at school, at work, and in life” according to the website.

All well and good so far – exemplary, really. When MW got wind that 20  immigrant children are being held at the Berks County Residential Center in Leesport, Pa., the idea was formed to send these detained kids Spanish language children’s books.

MW contacted an outfit called First books in Washington, DC, who dug the idea so much they immediately made a grant of $3,000 for the project, and MW in turn spent $2,000 of that for 100 kids’ books from First Books for the locked up kids. 

MW contacted Diane Edwards, executive director of the Berks County Residential Center, who agreed with the plan and confirmed that the welcomed books would be delivered yesterday, July 3, at 10 a.m.

Now it gets shitty.

On Monday afternoon, Edwards called MW and abruptly cancelled the delivery. Her flimsy-ass reason, according to Whitaker, was that the center already had a library and that the books would be better used at detention centers – which they surely are – elsewhere.

In a statement, MW said, “All of us at Mighty Writers are frustrated and disappointed that the children being detained at the center are being deprived of books that feature children that look and speak like they do. Our hope was that the books might provide some small escape and comfort.

“We see this decision as an unnecessary loss for these children.

“We are also saddened and angered for the 30 Mighty Writers El Futuro children who poured their hearts into creating dozens of homemade bookmarks that were scheduled to be delivered with the books.”

“It was an incredibly sweet thing,” Tim Whitaker told me. “So freaking innocent. No politics.”

He said they’re looking at a detention center in Pittsburgh that is “a little more amenable” to place the books.

I tried to call and E-mail this Diane Edwards person and her unanswered voicemail sounded mean-spirited and bureaucratic with a message for the media to E-mail an ICE address, which also went unanswered. When I asked the receptionist for her E-mail address, she just switched me to the lame-ass voicemail.

Here is part of the center’s mission statement: “The Berks County Residential Center is committed to maintaining a safe and caring environment that promotes positive growth and behaviors through competent counselors who display professional spirit.”

The center’s core values are: knowledge, integrity, maturity, and compassion.

I find them to be nastiness, pettiness, vindictiveness, and cowardliness. To the coward in charge, Diane Edwards, I have a message: kiss my fucking ass.