Article: Jack Knox: Anti-Semitic graffiti a reminder of what we don’t always see (Times Colonist)

This week, in our little town, the day after Yom HaShoah (Holocaust memorial day), a Jewish cultural centre was struck with anti-Semitic, hateful messages.

It is a reminder that no matter if it has never happened before, hateful attitudes can take hold and manifest as hateful actions.

One of the suspects has been identified, and police are asking for help in identifying the other.

Article: The number of billionaires spiked by 30% during the pandemic (Vox)

An important reminder that while regular people struggle to pay bills, the number of billionaires has exploded.

Article: Sharp rise in parents seeking to ban anti-racist books in US schools (The Guardian)

As the often quoted quip from librarian Jo Godwin goes, “a truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”

It is interesting to see the trends of challenged or banned books. Public libraries, academic libraries, school libraries, and personal libraries all fill very different roles and it is an incredibly difficult balance to know what to include, or more difficult still, to know what to remove.

I love learning more and discussing with people about what their feelings and assumptions may be about what should and shouldn’t be in different libraries. It hits at the messy intersection of our feelings, the rules around information freedom, and our personal morality.

See Freedom to Read Week’s (Canada) list of challenged books here.

See the ALA’s (American Library Association) list of top ten challenged books in 2020 here.

Opinion: The company isn’t a family (Signal v. Noise)

I think this is such an important perspective on the idea of work/life balance. There is a danger to replacing real familial relationships with work, and I think the author articulates this idea so clearly.

As the author states “The best companies aren’t families. They’re supporters of families. Allies of families. There to provide healthy, fulfilling work environments so when workers shut their laptops at a reasonable hour, they’re the best husbands, wives, parents, siblings, and children they can be.”

Podcast: A Vast Web of Vengeance (The Daily)

This is a terrifying tale – an unending swarm of hate and a torrent of malice that the victims may not even know where to begin.

Article: This man is looking for the friends who shipped him overseas in a crate in 1965 (CBC News)

What a story!