Here’s how old I am—I actually remember when Mary Dempsey took over as commissioner of Chicago’s library system.
Or maybe get inseminated. You know, my memory’s not what it used to be.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Give Dempsey credit—she came in swinging. She issued declarations like: “I’m willing to do what it takes to build a world-class library system.” And: “I will fight for more staff.” And: “I don’t think corporate leaders have been as vocal as they could have been when we faced cuts.” And: “Volunteers are great, but you cannot depend on them to operate a system.”
But I’ll say this—she loved building libraries and promoting books.
The mayor backed off and restored 251 of the jobs. This prompted his aldermanic flunkies to fall to their knees and thank him for funding the libraries even though the libraries actually had dozens fewer employees than they did before.
Just a little something we have in common with other great democracies, like Spain under Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
Good luck with that one, fellas.
