Travelers on airplanes cried as they watched it on their seatback televisions. College students holed up all day at library computers and streamed it on their phones, drowning out their lectures. Friends sat together, stunned and still, on living room couches. Television screens at mall salons, sports bars and hotel lobbies were tuned to nothing else.
All day on Thursday, though eight hours of tears, anger and exasperation, it seemed like the country could not look away.
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The article is about the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford at the Supreme Court hearing of judge Brett Kavenaugh whom she accused of attempted rape. Back before everybody had a computer in their pocket libraries used to wheel out televisions for big events. I can remember being at a library watching events like the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger (1986), the testimony of disgraced congresswoman Enid Green Waldholtz (1995) and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center (2001). In each case the shared experience was important.
In this account students are using library computers and cell phones at the library (I assume for fast wi-fi and streaming) but the library doesn’t seem to have set up any shared viewing space where students could watch together. Perhaps the newspaper reporters just didn’t notice it, or maybe librarians really are so detatched from current events that they didn't recognize the emotional power of the hearing and left it up to sports bars and hotel lobbies to provide community space. If so, that’s too bad. Libraries claim a role in civic engagement, and this seems like a missed opportunity.
On that Thursday women especially were in a state of shock and emotional turmoil. Screens often isolate people, but in some cases (movie theaters, Super Bowl games, Sound of Music sing-alongs, etc...) they can also create a shared experience. It strikes me as sad that college professors and librarians tried to press on with business-as-usual instead of pausing for a day to let students participate in a shared experience of civics and community grief. In the old days, librarians used to know better.
On that Thursday women especially were in a state of shock and emotional turmoil. Screens often isolate people, but in some cases (movie theaters, Super Bowl games, Sound of Music sing-alongs, etc...) they can also create a shared experience. It strikes me as sad that college professors and librarians tried to press on with business-as-usual instead of pausing for a day to let students participate in a shared experience of civics and community grief. In the old days, librarians used to know better.
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