Read and Learn!
by Tom Warner (Baltimore Or Less)
It started with anonymous notes posted throughout the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Central Library on 400 Cathedral Street. The notes – spotted on bookshelves and, in at least one case, left atop a men’s bathroom urinal – decried the use of derogatory words like “vagabond” to describe “victims of exploitation and oppression,” as shown below:
Learn, “Ignorauts”! Mystery Vagrant Anti-Defamation Spokesperson’s library note.
And now the notes have left the building and taken their message to the streets of Mount Vernon, where they are typically taped to the front of newspaper press boxes. One wonders, are they addressed to the publishers of Press Box and the Baltimore Sun’s b the paper and City Paper, or is it a Town Crier’s appeal all citizens of The City That Reads?
Or, could it be a budding street installation challenge to the Toynbee Idea Tiles increasingly seen throughout the crosswalks of Mount Vernon – or the Styrofoam Sermon on the Mount proselytizer?
Just today, I saw two fresh postings in front of the Central Library, as depicted below.
“In other words eliminate the Causasian Race.” On Press Box, 400 Cathedral Street.
Spotted on City Paper box, 400 Cathedral Street.
Baltimore Sun food critic Richard Gorelick recently spotted a variation of this text on two newspaper boxes on Calvert Street. These missives add a plea to stop “corruption,” (always a hard-sell in this town).
“Stop” signs spotted on Calvert Street.
And the aggrieved town-crier even got personal with his latest posting found at the Central Library, specifically addressing the message to “Library baldhead security” (an unmistakeable reference to a no-nonsense veteran member of our security staff). But why the dis to “corrupt little girls,” Mr. Sexist?
“Stop Shouting Like a Corrupt Little girl. Have principles Library baldhead Security.”
