If you have ever heard the furniture salesman/ school board president proclaim in a meeting, “We didn’t need computers when I was in school,” then you know it is difficult for any school district run for the people and by the people to modernize. However, one urban school district tried to enter the 21st century, by purging all the others.

Someone decided there were too many books in the school libraries and it was taking up prime space which should be dedicated to computers. How else were the students going to check email or google rap lyrics?

So, a mandate was sent to the meek librarians that all books published before 1995 shall be taken from the shelves, put in boxes, and sent away. Librarians across the district put down their laser scanners and picked up red pens to look for the typo in the memo.

Alas, there was none. The classics, from Socrates to Ole Dr. Seuss, were purged. Common sense seemed to have been marked absent.

Apparently, for one generation, literature is a current event.