Living in Burlingame is a special privilege, really

Living in Burlingame is a special privilege.  That is obvious to most of us.  There is even a great video titled "The problem with spending time in Burlingame is you don't want to go anywhere else".  It wasn't particularly controversial either until some library employees tried to make it so.  John Horgan at the Daily Journal first brought this to the public's attention a couple of weeks ago here.  He has done us all a great service by shining light on the absurd and insulting move by the library to cover up the caption on the mural with a shroud that now says "Living in Burlingame is for everyone".  Here's one long-time resident's take on it in a letter to the DJ

I recently learned in your newspaper that a folk art mural from the early 1960s that has hung in the library reading room for years has been altered. The mural depicts various buildings, churches and streets from that era.  According to Burlingame City Librarian Brad McCulley, some members of his staff took issue with the slogan at the bottom, which said “it’s a privilege to live in Burlingame.”  The library created their own slogan, which states “Living in Burlingame is for everyone.”  Their new slogan now covers up the original slogan from the 1960s. In other words, they have desecrated a work of art.

Apparently, the staff took issue with the word “privilege.” Here is another instance of cancel culture and censorship. People rewriting history. It’s easy these days to summon groups to condemn words. But it takes guts to stand up to the rhetoric. I have a pin that the Burlingame Library gave out last year. It says “I read banned books.” Kind of ironic.  Over the years, I have heard countless people say “it’s a privilege to live in the United States.” I guess we can’t say that anymore, according to the standards of our city librarian.

Constance Quirk

Burlingame

Covering the mural caption is the kind of nonsense one would expect from San Francisco (e.g. the Washington High School shenanigans that helped get some school board members recalled).  Covering it with a ridiculous motto that is patently untrue is a sign of managerial incompetence.  John Horgan concluded his piece thusly:

Ironically, even that attractive sentiment has a ring of inaccuracy and false hope since housing prices in the city are extremely high and only some people can afford to dwell there. But at least the new motto cannot be viewed as elitist.  On further review, however, maybe a more accurate sentence would be: “Living in Burlingame is for everyone who can afford it.”

John's being polite with the "ring of inaccuracy".  People have earned the special privilege of living here.  Some few may have inherited the privilege, but that just means their parents or grandparents earned it.  If we have city employees (employees we pay!) who think differently, we need some new employees.  Any library trustee who went along with this needs to rethink their responsibilities and priorities.  I've also heard the library foundation paid for the shroud.  If that is the case, donors may choose to find a more worthy charity--there are lots to choose from.  I've been told this issue did not come before the city council, but it should.  The Voice blog will turn 20 years old in a couple of months and until now I didn't think we needed a specific category for the library.  We do now and so one has been added.  It's time for more oversight and it's time to take down this insulting shroud.

Comments

[Why the heck did I spend time reading this]

Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s bad. Just because it’s old, doesn’t mean it’s good.

Because this post connects the change to cancel culture and San Francisco culture, does mean this post is stupid.

[HMB]

"They have desecrating a work of art." Exaggerate much?

[Hmb]

Sorry for the typo above.

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

Not you HMB.
"You other Numbskulls," how many times a day do you use the word Woke?
Nobody cares about a "dumb piece of art." I have been in and out of that Library all my life and never seen it. Get your Nose out of the air, look down and read a book.

[Why the heck did I spend time writing this]

Living in Pebble Beach is for everyone. Same with the 16th in Paris or Aspen. Central Park South for all! When will the socialists and wokesters whose parents failed to raise them with enough self-confidence to think they can achieve something on their own actually wake up? More participation trophies in the lobby of the library. That's the ticket.

[Spurinna]

It is the Wokesters privilege to be able to educate us regular folks. They’re smarter, “on the right side of history” and lack any perspective but through the lens of socialist envy.

It is a privilege to have a city job in Burlingame.

And, if you think the art is a fiasco, wait until the probability of another “Drag Queen Children’s Story Hour” (per the same SMDJ article) scheduled this summer.

The Head Librarian said, “It’s not grooming.” If not, why not schedule a Circus Clown to entertain the children rather than a gender-bender?

Because it’s grooming.

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

You voted for Trump and will again. Won't you? Be Proud!
Let us know.

[hillsider]

"I have been in and out of that Library all my life and never seen it."

I bet you can say that about A LOT OF THINGS. You are clueless.

[Guido]

This little bit of woke TP covering the painting is a disgrace during National Library Week. Isn't anyone on the council going to tell McCulley to cut the BS and leave art and history along? Well?

[Cassandra]

Book-burning is next.

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

Good One Hillsider!

[Everything's Jake]

Idiots who covered up this painting remind me of the cardinals who painted over Michelangelo's nudes in the Sistine Chapel.
Stalin used to remove his "supporters" from pictures after he put them on his blacklist.

Glad all these marxists are properly educating us.

[HMB]

What about the idiot parents at a classical school in Florida
who got their principal fired over an art lesson for 6th graders on Michelangelo's David? You can't teach the classics of Western Civ at a classical school???
And it's fine to debate the decision to change the banner on the B'game library artwork, but really, to say that the painting has been covered up is a gross exaggeration.

[Lemming R US]

What's really rich is someone saying that changing the message at the bottom of the mural to THE EXACT OPPOSITE MESSAGE that the artist intended is not desecration and censorship and just plain stupid.

Save your whataboutism for the stupid people.

[Constance]

I think we have an excellent library and staff.
Just disagree with the way this was handled.
He had 3 choices; not 2; leave as is.
Here is the complete answer from the Librarian:

Hi Constance,

Thank you for your emails and I hope this finds you well. I am sorry Horgan's column about the "new motto" on the mural upset you ...and probably most of the Historical Society to be honest. My intent was honestly quite the opposite. Because we don't own the mural, there were really only two choices; remove it or edit it. My staff definitely wanted it removed and some still do. The end goal has always been to make the Library more welcoming so I made the choice that would satisfy neither my staff nor the H.S. but would not, as Horgan put it, make people feel excluded. Unfortunately, we now have a difference of opinion on whether this act was censorship. And I'm not sure if you noticed the acknowledgment we added in a frame below the mural. We weren't white washing it like it never existed. We laid out the framework of how it came to be and why its not an appropriate message today in the Bay Area. I say Bay Area because so many people use our Library not just Burlingame residents. We are part of a JPA (Peninsula Library System) so for me and my staff our constituents live all over the county and beyond.

Here is what we posted below the mural if you're interested in reading it:

This acknowledgement has been framed and placed underneath the mural in the Reading Room: Created in 1960 by former Burlingame Mayor Lester B. Morgan and others, this mural was originally located at the former Park Road location of Burlingame’s City Hall. The Burlingame Library acknowledges the complexities involved with the mural’s history and how the mural’s depictions might sit within a modern context. Oxford Languages defines “privilege” as “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.” In 2020, the Burlingame Library and the Library Board of Trustees solidified their commitment to the idea that “All are Safe Here” with a bronze plaque at the entrance of the library. While the statement “Living in Burlingame is a special privilege” may conflict with the sentiment on the plaque, The Burlingame Public Library is committed to maintaining the Library as a safe and welcoming space for all. In October 2022, the statement "Living in Burlingame is a special privilege" was rephrased to read, ”Living in Burlingame is for everyone.” It has also been noted that the churches depicted in the mural do not represent the totality of the community’s beliefs and/or religions. The Library acknowledges and celebrates the diversity of our community and whatever their faiths or beliefs might be. Additionally, the Burlingame Library would like to acknowledge that Burlingame and the greater San Francisco Peninsula are located on the ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone and Muwekma Ohlone. Indigenous communities have lived in and moved through this place over hundreds of generations, and Indigenous peoples from many nations live and work in this region today. We recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. Please join us in acknowledging and honoring their ancestors, their elders, and their communities.

Thanks and have a good weekend--

Bradley McCulley
City Librarian
City of Burlingame

[Paloma Ave.]

His response sounds like today's common 'woke' speech. I have to try and not stick my finger down my throat!

[HMB]

What are the CONCRETE ACTIONS the Burlingame Library is taking to assist the Ohlone people in furthering their sovereignty and self-determination? Putting up a performative statement. Yeah, that's really doing something.

[BMH]

Vote to defund the library. It's really a drain on our finances anyway. With Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning , who needs a prehistoric box filled with obsolete books anymore?

[Handle Bard]

It did make a nice warming station for people with all-electric heat during the power outages.

The librarian is a joke. He should just retire.

[Cassandra]

RF Kennedy Jr. “There is no time in history when the people who were censoring speech were the good guys.”

[MM]

I agree with Constance and hold the same sentiments:

“I think we have an excellent library and staff.
Just disagree with the way this was handled.
He had 3 choices; not 2; leave as is.”

[Editor]

Ironically, we have had to delete a comment that broke the Terms of Use made here on this censorship post. The commenter can make his or her point without the over-the-line personal attack.

[Forrest Gump]

I got into a Lyft today at my house. The first thing the Lyft driver says is how long have you lived in Burlingame? I said more than 20 years. He says lucky. Ten minutes later we had covered most of why we're lucky.

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

What was the Lyft driver "Happy For?"
Compared to what you are "Happy For."
Did you folks compare bank accounts, education, would you two exchange lives for two years?

[Joe]

From yesterdays Daily Journal caption to the photo of Owlbert Q. Feathers in the library:

Burlingame-Hillsborough Youth Poet Laureate Lauren Lin reads a specially written poem Friday, Sept. 15, for the dedication and naming ceremony for ‘Owlbert Q. Feathers’ the library’s Benny Bufano bronze owl donated to us by the Peninsula Museum of Art. The owl’s name is a conglomerate of the three most suggested names Owlbert, Quills and Feathers, which allowed the library to have approximately 20 winners in its naming contest. Restoring the owl took $11,000 and lots of effort in stripping it, patching an eroded rough patch, and putting layers of sealing wax, which created a handsome oak plinth. Mayor Michael Brownrigg also spoke at the event.
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20 winners.......................