So I am at the Salem Public Library in Salem Oregon. The Library has a technology area where you can plug in your laptop and use the public wifi. Great. Today when I came into the library I noticed two things. One was the nice new table by the window, sunlight spilling in, birds chirping. Why didn't they do that before. The other thing I noticed was this sign "Chrome-Books Only.





Now I know what a Chrome-book is but something in my heart told me to ignore this sign. So I sat down and pulled out my Big Black Laptop and no sooner had I started to boot up my machine and start my work day then a library employee came right up to me and told me that I couldn't sit where I was sitting. He was very emphatic about it. I was offended. I told him that these were the only tables by the window and it was a beautiful day. He told me that I could sit at the far end of the room, that I would have an excellent view from there. That's when I told him that I was staging a sit-in. I wasn't entirely serious, but I hate being bullied and I was really offended by the way this mini-mite Library employee decided to get right in my face and tell me that I was in some kind of segregated area.


When it looked like he was thinking seriously about calling the police on me I asked him "So if I had a Chrome book, you are telling me I can sit here?"
"Yes."
"And the Library offers Chrome-books free?"
"Yes"
"Well then why didn't you offer me that option istead of getting im my face and telling me that I can not sit here because my Laptop is not the right color?"

He walked away from me then and I thought he was gone but he came back some minutes later with a form; a form for the Chrome-book.


I had to fill out a form to apply for a free library card but not before registering a complaint at the administration office. Then another form for the Chrome-book. Then I sat my Black ass right back in the same seat and busted my Big Black Laptop back out to write this. Nothing in the agreement said that I had to USE the Chrome-book; 


The Irony is through the window, in the background, is a mural that seems to espouse the unity of humankind. Maybe that Library employee should spend more time looking through the window.


With Love,
Raja