HAPPY SPRING

Happy first day of spring to all. This milestone after a rather harsh winter reminds me of an assignment I had as a 17-year-old freshman at WMU when I took “Librarianship as a Profession.” The professor asked the class to read from a list of books that had a “tremendous impact” on American society. The one I chose was Rachel Carson’s SILENT SPRING, a volume that alerted the populace to the dangers of the widespread use of pesticides, particularly DDT. Carson warned that if this were to continue there would be, indeed, a “silent spring” in which “no birds sing.” Originally published in 1962, a fortieth anniversary edition was released in 2002. Kalamazoo Public Library owns the original 1962, the 2002, a PBS video, and a CD of this landmark work, and there will be a discussion of it at the downtown library on Tuesday, May 6, from 7-8pm.