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Targeting the Library of Congress
Do you know there is a Library of Congress? And do you know what the Library of Congress does? You should or better learn, quickly, because this Administration is targeting the Library to prevent access to facts and real information.
Set up by Congress in April 1800, the Library has a critical function in our democracy. First, and perhaps most importantly, the Library of Congress provides research and information to the U.S. Congress through the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The CRS is the go-to place for information, checking facts, comparing past laws and bills with intended new legislation. The CRS operates in a totally non-partisan manner as a comprehensive and reliable legislative research and analysis center, providing timely, objective, authoritative, and confidential, information for the national legislature.
Secondly, the Library is the largest library in the world. Yes, largest, most comprehensive. Some of which will shortly be off-limits.
Third — and this is critical for all industry, media, publishing, inventions — the Library controls copyright.The U.S. Copyright Office is within the Library of Congress and administers the whole national copyright system. It is where you go to file a copyright protection for your output as a creator. And that’s for every major industrial corporation, all of publishing, the media, all the way down to the street artist.
Fourth, the Library of Congress gives tremendous access to the public, some of which includes research facilities, exhibitions, and digital collections. And every major media outlet, from FOX to CBS, will tell you they use this resource every day.
Oh, and a small matter, the Library is the national library center for the blind and physically handicapped. But this Administration is marginalizing them anyway.
Why worry? Well, this week Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman, the first African American, and the first career librarian to hold the position. Not a DEI by any means, she was appointed in 2016. But suddenly, in only an email, the White House said, curtly (and only), “Carla, On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.” They avoided the obvious “…and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Why did they do this? The ultra-right wing American Accountability Foundation (AAF),called for her ouster. “The President and his team have done an admirable and long-needed job cleaning out deep state liberals from the federal government. It is time they show Carla Hayden…the door and return an America First agenda to the nation’s intellectual property regulation,” said AAF’s president, Tom Jones (in the Daily Mail two weeks ago). Jones used to work for Senators Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz in their opposition propaganda activities. The AAF gets funding and guidance from the Heritage Foundation, creators of Project 2025.
Librarian Hayden is gone, and the Administration is probably already banning access to parts of the Library preventing legislators from proving facts on past Congressional activity and laws.
Some Senators are fighting back — fighting against this form of book-burning control of reality. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico: “While President Trump wants to ban books and tell Americans what to read – or not to read at all – Dr. Hayden has devoted her career to making reading and the pursuit of knowledge available to everyone. Be like Dr. Hayden.”
The Trump Administration fired Shira Perlmutter, the top copyright official in the U.S. The move comes two days after the White House fired Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress, which maintains the Copyright Office. Hayden appointed Perlmutter to the position in 2020. Perlmutter received an email last Saturday reading, “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately,” the AP reports.
The register of copyrights, however, is a legislative position. Congress could fight Perlmutter’s termination.
Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, New York, now lives in Gila, New Mexico.
NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y. — Northwell Health and Nuvance Health announced Wednesday, May 7, the two nonprofit health systems have officially joined together to form a new integrated regional health system that will enhance care for communities across greater New York and Connecticut, serving a population of more than 13 million.
The integrated system, with a combined $22.6 billion operating budget, now encompasses over 104,000 employees, a diverse network of 22,000 nurses and 13,500 providers at 28 hospitals, more than 1,050 ambulatory care and 73 urgent care locations while tapping into the world-class expertise of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies.
The New York State Department of Health and Connecticut Office of Health Strategy, along with the attorneys general of each state, approved plans for the integrated health system, which received final clearance after the board of trustees from both organizations voted to move forward.
As part of the agreement, Northwell Health will invest at least $1 billion in Nuvance Health hospitals.
Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 28 hospitals, more than 1,000 outpatient facilities, 22,000 nurses and over 20,000 physicians.
LITCHFIELD — Joanne Borduas, President and CEO of Community Health and Wellness Center, had an urgent message for Northwest Connecticut leadership at the May 8 meeting of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments:
“We need to sound the alarm on rural health.”
The Community Health and Wellness Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center, commonly known as a FQHC, which is a federal qualification given to certain healthcare organizations in regard to the quality of services, community-oriented approach, and accessibility for all patients regardless of their ability to pay.
Community Health and Wellness Center, which has locations in Torrington, Winsted, and recently North Canaan, is one of 17 FQHCs in the state and the only one in the region.
While presenting to the assembled officials, Borduas said that her organization, like many others, is facing critical financial threats due to widespread federal cuts under the Trump administration.
Community Health and Wellness Center receives approximately 30% of its payroll through federal grants and has already had to cut back on some of its central programming, including suspending its dental services.
Borduas described Community Health and Wellness Center as an indispensable resource for Northwest Connecticut, a region that she described as experiencing a “rural healthcare crisis.”
“Access issues and unique challenges in rural areas lead to poorer patient outcomes compared to our urban counterparts,” Borduas explained. She said those challenges are especially acute given heightened risk factors in many rural communities, such as increased socio-economic disparities, economic downturn, elderly populations who wish to remain at home as they age, and funding and resource scarcity for healthcare facilities.
Around 500,000 people benefit from community health centers across the state, she said, of which some 300,000 are covered by Medicaid, a program which is threatened with major cuts. Medicaid is “not just low income,” Borduas said, but helps vulnerable populations like young adults recently off their parents insurance, single mothers and the elderly.
Borduas encouraged COG members to make their voices heard both in their communities and in Hartford: “We need to eliminate barriers to healthcare access.”
Casper ter Kuile spoke at the Salisbury Forum on Friday, May 9 at the Salisbury School offering insights on the impact of higher rates of people living alone and fewer close relations among all age groups.
SALISBURY — Writer, podcast creator and relationship theorist Casper ter Kuile spoke at the Salisbury Forum May 9 to offer his insights on the modern loneliness crisis, delivering a stimulating talk on how the ancient act of covenant may offer a salve for increasing social disconnect in the United States.
The evening was hosted at Salisbury School’s Miles P.H. Siefert ’53 Theater.
Early in the presentation, ter Kuile related an anecdote from his youth at a boarding school: “Being in this beautiful school campus is reminding me a little bit of that childhood.” He said he was an “awkward” child when he was around 10 and struggled with friendships with his classmates.
As a solution, he developed a points system for each other boy based on “how nice he’d been to [him] that day.” At the end of the week, “whoever had the highest score was my best friend,” he related to a chorus of laughs from the audience.
“It was a lonely childhood,” he said, breaking into laughter himself.
The loneliness his talk addressed though was a more pervasive kind than mere adolescent awkwardness, one that is deeply rooted in culture and economics and affects many in the U.S. and beyond.
“Hanging out with friends, dating people, working life — all drastically down amongst our younger generation,” adding that the phenomenon of loneliness is not unique to young people, but other factors such as higher rates of living alone and fewer close relationships — both family and friends — affect all age groups. “One in four Americans say they have no one to talk to about the most meaningful things in their lives,” he added. “And that includes family members.”
Ter Kuile explained that these statistics are not without cause. Individualism, as it is “baked into” Western politics, democracy and culture, has turned us largely away from each other and toward ourselves.
Ter Kuile’s practice of scoring his classmates is an example of the “commodification of relationships,” he said — a “give and take” model of connecting with others.
New technologies have also contributed in surprising ways. He recounted an example told to him by a fisherman about a practice in bygone days of sharing the catch with neighbors when there was surplus. Since the advent of the freezer, the fisherman told him, the tradition disappeared as people could store their fish for themselves to have later.
One of ter Kuile’s major points described the disappearance of “containers” for social connection, the term he applies for large cultural meeting points and organizations, such as a church. With an academic background in theology, he said he’s curious about what happens when these centers for community ritual disappear.
He posited the “philosophy and practice” of “covenant” as a balm to these disappearing and eroding social resources — a vulnerable, commitment-oriented relationship that helps people transition from “independent to mutually dependable.”
Ter Kuile asked audience members to turn to their seat neighbor and talk about covenants they would like to forge in their own lives. Beth and Bruce, a couple from Cornwall, said that they both had ideas: Beth would like to be a resource and helpful presence in her grandchildren’s lives as they “spread their wings” into adolescence, while Bruce said he’d like to help a former coworker navigate the retirement process.
When ter Kuile opened the floor for questions, an audience member called for Mary Campbell to stand and speak about the non-profit she founded in 2006, Walking our Talk. Based in Berkshire County, the group offers a community hub for women both established in the area or new to town, which Campbell said had been deeply valuable for herself and other women as a new type of social “container.”
After the event had ended, Campbell said she had been “just so inspired” by ter Kuile’s words as they helped her reflect on her own experiences of community and intimacy. “Everything he talked about just jazzes me up,” she said.
As the audience filtered out of the theater, several attendees approached Campbell hoping to learn more about the non-profit.
Ter Kuile’s most direct summary of his philosophy of connection was in response to a question posed by Salisbury Forum Vice President Sarah Tennyson, who asked about the value in forming a covenant with oneself.
“I think we’re a little obsessed with ourselves,” he responded. Rather than follow the age-old guidance of looking within for answers, he suggested that perhaps it is time to look towards each other.
