Bob Edwards Weekend Highlights – October 16-17, 2010
HOUR ONE
Continuing our series “Shhhh… Libraries at Work!” today’s program focuses on how libraries—and reading—can enact change in the lives of patrons and readers, even when change is difficult. Glennor Shirley is the Library Coordinator for the Maryland Correctional Education Libraries and organizes prison book clubs, family literacy programs, and author visits for the thousands of prisoners living in the Maryland State penitentiary system. Then, we’ll examine an alternative sentencing program in Fairfax County, Virginia, where offenders report to the local library instead of the local jail. Facilitator Katie Strotman joins Bob to discuss Changing Lives through Literature.
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the contemporary essay of Joe Reagan. He is the president and CEO of Greater Louisville Inc., the chamber of commerce and economic development organization in metro Louisville, Kentucky. Reagan previously served as an executive with the Rockford, Illinois chamber of commerce, and worked in marketing and radio broadcasting.
HOUR TWO
Every year, it’s estimated that 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school. At that point, the young adults without social security numbers aren’t able to work and most aren’t able to pursue college. In Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth, Anne Galinsky chronicles the lives of these young people and their struggle to get authorized to live in the country they call home.
Isabel Castillo graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA, but her prospects for a career in social work have ground to a halt. Castillo doesn’t have a social security number because her parents crossed the border and brought her to Harrisonburg, Virginia from Mexico when she was six years old. Bob visited the community to talk with Castillo, her friends, and teachers to discuss why they support the DREAM Act (the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), which would help place such young students on a path to citizenship.
Keep up the good work Bob!