Library teaches 'border' truths

As such international borders are such a big headache but what happens when a library has one foot in USA and one in Canada?

Yes, the Haskell Library is bang in the middle of the ‘line’ which marks the international border between these two countries. The library looks all-American but the librarians speak English and French and there are rows and rows of French-Canadian books. There is a long black line running right across the floor – this is what shows the international border inside the library. The front door, community bulletin board and children’s books are in the US; the remainder of the collection and the reading room is in Canada.

Borders can be scary and there is a lot of trepidation crossing them but not here in Haskell; people are free to cross from one country to the other. Interestingly, there is an opera house next door and even there, the border runs right through the middle of the seats – so you watch the opera enthralled with one shoulder each in other country.

In this time of racism, walls and closed borders, this library reminds one that borders are man-made, fictitious; in the free world, as God meant it to be, there are really no borders, no colors, no walls.