mrs. crowell, a woman who couldn't speak a word of spanish k and yet took th who couldn't speak a word of english and made sure that i understood my privileges in the librarin her heart that one day someone would walk into her library, some littlir first-, second-, or -grader, who would become a writer. o in the world could not love the public library? it was fair as hell. every single person could take out as many books as the other person, at i was poor,tter it didn't matter that i had an accent. the public library as a concept, this is as american as jazz, man. as a nation, we need institutions, public institutions, that reinforce our civic society. ai and when all isd and done, if we will be remembered for anything as a nation, hopefully we'll be remembed for that. co junot: munity in new jersey was very, very interesting. i just ran into a friend of mine who i grew up with, and he said it best-- weere like some strange united nations experiment. i was dominican. my upstairs neighbor was african american. my best friend was cuban. my other best frie i would stick my head out,. and there would be dozens of kids. it looked like adults had been raptured