Immediate Opening: Librarian

Must be fluent in English (American/Canadian) and French, be familiar with the Dewey Decimal System, be qualified on small arms and automatic weapons, and willing to wear dark glasses and a bullet proof vest while on the job.

I grew up along the border, and like thousands (upon thousands) of other people have stories that go something like

(stageleft pulls up to the US border patrol office on a Friday night)

US border guard (from inside the building): Hi, where are you going tonight?
stageleft: Houlton
US border guard (still inside the building): Where’s everybody from?
stageleft: Woodstock
US border guard (still chatting through the window): What are you doing in Houlton
stageleft: Going to the movie, Star Wars is opening tonight
US border guard: When are you coming back?
stageleft: After the movie
US border guard: Have a good time, enjoy the show
stageleft: Thanks, good night

The trip back was pretty well the same

Cdn border guard (from inside the building): Where are you coming from?
stageleft: Houlton
Cdn border guard (still inside the building): When did you cross?
stageleft: A few hours ago
Cdn border guard: What were you doing?
stageleft: Went to see Star Wars
Cdn border guard: How was it?
stageleft: Good, definitely worth seeing
Cdn border guard (still through the window): Me and Mrs are going tomorrow night.
stageleft: Right on
Cdn border guard: On you go, oh, wait… did you bring anything back with you?
stageleft: nope
Cdn border guard (still through the window): Have a good one

There’s a story I read about a couple of border towns (Maine/New Brunswick) that got together and had a wee discussion about the US War of Independence when that whole mess got fired up – and decided they wanted no part of any of it. There were, after all, family, friends, and neighbours, involved, and as any good Easterner will tell you, all three of those [at least used to] trump international concerns any day of the week.

The Brits, worried that the Americans would attack, sent the Canadian town a big ‘ole shipment of gun powder so they could defend themselves against the invading hordes – and it was promptly stored in some cellar somewhere. The war went on, the two towns refused to participate, life there went on as usual, ultimately the war ended, and things hadn’t changed a bit for them.

A few years later the American town discovered it didn’t have any gunpowder for their July 4th celebrations, when the folks on the Canadian side heard about this they dug out the stuff the Brits had sent them during the war and handed it over, and, so the story goes, everybody had a great time.

Another story, last one, I promise…….

I went riding earlier this spring with a guy I met who is from Washington State and, on a pub patio we had stopped at for a bite to eat and a cup of coffee at, the discussion turned to politics – he told me that the people who live in the northern states have more in common with, and a greater affinity for, Canadians than they do with the people of the American south. Made sense to me, people are after all people, and someone in Vermont is bound to have more in common with someone from Quebec than someone from Alabama, regardless of who they voted for in the last election.

After reading that, if you still have any doubts that it is governments, not borders, divide people, check out the Haskell Public Library

DERBY LINE, VT — The world-famous Haskell Free Library and Opera House on Caswell Avenue here is probably the only cultural institution on this planet with a split personality. That’s because the U.S./Canadian border slices right through the Kenneth Baldwin International Reading Room.

You enter the lovely turn-of-the-century building in Vermont, but you check out the books — your choice of English or French — in Quebec. And, the librarian who assists you may be either a citizen of the United States or Canada, or both and, probably bilingual.

In this part of Vermont, many residents of Quebec’s border communities were born in Newport, thus also qualifying for U.S. citizenship. When the 400-seat Opera House reopens later this year following extensive safety and handicapped-accessibility renovations, patrons of the performing arts will again sit in the United States and applaud performances upon a Canadian stage.

The building and its facilities are governed by a seven-member board of trustees — four Americans and three Canadians — who serve without pay. The library lives up to the “free” part in its name: there are no membership fees, and no loan charges are made for book, tapes, or videos. All art exhibits, discussion groups, and other library programs are also free. However, you must usually pay to attend Opera House performances.

(emphasis mine)

A perfect picture of people from two countries getting together on something, and getting along just fine, until a government decides to get involved.

Step through the front door of the Haskell Library and you’re in the United States. Walk across the carpeted floor to the circulation desk and you’re in Canada. But if you sit down on the couch, you’re back in the U.S. The 106-year-old Romanesque building, which straddles the international border, has enjoyed a kind of informal immunity from border restrictions through the years. But a U.S. Border Patrol crackdown focusing on three unguarded streets linking Derby Line with Stanstead, Quebec, across the border, could soon change that.

Wait for it, it will happen… Good afternoon sir, your library card and passport please.