On the other border, Homeland Sec stages 'bizarre stunt'
BONUS: Can the Musk-Trump bromance survive?
Call it the law of consequences, unintentional or not. But this tiny international community on the US-Canada border has seen life at its public library rattled by the changing of the guard at the White House some 600 miles to the south.
The Haskell Free Library, which straddles the international border between Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec, is a majestic stone and brick building of Victorian design. The building also includes a small opera house and was built deliberately on the border at the turn of the last century by the Haskel family of Vermont, in order to emphasize the closeness of those living in the two communities. I first learned about this historic building in the late 1970s when I was living in Quebec, about 20 miles to the north, on a student visa.
The Haskell is not the only building in the are bisected by the border. Some industrial buildings, an apartment building next door and several residences, known as “line houses,” have a footprint that includes both nations. There are customs and immigrations stations on I-91 and on the main thoroughfares, but on several side streets there were no barriers at all and local residents could come and go as they pleased, though if they crossed the border they were technically required to proceed to the nearest border station and check in. That all changed after 9/11. The two towns still share a water system and their fire departments often give mutual aid in emergencies.
I visited the Haskell in September 2019 on my way to a college reunion in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and asked one of the librarians to explain more of the history of the place. Inside, for example, black electrician’s tape marks the border because if a mishap such as a slip-and-fall accident occurs, different insurance companies will handle the claim depending on which side of the building it happens on. The building has also served as a site for international reunions in which the participants’ ability to travel between the two nations is restricted, though the practice is now officially prohibited in the library. When I left the Haskell, a US Border Patrol agent was watching me from his vehicle on the Vermont side.
The library has also seen its share of international intrigue. About 15 years ago, smugglers tried to traffic firearms from Vermont into Quebec by hiding guns in the Haskell’s bathroom to be picked up by accomplices on the Canadian side. But considering its unique positioning, the Haskell has remained remarkably non-controversial since its opening in 1904.
That is, until recently when a Trump administration official visited the library to taunt lookers-on and make idiotic claims. Former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, the highly under-qualified fabulist (did she or did she not meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un?) who now serves the Trump administration’s Secretary of Homeland Security, walked into the library last month, not long after a nearby border patrolman was fatally shot. She wandered over the black tape into Canada, spoke of that country as being the “51st state” and blurted out “USA number one!” Read the full story in the Boston Globe.
“It was shocking,” said Sylvie Boudreau, president of the library’s board of trustees told the Montreal Gazette. “She repeated it two or three times.” Boudreau characterized Noem’s behavior as “abnormal” and “a provocation.” The Daily Beast called it “a bizarre stunt.”
Given their repeated attempts to defund libraries and control what reading material librarians purchase for the libraries they work in, one might be tempted to ask, “What is it with libraries and the political right in this country?”
It’s one thing to politicize libraries — and to be fair, the left does it on occasion, too, sometimes labeling any scrutiny of their collections as “book banning,” for example. But causing an international incident in a community whose most celebrated asset is international kinship, is beyond the pale.
Go back to Washington, Secretary Noem. Or better yet, go back to your South Dakota ranch and shoot some dogs. You seem to enjoy it as much as sucking up to your boss.
Can the Musk-Trump bromance survive?
This is a question many have asked but watch this conversation between Charlie Sykes (formerly of The Bulwark) and Jonathan Martin of Politico. Sykes thus characterized the spectacle: “It's like watching an impending clash between racing trains overflowing with clowns wearing bright red bonnets festooned with ferrets.”
Thanks for reporting on this, I had no idea. Noem is a complete idiot.
Thanks for reading Linda. I hadn’t heard about it either until I saw it in the Boston Globe. Noem has been Trumpified in every way, from the harebrained publicity stunts to the collagen lips.