This Crimanl Lawyer is a Crime Against Libraries

Oak Brook, IL Library Battles to Stay Open; Evil Attorney Says He Hopes Children Will Lose Sleep Over Closing

{from Robert Duff, posted 10-15-09 on Chicago Literary Scene Examiner)

There's a battle to save a public library in the town of Oak Brook and the forces of good and evil are something out of a modern day Grimm Brothers' tale. One one side are book lovers like librarians, an eleven-year old girl, and even the teamsters; on the other side is a budget-worried faction headed by criminal attorney, Constantine "Connie" Xinos, who has been battling the library for nearly a decade.

"I don't care that you guys miss the librarian, and she was nice, and she helped you find books," Xinos responded to an eleven-year-old who, moments earlier, had sung the praise of the library before the Oak Brook village board during budget hearings for 2010. According to Burt Constable in a Daily Herald article from two weeks ago, the library pays it staffers and supports its operation based on sales tax from the community, especially since there is no property tax for homeowners in Oak Brook. Like most towns, Oak Brook, which is known for its shopping, is suffering from the economic downturn.

Daily Herald columnist and reporter Burt Constable does an admirable job of maintaining the journalistic principal of objectivity throughout the article. The best moment where Constable is just reporting the news is: " 'I wanted that kid to lose sleep that night,' a grinning Xinos says Wednesday, as he invites me for a nearly two-hour interview in his Mercedes-Benz in the gated Oak Brook community where he lives. 'This is the real world and the lesson, you folks who brought your kids here, is if you want something, pay for it.' "

Nice. Sad thing is this guy's not out for publicity. He truly believes the library is an unnecessary drain on resources. It's easy to place him on the side of evil, but he does represent an intriguing--if scary--opposition to the public funding of libraries. What would a library become if it wasn't a public good? The Starbucks fiction section? The Nike Children's Nook?

The most reassuring part of the story is that Xinos has no children.