Teresa Letizia

The saying goes, ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it.’ This seems to be true with a lot of things. I worry that someday it could even be true of the American right to vote.

As the numbers of us who go to the polls or mail in our ballots are often low, I can imagine a time when our numbers drop to such an extent that we may no longer have a voice in how and by whom we are governed.

I encourage each of us who is eligible to take advantage of this privilege and take on this responsibility we have been given. Many of us may complain about the flaws of the government, but let’s not forget – we, the people, ARE the government. Without our participation, democracy weakens.

If you are overwhelmed with too many candidates and propositions, you needn’t vote on every issue—maybe just start with the ones that mean the most to you. This is a friendly reminder that the staff at your library are here to help you locate reliable information to inform your vote—so please ask!

Smiley Public Library’s collection of new books is plentiful; however, I will share but two so that I may also introduce you to resources that you can access on your own (which is not social media!), and provide you information on how to make your voting plan. When we plan ahead, we make our task more of a priority.

Though the Library offers books that discuss, from varying viewpoints, the top issues we are contending with today, as well as those on and by candidates, we probably should start with one new book which reminds us of a fundamental discipline vital to a successful democracy—critical thinking.

In “The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times” author Robin Reames shows us that learning the discipline of rhetoric, or the art of using language to persuade, will help each of us to think objectively and to recognize the techniques others might use to get us to think like they do. We may get caught in the trap of allowing ourselves to be told what to think when we really want to voice our own opinion. Reames, a professor specializing in rhetorical theory and the history of ideas, argues that it is imperative in an age of misinformation to understand how the language we use and hear can color the facts and shape our reality.

“Your Vote Matters” is a new book for children—or any of us really–on the voting process, specifically in a presidential election. Learn about campaigning and debates, the difference between caucuses and primaries, and how the Electoral College works, as well as tips on what to consider when deciding which candidate should get your vote.

Reliable, time-tested, well-vetted resources are essential in your endeavor to get to know the issues and candidates in a more up-to-date and in-depth manner. The Library attempts to have as many as possible available to you. They include many physical newspapers and magazines, as well as many available digitally in our e-library located on our website, akspl.org/elibrary. Spanish language newspapers are available in both formats as well.

Databases like Flipster allow you to read various magazines online (use your library card number to access it remotely). Some are purely entertainment, but others such as The Atlantic and Time offer in-depth political and social analyses.

NewsBank is a database of newspapers which features a wide variety of credible, vetted news sources spanning the U.S. covering business, health, education, jobs and careers, political and social issues, and more.

ProQuest SIRS Issues Researcher presents pros and cons on 360-plus (and growing) complex social issues with relevant, credible information that tells the whole story on the major questions of the day.

There are many more resources available, and all can be accessed within the Library without a library card.

Find the Official Voter Information Guide from the California Secretary of State online at voterguide.sos.ca.gov.

As far as the voting plan goes, if you want to vote by mail, you must be registered to vote at least 15 days before Election Day (this year 15 days before Election Day is October 21). To do so online, go to registertovote.ca.gov. We have paper applications available here at Smiley Library; I believe most libraries do.

You may register after that time — up through Election Day — in person at your county elections office, polling place, or vote center, where you will be provided a provisional ballot. This just means that the counting of your ballot will be on hold until your registration application is verified.

You have four ways to cast a voted ballot this election. By 8 p.m. Tuesday, November 5, voted ballots must be postmarked or dropped off in one of these ways: Vote-by-Mail; a Mail Ballot Drop-Box Location; an Early Vote Site; or a Polling Place. If you are in line at a voting location by 8 p.m. on Election Day you have the right to vote.

In addition to voting by mail or at a mail ballot drop-box location, the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters office will be open for early voting on weekdays beginning Monday, October 7, through Tuesday, November 5 (and Saturday, November 2). Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5.

Visit the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters’ website, elections.sbcounty.gov, or the California Secretary of State’s website, sos.ca.gov, for more information (you can do this on a Library computer at no charge), or call us at the Library, 909-798-7565, or visit us for help with this process and/or with research.

The greatest threat to our democracy is the belief that someone else will vote.

“Let the Games Begin” is an aptly named book in Smiley Library’s new fiction collection, given that the exciting opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris takes place today — magnifique! You may want to enhance your Olympic games viewing experience by sprinting into this debut rom-com novel by Rufaro Faith Mazarura. Taking place at summer Games in Greece, it sparkles with romantic glances, accomplished Olympians, underdog heroics, and well, the brilliant sand, sea, and skies of glorious Greece!

More books on the world of sporting out this year in non-fiction include “The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports.” Named a Most Anticipated Book by Esquire, Town & Country, and Electric Literature, author Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the separate stories of Zdeněk Koubek and Mark Weston, both high-achieving athletes in the 1930s who were assigned female at birth and began to live as males as adults. The news of their transitions was carried by global media outlets and they became celebrities only to be quickly forgotten. Waters’ research discovers other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era, as well as what he has identified as Nazi influence on and misdeeds by the International Olympic Committee that have had lasting consequences for the trans community.

Learn more about the Games and two modern Olympians in the memoirs of Caster Semenya, a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals, and Kara Goucher, two-time Olympian, and winner of the silver medal at the 2007 World Championships in the 10,000 meters. Each has a unique story of challenges that they finally felt ready to share.

Semenya in “The Race to Be Myself” recounts the progression of her talent and success which has been overshadowed by criticism and speculation about her body, and how gender plays out in sports, our expectations of female athletes, and the right to compete as you are. Goucher’s memoir, “The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team,” was a New York Times bestseller; in it she shares how she was lulled into the abusive doping world by her coach, distance running legend Alberto Salazar, and how she became a crusader for female athletes and a key witness helping to get Salazar banned from coaching at the Olympic level.

Reaching the Olympic level of competition is not for the faint of heart — even for our rom-com characters, and that is probably why we enjoy watching Olympians compete, because we know their top-level dedication is beyond what most of us could do, so we celebrate their hard-won victories and feel for them in their devastating defeats. Cheers to each of those participating in the 2024 Games!

Look for an extensive list of the Library’s Olympic-themed books and movie DVDs posted here on Smiley Blog earlier this month.

I recently lost a friend who had been in poor health for quite a while—a delightful lady who made me smile. This week (May 19-26) is National New Friends, Old Friends Week, a time set aside to remember how vital friends are to our emotional and physical health and well-being. Celebrating friends of any and all kinds seems an appropriate way to honor my friend, especially in the form of books, because she loved them and our library so.

The month of May, a time when we strive to bring awareness to our mental health, furthers the theme of the connection between friendship and health. At one time or another, most of us are in need of some kind of special care with life’s challenges and illnesses. Whether we are suffering from the effects of (in no particular order) grief, a broken heart, stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, addiction, autism, ADHD, OCD, schizophrenia, etc., we need, at the very least, some kind of guidance and kindness to get us through. Though we need to be aware that professional help may be required, the concern of a friend or a friendly stranger, or just a sincere smile on a face can often make all the difference.

Visit us, your friends at Smiley Public Library, if you need to locate resources for help, including finding some helpful books in the area of concern, even it’s just to hear another’s story. Here is a small sampling from our new book collection.

“The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions” is a dramatic, yet unfortunately, an increasingly common version, of how mental illness can spill over from the sufferer to those around him. The memoir, a Pulitzer Prize finalist of 2023, recounts author Jonathan Rosen’s investigation of the forces that led his closest childhood friend from success and great potential to the psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved. A story about friendship, love, and the price of self-delusion, The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understand–and fail to understand–mental illness.

On a lighter note, another memoir, “I’ll Just Be Five More Minutes: (and Other Tales from My ADHD Brain),” is a collection of heartwarming and humorous essays by Emily Farris. Using her own experience as a woman diagnosed with ADHD at age 35, she addresses the topic of neurodivergent thought processing and the emerging discovery of its previously undiagnosed effects on girls/women. At its core, Farris’s account is about not quite fitting in and not really understanding why–something we’ve all felt whether we’re neurodivergent or not.

“Stand By Me: A Guide to Navigating Modern, Meaningful Caregiving” focuses on the very special friends we find in unpaid, untrained, usually family, caregivers. Author and clinical psychologist Dr. Allison Applebaum is the founder of the only devoted Caregivers Clinic in the country, as well as someone who has been on a personal journey as the primary caregiver for her own father, composer Stanley Applebaum. With this volume, she empowers caregivers to provide their loved one with the best quality of life and care possible, while promoting their own well-being.

Ultimately, in whatever we’re going through, we usually have to get to know ourselves better in order to begin healing. You may remember Julia Cameron’s 1992 classic “The Artist’s Way,” designed to provide tools to access artistic creative recovery. This year Cameron has released a supplement, “Living the Artist’s Way: An Intuitive Path to Greater Creativity: A Six-Week Artist’s Way Program.” In it she shares an additional technique, ‘writing for guidance,’ as a way to connect with the intuitive power within ourselves and trusting the answers we receive. Cameron details how writing for guidance can help readers quell anxiety, “slow down” amid life’s stressors, and surrender control. As if to bring our discussion full circle, she describes how she and other artists use the tool in practice by grounding her meditative guide with chapters “Believing Friends” and “The Inspiration of Friends.”