Support Your Freedom to Read

Please don’t give in to those who would use distorted coercion tactics

Welcome to the Tattered Cover and special thanks for visiting us today. As you can see the Occupy Denver folks and their colleagues, who are attempting to pressure the Tattered Cover to rescind its 40-year history of serving its customers without bias, are also visiting us.

As booksellers we also have a long history of protecting freedom of speech. We support their First Amendment rights to assemble, picket, protest and voice their opinions, even while we consider their actions misplaced, misguided and misspoken with regard to the Tattered Cover, and even though they use their rights (for which we at the Tattered Cover fought long and hard) in an attempt to drive us out of business. “So be it”, they have said.

Why is the Tattered Cover being singled out in this way?

Because we have refused to cave in to their demand to take a public stand against the overnight camping ban ordinance which was passed by the Denver City Council last year.

Are you for the Camping Ban?

The Tattered Cover does not take a public position, pro or con, on any issue except censorship and to a much lesser degree on matters of internal importance to the book industry. It is not a matter of neutrality. It is a nonjudgmental standard that we as professional booksellers apply to our inventory selections, author events, and to the welcome we extend to all of our visitors no matter what their political, social, economic or religious persuasion. The Tattered Cover strives to offer a haven for all kinds of ideas that can be explored, agreeable or disagreeable; where those who seek to think critically and develop their own political and social ideals can do so unencumbered by what others want them to think, read or do. We do not inhibit them by pushing our own individual agendas or any official store position; nor do we allow a vocal minority from the outside to coerce us into deciding for those who visit our store what they “should” be reading, thinking or promoting.

Is the Tattered Cover a member of the Denver Partnership? Didn’t they lobby for the Camping Ban ordinance?

Tattered Cover is a member of several organizations, including the Downtown Denver Partnership as well as an organization that has publicly come out in opposition to the Ban. For the most part these are memberships that provide us with tools of our trade that encourage best practices in bookselling, engagement with our community or information and support regarding First Amendment challenges. As with any membership, there are issues with which we may be in agreement or disagreement from time to time. However, the TC does not take a public stand on them.

The protesters claim that by not taking a public stand against the Ban that the Tattered Cover supports it.

In this case, they are using faulty logic. The reasons behind Tattered Cover’s policy are neither avoidance nor veiled support of the Ban but rather a strong sense of commitment to support the individual’s freedom to read and the unfettered pursuit of information.

The Tattered Cover provides a panel forum occasionally for discussion of local issues. Why don’t you offer some time and a space in your store for that purpose?

We have. There was no response from the protest group who visited us. A representative from the Denver city government exhibited interest in the idea.

We at the Tattered Cover Book Store thank you for your visit today. And we hope to continue to serve you as you explore the world of books in the future.

Sincerely,

                                                                        Joyce Meskis                                                                                                                             Owner, Tattered Cover Book Store    

                                                                                       by John Wayne Claybaugh
Anyone who wants to know the real reasons of homelessness need only look as far as the economy. We have a minimum wage of seven something, yet studies show that in Denver, Colorado, you need a full time job that pays 17 an hour in order to afford to live without government assistance.

Another study (from the fall of 2013) shows us that nowhere in the United States can a person have a full time job making minimum wage and afford a market rate apartment.

Add to that the fact that there are long waiting lists for the various programs that provide apartments with "income sensitive rent," and we start to realize that we have a problem.

It doesn't take much to become unemployed anymore, and for some of us it would be easier to walk from LA to DC than it is to find a job. Those of us who are or have been homeless didn't wake up one day and say, "I think I'll go be a homeless person for a while." Granted, some of us have made mistakes, but some of the mistakes that now contribute to homelessness used to only force a person to change jobs or find a cheaper place to live for a while.

Other people who are homeless have done nothing to cause it. A lay off or an apartment building being sold is all it takes.

Today, when I hear people say they are looking for somewhere cheaper to live I simply wait for them to realize that there is nothing cheaper. The reason they were living in their apartment is because it was the cheapest place they could find.

Homelessness will not magically go away either. If we really want to end homelessness we will all have to work together, change policy, and tell our politicians that we will no longer put up with the poor being treated as though they are less than human.

John Wayne Claybaugh