Melania Trump Fires Back With Dignity At Rejection Letter From Librarian
Melania Trump sent a school in Massachusetts a set of Dr. Seuss books, which many people consider a rite of passage in childhood reading. The books were not only sent back to Melania, but the librarian in charge of the school’s reading material also returned them with a letter addressed to the first lady that is making headlines today.
The first lady sent a set of 10 Dr. Seuss books to one high-achieving school in every state, and while the other schools accepted them without insulting the gift, that wasn’t the case for this public school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The librarian not only conveyed to Melania Trump that her gift was not appreciated in the letter, she also penned it as if it were a reprimand, suggests Fox & Friends on Friday morning.
The outrage over this woman’s audacity spread quickly, and both supporters and non-supporters of the Trump White House eyed this incident as outrageous. Melania Trump addressed the return of the books via her director of communications.
Stephanie Grisham told Fox News that the response to Liz Phipps Soeiro’s rejection of Melania’s gifted books was “unfortunate.” She also said how Mrs. Trump plans to use her platform “to help as many children as she can.”
Grisham also said the following about Melania.
“She has demonstrated this in both actions and words since her husband took office, and sending books to children across the country is but one example. To turn the gesture of sending young students some books into something divisive is unfortunate, but the First Lady remains committed to her efforts on behalf of children everywhere.”
If Dr Seuss is a "cliche," I'm not sure what you call an Orwellian nutjob librarian from Cambridgehttps://t.co/48zgBqInZc
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 29, 2017
As seen in a Fox News article, Liz Phipps Soeiro is the librarian who made a point of declaring Melania’s gift was not appreciated in her letter. She seems to build herself up credential-wise in the letter before seemingly knocking Melania Trump down.
Her introduction to Melania included, “I work in a district that has plenty of resources, which contributes directly to ‘excellence.’ My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science.”
From here, she slammed the White House, but it was the books that seemed to offend her more than anything else. She thought the White House should be sending books to the schools that need them in the underprivileged communities.
Her biggest bone of contention seemed to be how she perceives the Dr. Suess books, suggests Fox News.
She also said in the letter, “Another fact that many people are unaware of is that Dr. Seuss’s illustrations are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes.”
Soeiro went on to give examples of the books. She cited If I Ran a Zoo and And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street as clear “racist mockery” in Seuss’ art. Apparently, this is a little-known fact — if it is a fact at all — because Michelle Obama would often read these books to school children, as did Barbara Bush before her.
According to USA Today, the school district attempted to distance themselves from this librarian by issuing a statement that said despite her having a right to her own opinion, her opinion is not the official position of the school district.
[Featured Image by Carolyn Kaster/AP Images]
