Join us in Sacramento to Save the Salinas Libraries!
Rally and Read-In at the Governors Office
Tuesday, April 12, Noon, north steps of the Capitol

On the heels of an amazing 24-hour Read-In in Salinas last weekend to demand that the libraries remain open, the Read-In is taking to the road and going to Governor Schwarzenegger's doorstep!  This Tuesday, April 12, one hundred residents from Salinas, including dozens of children with books in hand, will be traveling in two busses from Salinas to Sacramento.  

Help save the Salinas libraries by joining the Salinas community from Noon to 1 P.M.. (and longer if you can) at the North Capitol steps in Sacramento.  We will hold a rally on the steps outside the Capitol, meet with state legislators, and continue the “Read-In” at the governor's office.  We will also be holding a press conference from 11:30 to noon inside the Capitol.  Join us for the whole day or meet us during your lunch break!  

While Congress is about to allocate another $81 billion for war, vital services at home are being slashed—affordable housing, food stamps, public transportation, health care, and education—including libraries. According to the American Library Association, libraries in almost every state in the nation are facing cuts of up to 50 percent.
 
In Salinas, California--the hometown of the great John Steinbeck and heart of the farmworker community--the entire public library system is scheduled to close for lack of funds.  This poor farmworker community has paid $83.5 million in taxes for the war in Iraq, but doesn't have $3 million to keep its libraries open.

Local fundraising efforts have raised $500,000 for the Salinas libraries, but this money will only allow the libraries to be open for one day a week through the end of this year, with no extra funds for new books, magazine subscriptions, or literacy programs.

Join the people of Salinas to demand fully-funded, thriving libraries!  Bring your favorite book and a sign showing your support of the libraries.  Invite your friends and family to come and read with you.  Demand money for libraries, not for war!  Money for books, not bombs! Leer es Poder: Reading is Power.  

Funds are urgently needed to pay for a second bus of school children to make the trip to Sacramento from Salinas.  Please help support the community of Salinas today by making a donation to the bus fund.  Checks can be made payable to the Salinas Action League and sent to: Salinas Action League, P.O. Box 5789, Salinas, CA 93915-5789.  
  
Organized by: United Farm Workers, La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), VOTE: Citizenship Project, Salinas Action League, CODEPINK and Global Exchange.

For more information, including carpooling info, please call 415.575.5555. 

Click here to read editorial in The New York Times:  An Issue for the First Lady, April 8, 2005.