- by Marzio Apolloni

I'm first generation Canadian, proud son of immigrant parents. Which means my brothers were as well! ( Gordon! ) My challenges were not as great as those faced by my dear cousin Nat, who was a true immigrant! Her recent post inspired me to write something about being a son of immigrants, especially with the anti-refugee anti-immigrant diatribe being spewed by many.
A few years ago, a year before I retired, I was recognized by the Ontario Public Library Association with a lifetime achievement award (thanks Bill!). I gave a speech which I rewrote a dozen times, because it would be the first time I would say in public what it was like growing up. And because my parents were there, it would be the first time they would hear from me what it was like. I never spoke to them about it before. The little boy in the story is me. Here is that part:

"I'd like to tell you a story, perhaps one you have heard before. Over 45 years ago a little boy was growing up in a small northern Ontario community, facing challenges which today do not seem so strange, and yet he felt he was the only one. He was the first born son of Italian immigrants, and did not speak English. The hopes and dreams of his loving parents were heaped on him. His father hoped he would become a hockey player and not work in the mines, his mother prayed he would finish school. In the community he grew up he was too Italian for the Italians, and not English enough for the English. He encountered bullies on both sides (and yes, there were railroad tracks in that town), his nose bloodied more than a few times. Then he discovered something which became the eye of the storm in this maelstrom ....a public library"

So in the end...I turned out ok...I think. A typical Canadian. And I can still make my own pasta (thanks Ma!) and my own sausages (thanks Dad!). And I am fiercely Canadian.

The full text of Marzio's speech:

Thank you. Although I cannot help but think that you have committed two errors: 1) there are many others who have toiled long and hard in the trenches and just as deserving or more so of this recognition & 2) putting me in front of a microphone. I want to thank everyone one who was some how convinced that I should get this award. I should tell you, when I first heard my first thought was of my wife of over 30 years Anita, and our three daughters. So I hope you will excuse me if I feel my proudest achievement, together with my wife, will always be to see our three daughters go forth into the world armed with strong wills and independent minds, embracing life with vigor.

I am very much mindful that I stand here as a testament not necessarily to what I have done, but rather what I was able to do and say because of the people and groups I have been associated with during this journey. And thus the accolades should go to them. Of course I must thank the Bruce County Public Library Board, who I believe are in full attendance this evening! What an incredible group. Amazingly forward thinkers and risk takers! Thank you so much. I am reminded of my Rural and County Library colleagues and the wonderful sharing and fellowship; the Ontario Library Consortium and the 'virtual barn building' we were able to accomplish; and of course the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries, speaking truth to power and making a reality a single, strong, loud voice for Ontario public libraries. And yes, we will continue to fight for Provincial Funding. There are many who mentored and helped. One person in particular cannot be here today, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. To my assistant, my friend, Ken MacLeod, thank you. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. May the Black Hawks win the cup once more!

I'd like to tell you a story, perhaps one you have heard before.

Over 45 years ago a little boy was growing up in a small northern Ontario community, facing challenges which today do not seem so strange, and yet he felt he was the only one. He was the first born son of Italian immigrants, and did not speak English. The hopes and dreams of his loving parents were heaped on him. His father hoped he would become a hockey player and not work in the mines, his mother prayed he would finish school. In the community he grew up he was too Italian for the Italians, and not English enough for the English. He encountered bullies on both sides (and yes, there were railroad tracks in that town), his nose bloodied more than a few times. Then he discovered something which became the eye of the storm in this maelstrom ....a public library.

The library wasn't fancy. It was upstairs from the police station, with long creaky wooden stairs. The smell was that of...well...it smelled like a library. In that library he made a friend. The librarian. He discovered a place where it did not matter where you came from, the color of your skin, your religious beliefs, or how much money you had. In his mind the library became the level playing field where no bully's existed; where you can use your mind to escape, travel, expand your horizons, to empower yourself. But most important of all he discovered someone who, besides his family, seemed to pay attention to him, to care about him. Walking home from school (no buses in those days) he would always be late getting home. But his mother knew where he was...at the library. There were always books piled beside his bed, and some were invariably late. But he never paid a fine. The librarian just asked him to move the lawn sprinkler or carry some boxes to the back...and the boy never thought anything of it, or why he was treated differently. This continued for years until he moved away to start a family of his own. After learning the librarian had passed away, he understood why she paid so much attention to him. That boy loved Canadian history, especially military history, and went on to study it; that librarian served in WW2 & was engaged to a sailor who served & died on a Corvette.

I was that little boy. That librarian was Miss Holden of Copper Cliff Public Library. Her many acts of kindness made a difference.

Miss Holden showed that a library is more than a building. It is more than books. It is an idea, in the purest sense. It represents the idea that we have great freedoms, but they are all too often taken for granted. That we are free to think and express those feelings in a free and democratic society. Today the new currency is information and it is information that people need to function in an increasingly complex world. It empowers them. I know this to be true. Thus denying access to that information is tantamount to disenfranchising the very people we serve and a disservice to those who paid the ultimate price to assure us those very freedoms. We were recently reminded of that with a statement from Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. He said "The Library of Alexandria continues to be a platform for democracy and has, since its inception opened its doors to all Egyptians". Yes indeed, libraries and librarians can be heroes and bastions of democracy.

We still have sons and daughters of people of every kind, seeking refuge from today's many storms. And we still have bullies and others who would seek to take away their dreams and stifle their aspirations. As it was for that little boy over 45 years ago, the public library continues to be that eye of the storm. We are that eye, public libraries across Ontario. Let us resolve today, to continue to make a difference. Become a friend to that little boy or girl. They are counting on us, as I did so long ago.

Mille Grazie.

Thank you.

Marzio is retired after 23 years as Executive Director of the Bruce County Library System

(photo credit of the police station/library (thanks Marzio!) from Twelve O'Clock and All's Well, A Pictorial History of Law Enforcement in the Sudbury District 1883 - 1978 by E. G. Higgins, 1978)