Librarian’s story has a moral

Re “For Delta Librarian, the End,” Column One, Sept. 23

This stimulating and beautifully written article reads like a novel yet forces us to confront two of the most serious challenges facing our country: poverty and illiteracy. No democracy functions well without an educated society. How can we, the richest country in the world, justify the poverty that still crushes so many of our own people? Thank you for telling this story so eloquently.

LAURIE GUITTEAU

Santa Barbara

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Just wanted to thank you for publishing the story on the librarian in the Mississippi Delta. It was crushing to read about the people who do the hard work of making a better society rather than merely paying lip service to that idea.

We need thousands of people like the gentleman in this story. I felt so sad about the real state of education in this country, as well as joyous to know of real citizens who fight the daily battles to help people help themselves.

ANDREW MILLER

Palm Beach, Fla.