Every so often somebody says something curious with the sort of taken-for-granted conviction that suggests you & he are just not sharing the same assumptions about the world. An individual came up to the desk and said, "On the third floor there was a man, he smelled, but not too bad, he had his belongings around him at one of the tables there. I didn't say anything, but he's not allowed in here, right?, he's mentally ill. He was just staring at a ticket he had in his hand." If a person is being disruptive -- distracting body odors or talking, I said, please alert a staff member. We can certainly ask someone to leave who is breaking library rules.
"He wasn't being disruptive," said the man standing before me. "I know there's no place for them. But he's just sitting there. He's not using the library. They're not allowed here."
I blinked at him. "We don't ban people just because they're mentally ill," I said.
He looked flabbergasted.
He took it for granted that mentally ill persons are not allowed in the public library.
How odd. Ranting is not allowed. Body odor so bad that no one can be near you is not allowed. But aren't we all a little crazy?
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