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Skriven 2007-04-16 23:31:06 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0704165) for Mon, 2007 Apr 16
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the Big Read Event
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For Immediate Release Office of the First Lady April 16, 2007

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the Big Read Event The Barnum Museum Bridgeport,
Connecticut



11:52 A.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you for your very, very kind
introduction. Thank you for welcoming me here to this great site, the
Barnum Museum, a really wonderful site to talk about The Big Read. And
thank you also for recognizing my chief of staff and a daughter of
Bridgeport, Anita Bevacqua McBride. Thank you all so much.

I also, of course, want to acknowledge your Congressman Chris Shays. Chris
and I have worked together on many issues, but a lot that have to do with
the National Endowment for the Arts and the ways we can spread our culture
everywhere to every corner of the United States to make sure people read
and learn to love the arts. So thank you so much for joining us also.

The mayor of Norwalk, Richard Moccia, thank you so much, Mayor, for being
here. The representatives that are here from the city of Stanford, thank
you for coming. And of course, our chairman of the National Endowment for
the Arts, and really the founder of The Big Read, Dana Gioia, thank you for
joining us very much. Dr. Anne-Imelda Radice is here also. She's the
director of the Institute of Museum and Library services. And both of these
federal agencies, the NEA and the IMLS, work together to make sure reading
becomes a part of every single American's life. So thank you both.

I will have to say, from all these names -- Fabrizi, Moccia, Dana Gioia,
Anne Radice, Anita Bevacqua -- I think this is actually a meeting of
Italian Americans. (Laughter and applause.)

I'd like to also acknowledge and recognize the Connecticut state
representatives who are here with us today, especially State Senator Bill
Finch. State Senator Finch and his wife Sonya actually brought To Kill a
Mockingbird to Bridgeport about three years ago. They named their newborn
son Atticus -- Atticus Finch, that is -- after the character in the book.
So I'm guessing Senator Finch is excited about this Big Read.

I'm happy to be with all of you today in Bridgeport, and I'm especially
happy to be here visiting the Barnum Museum. Most of all, I'm delighted to
congratulate each and every one of you in person for promoting American
literature through the NEA's Big Read. Connecticut may be a small state,
but the four cities represented here have taken to The Big Read in a big
way. Big Read spring fever has spread to Waterbury and New Haven, which are
also reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The Big Read city of Hartford has just
finished reading Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Big Readers in the Nutmeg State are among thousands of Americans who are
being introduced -- or reintroduced -- to the joys of literature. In 72
communities across the United States, people are learning how characters in
their favorite stories become close friends that we can visit just by
reopening our dog-eared volumes. They're discovering how we can escape to
another world by losing ourselves in a good book, only to find truths about
ourselves that lead us right back to our own lives.

This is good news for Americans and American literature. The Big Read
highlights literature's importance to our culture and to our country.
Americans, particularly young people, face so many competing demands for
their attention -- television, the Internet, and video games -- that keep
them from discovering the joys of good books. But it's important for all
Americans to read our country's literary classics, because these works
define us as a nation and they bring us together -- our people of so many
backgrounds -- by expressing our shared ideals.

Unifying communities with the power of literature is The Big Read's
greatest contribution to American cultural life. This power is on full
display here in Southwestern Connecticut, where The Big Read is truly a
community-wide effort. Local bookstores, high schools, theater troupes, art
galleries, and even the zoo, are doing their part to get citizens involved.
The hard work has paid off: Eager readers went through the initial book
supply -- nearly 2,000 copies of To Kill a Mockingbird -- so quickly that
libraries had to order 2,000 more. Now those are almost gone, too.

In the city of Bridgeport, the response to The Big Read has been
overwhelming. Eighth graders at St. Andrew's Catholic Schools embraced To
Kill a Mockingbird as part of their literature curriculum. Eleventh graders
at Central, Harding, and Bassick High Schools read the novel, and then
interpreted it through art, and displayed their creations at the City
Lights Gallery.

At Mercy Learning Center's family literacy program, young mothers read To
Kill a Mockingbird to build on their own reading skills. They strengthen
their writing by composing group poetry inspired by the novel. In these
verses, recent immigrants tell how they're working to give their children
lives free from the kind of poverty and injustice described by Harper Lee
in To Kill a Mockingbird.

At the Bridgeport Public Library, city historian Mary Witkowski's memoir
class is using the novel as an inspiration for this month's writing.
According to Mary, To Kill a Mockingbird has brought together her diverse
students, who span three generations. "There's something for everyone in
this book," Mary explains. Younger writers respond to Scout and Jem, and
Harper Lee's depiction of family life. Middle-aged writers recall America's
struggles for equality in the 1960s.

For 81-year-old Millicent Zolan, To Kill a Mockingbird evokes a bygone era
in American civic life. Even though Maycomb, Alabama, is a small southern
town, and Millicent grew up here in Bridgeport, she remembers when the
neighborhood was the center of a child's life.

"We didn't have video games, or TV," Millicent recalls. Like Scout and Jem,
Millicent and her brother entertained themselves by playing outside with
other children. "In the simplicity of the Depression-era childhood,"
Millicent said, "we'd go to the next house to get a cookie, or knock on the
door and get a glass of lemonade. We knew every single mother and father in
our neighborhood." For the memoir writers of Millicent's generation, To
Kill a Mockingbird recalls a time when her city, and I quote Millicent,
"had this tight-knit sense of community."

Bridgeport is restoring this tight-knit sense of community through The Big
Read. At the library, in schools, in government offices, at work, in civic
groups, and in book clubs, citizens from every walk of life have come
together by reading the same good book. And they're having fun together by
bringing this good book to life. Later this week at the library, children
will learn how to make -- and, of course, eat -- Jem and Scout's favorite
dessert, Southern Ambrosia.

Later this month, the Beardsley Zoo will host an early Halloween Costume
Party for children, like the one Scout attends in the book. And I'm told
this is very good practice for the Barnum Festival's Tom Thumb and Lavinia
Warren contest.

Throughout the month, there will be To Kill a Mockingbird film screenings,
stage adaptations, poetry slams, and an Alabama-style quilting class for
kids. Even local restaurants are joining in the fun. The Take Time Caf now
offers a "Big Dill Sandwich," and a "Good Golly Miss Maudie Special," and a
"Harper Lee Latte." Just across the street, for grown-up patrons,
Ralph-'n'-Rich's now serves "Tequila Mockingbirds." (Laughter.)

One city official in Bridgeport said, "There's so much excitement about The
Big Read, we can't even believe it. This is the most energized I've seen
folks in town for a long time." The excitement throughout Southern
Connecticut shows how The Big Read can restore literature to the center of
American community life. Later this year, thanks to the NEA and federal
partners like the IMLS, The Big Read will spread to more than 130
communities across the United States. By the end of next year, the NEA
hopes to build 400 communities of Big Readers. I'm delighted also to
announce that this fall, the NEA will add a book by beloved Connecticut
author Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, to The Big Read's list of classic offerings.

Congratulations to each and every one of you for your success with To Kill
a Mockingbird. Thank you for your work to promote literacy and literary
reading in your community. Thanks to each and every one of you for your
commitment to the arts, and thanks for supporting The Big Read.

END 12:03 P.M. EDT
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