'Jesus' bills fill libraries
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WATERVILLE — Counterfeit bills with quotes from the Bible and other pro-Christian literature are being stuffed in books at public libraries throughout Maine.
Staff photo by DAVID LEAMINGColby College students, from left, Emily Alford, Parker Thompson and Molly Wyatt study on Sunday in the college's Miller Library, where phony $100 bills have been found — again — inside books. click to enlarge
Every year for the past five years, the Waterville Public Library, Colby College library and Bates College library have spent hours removing counterfeit bills with varying slogans and pictures.
At the end of September, Colby College security leafed through hundreds of texts in Miller Library on the college campus and removed thousands of counterfeit bills.
Students found the bills in the library's gay and lesbian literature section and reported it to college authorities. Believing that the bills were targeting homosexuals, the college asked the office of security to investigate the issue. But the bills were everywhere, according to Suanne Muehlner, director of Colby libraries.
According to college policy, flyers, notices and religious symbols cannot be posted except in authorized areas on the campus.
Similar literature has been found in the Bates College library, but neither Bates nor Colby officials know who has been putting the bills in the library stacks. Both libraries are open to the public.
"We inferred that these were related," said Eugene Wiemers, associate vice president for academic affairs at Bates.
"I have no idea who is doing this," Muehlner said. "I assume it is the work of religious zealots who do not have the sense to realize how counterproductive this vandalism is."
No such incidents have been reported at Bowdoin College, said Sherrie Bergman, librarian of the college.
The bill has changed over the past five years. Several years ago, they had a picture of the ship Titanic on it with the message, "Find redemption with Jesus."
The most recent version has a picture of Al Gore and reads, "This is counterfeit but Jesus is the real thing."
Because this has been occurring for the past five years and there have been so many bills placed at different libraries, many suspect that this is the work of a group of individuals not affiliated with the colleges. Officials have no leads, however.