Posted on 05/22/2005 8:19:11 AM PDT by SmithL
Why do we need Mother's Day anyway?
Just kidding!
I'm staying away from controversial topics for a while. For starters, I don't have time to read all the responses.
In my last column, I questioned the need for taxpayer-funded libraries, considering that books are readily available at low prices from private sources such as Amazon.com.
You could say the column did not receive overwhelming approval. In fact, for the next 2½ weeks, my computer continually flashed at me: "You have mail!"
It might as well have said: "Another angry librarian!"
Many of the replies were long and detailed. I almost expected to see footnotes. They came from not only the South Suburbs, but also distant lands such as Michigan, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Montana.
One woman was not content to send e-mail. She had to call me at home on that Sunday afternoon. After two minutes of her impassioned, nonstop berating, I started to say gently, "Hey, do I get to say anything here?" But she had hung up.
Here at The Star, I was stopped in the hallway by the able woman who types in letters to the editor and verifies their authenticity. I don't remember the exact words, but the essence of her message was: "Do you think you could find some safer topics? My fingers are getting tired."
Even my fellow conservatives were unimpressed. A thread on my column at FreeRepublic.com attracted 2,286 views and 198 comments, nearly all negative. If you'd like to read it, dial up the Web site and search for "why have libraries." Scroll down two or three screens.
Then there was my dad, a retired special education administrator. He had just five words for me, spoken gravely, slowly, with equal shares of disappointment and morbid curiosity:
"Why did you write that?"
It was as if he were asking: "Why did you get a second mortgage and buy 80,000 lottery tickets?"
(By the way, in case any of you know my family, please be assured they are not right-wing nuts like me. They are good North Side Democrats. I don't know where I went wrong.)
So, in sum, dear dissenters, even if you did not write or call The Star, you can be assured that I got your message.
Some of the replies were amusing. "Amazmanian" wanted to know: "Can we expect a future column on book-burning?"
Several people seized on my reference to the value of the book "An Incomplete Education." Obviously, they said, I need it. Can't complain — I left myself wide open for that one.
Another writer picked up on my reference to "Citizen Kane." I said that after reading "Incomplete Education," I know all I need to know: Rosebud is a sled.
The writer made the point that if I were to visit the library, I could, like, you know, actually watch the movie? Now, there's a concept.
Now, I have written controversial columns before. For example, if you want to make people mad, a good place to start is to question the circumstances under which John Kerry got all those medals in Vietnam. I did this in May 2004 and got a good spanking from Kerry supporters.
Then, if you want to make people madder still, quote some of the Bush-hating nonsense at DemocraticUnderground.com and suggest the writers are "little Ceausescus," as I did this past March 13. I figured I'd get away with that because I didn't think anybody remembered who Ceausescu was. I was wrong. They do.
But now, I know that if you want to make people really, really, really mad, then suggest that their local public library is not a vital necessity.
Who knew people liked their libraries so much?
A large part of my problem was self-inflicted. I didn't really mean to say that all libraries should simply be shut down. I think they should just be privatized. This, I thought, was implicit in the second sentence of that offending column:
"Why do we even need taxpayer-funded libraries?"
The key word there: "taxpayer-funded."
However, I inadvertently negated my own valid point in the last paragraph of the column, when I wrote: "So, a memo to Orland Park: Dump the bookmobile. And maybe dump the whole library too."
Ouch. That was sloppy writing that came back to bite me in the rear.
So please allow me to make a point in my defense. Many people told me access to good books is vital to the mental fitness of the citizenry. Well, true enough.
But then, by that logic, why do we not also have taxpayer-supported gyms?
Juvenalis, the ancient Roman poet, said the human ideal is "mens sana in corpore sano." That's Latin for "sound mind in a sound body."
If I should pay taxes to help you keep your mind sound, then why shouldn't you pay taxes to help me keep my body sound?
I have to pay $312 a year to belong to the Bally's gym across the street. Come on, library supporters, help me defray this cost. Please line up outside The Star at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday with cash or a checkbook.
Once you do, I promise to retract my column from April 24.
Meanwhile, as I said at the start, I am sticking to safe topics from now on. In my next column, I will suggest that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a holy book down a toilet. Who could get upset about that? Michael Bowers is a copy editor and paginator for The Star. Send e-mail to mbowers@starnewspapers.com.
Good sense of humor.
I didn't really mean to say that all libraries should simply be shut down. I think they should just be privatized.
I agree.
Libtraries are a great place to take your kids if you want them to get raped in the bathroom by one of the vagrants who spends his time there viewing internet porn and urinating on the books.
Other than that, libraries are a colossal waste.
Sounds like she has not yet heard of Silver Sneakers, the taxpayer funded health club memberships provided now to seniors in Medicare. Also, public libraries were originally promoted an an effort to draw people out to the gin mills and give them somthing better to do. I certainly think we could rethink this underlying do-good mission, and I also think that patrons would happily pay an annual fee.
I would be happy to pay a fee to use the library. In fact, I already pay to use the library in the next county, which has more books than my local one. And if private libraries that meant all the ACLU "public facility" claptrap went away ... yippee!
After that let the market rule.
I agree too.
When the government controls what books school children are taught from, revisionist history and all, imagine the scenario under total government control.
LIE-braries.
Remember John Kerry's revisionist history in his book Tour of Duty, compared with Unfit for Command, which Kerry tried to stop from being published and distributed or sold... It is not so long ago Barnes and Noble employees were destroying Unfit for Command in the backroom so they did not have to put it out on the shelves.
No thanks to total government control.
I have lived in L.A. been to plenty of librarys not once have i seen a bum in one most were empty quite sad Books are good
Good point. Those are more like national museums than like county libraries.
The basic concept behind publicly-funded libraries is that the Government should provide the means by which individuals can exercise vital rights and responsibilities set forth in the Constitution. So, if we have taxpayer-funded libraries in furtherance of the First Amendment, we should also have taxpayer-funded guns distributed to any citizen who wants one in furtherance of the Second Amendment. How many of those who support the former would support the latter, do you suppose?
It's happening in many smaller communities too. I work in a public library in a medium sized town and our police are constantly encouraging us to call them about some of the problems we see.
Unfortunately, the people running the libary are hard-core leftists and the mere suggestion that a homeless person or released sex offender could be a problem marks you as a reactionary right-wing fascist.
There may be some hope - most of the librarians running things now are superannuated flower children who will soon be retiring. The next generation of library administrators has to be more reasonable - they couldn't possibly be worse.
You are still an idiot!
I think I remember that post and I may have responded to it, I just can't believe that the response was so negative. Maybe there are a higher percentage of troll and DU types here than I thought.
I will be back into this thread as soon as I go review that old post.
Bottom line: I think Mike got it right the first time!
An eloquent graduate of the "new concept" library, I see.
Nice to read such an enjoyable column. A rare treat!
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