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.
I don't know, either. But it seems to me that if "fair use" includes your printing out the text on your printer to read, it should also include your paying someone to print it out 2-sided and put on a spiral binding.
Or prop it up by the sink. There are some things it's just not convenient to do with an electronic device!
Yep, or prop it up on that darned treadmill. :(
I have to get Large Print books to read on the treadmill, because I take my glasses off!
As to public libraries, 'twas not always thus. Lending libraries such as the one Franklin started were subscription affairs, after all. One might start a considerable debate over the value to society of having that sort of resource available for those who cannot afford to purchase its constituent volumes - I happen to think it's a considerable value, having used one on numerous occasions to garner information that is either not available on the 'Net or that I wouldn't bother collecting on my own. A 20-volume set of Audubon is great but a little pricey if all you want to do is check out what a crested grebe looks like.
The problem, of course, is that there are a number of similar benefits that a government can and does provide that are really not its job to provide - a shooting range, for example. I'll settle for public libraries that are privately funded (I'm a donor to my alma mater's library) and give gladly for the purpose, but holding a gun to my neighbor's head to get him to contribute isn't, IMHO, a proper function of government.
A finger in the eye. . .gently to those that whine.
And if you want to read, while the battery is recharging?
I got 600 Free ebooks most are still in print though the copyrights are now public domain.
There are 20,000 or so I can download for free off the Internet. E-books are competing with that as well.
If online media works, that's good. I have a handful of short stories and a lot of poetry published that way -- as a wall as a dead-tree POD print collection. I'm thinking of self-pubbing my novels that way.
Here's the thing, though: I just checked Amazon.com. The least expensive PDA I saw -- and granted I just scanned quickly -- was $80. That's a pretty heavy buy-in. (And does the bookmarking and note-writing add more to the cost?) Get the PDAs down to $20-$30 -- which shouldn't be all that long -- and we'll see.
Just thought of another problem with E-books. You drop your drink on a book, you lose the book, at most. You drop your drink on a PDA and you can lose the whole shebang.... A lot of my reading is to relax... I'm not sure that a klutz like me is going to relax that much with their entire lit collection dependent on coordination.
A columnist's craft consists of searches for pegs on which to hang recycled prejudices.
I have not actually tried to prop one up on the treadmill in a long time. I can't attempt to breathe and read at the same time. ;)
One you're paying someone to print it out, they effectively become a publisher, getting paid to produce something they don't have the copyright for. I think that is where the problem lies.
Well stated and firmly understood and agreed with.
OOOOkkkaaayyyy?
Rush took a caller on this topic Friday. It seems that there is some momentum building to make libraries fee based instead of tax based.
The library administrators, on the other hand, have informed us in subtle ways that it is not a good option and would reflect badly on us individually. Probably at review time.
I actually served on a local library board a few years ago and all the talk at the time was about dedicating a huge part of the library to rows of computer stations with internet access. All the time I'm thinking, "Huh? Why wouldn't people use their own computers in the comfort of their own homes?" (This is an upper middle-class area.)
When the board discussed porn filters, it was the Librarian herself who was most concerned that we might upset the ACLU.
Now that is interesting info.........thanks
A taxpayer-supported gym isn't a good analogy, as even poor people can get their physical fitness for free (push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks). Books are not free.
That said, taxpayer funding for libraries only comes in the form of matching funds -- the government will not pay for libraries in communities that refuse to contribute private support.
Many people have private memberships at Netflix or Blockbuster. While libraries have "free" videos, the private sector have a much better selection and without any controversy.
There used to be book rentals decades ago (I've seen such tagging in some used books).
My public library doesn't serve me well (although it is a wonderful place for homeless to sleep and bathe and there are all of the free internet porn and chat machines).
When I want to read newspapers and publications, I go to a private library at Rice University. Although I am not a student or alumni, they do not restrict access to those who have paid in. I sign in as a guest.
I believe the first libraries in this country were privately owned.
If we keep talking like this, some may wake up to a notion of separation of School and State. Certainly would take away from the power of leftist organizations (and the ALA is one).
It is the big trend in Japan these days.
I will go along with this except they should just be loaned out for the day and they should have a shooting range on the premises. Could we get .50 caliber rifles on loan this way? What a great idea...let's push for this(fat chance).
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