Libraries

Hello, I like libraries. They have had a big influence on my life. When I was able to read my family took me to the library to get a library card. I had always liked books even though we did not have very many in the house. It was a wonderful thing to get to check out books, return them, and get more. I remember begging to go the library, unfortunately it was only open in the afternoons. My farmer dad did not want to go in the afternoon, but once I got that to happen it was insured, we would go back when the books were due. We did not have a school librarian until I was a junior in high school. I was impressed by the change in the selections and her help when I needed information to write a paper. Now, I am concerned about the fate of knowledge and learning in this country as there is a move to cut public funds to public libraries. Those people would have cost me the job of knowing about other things than just the world I occupied. Today, I also know that at the public library many homeless people go to spend the day. Some of them read the newspaper and some just visit and get warm. There are people who say they should get a job, but to do that they need the library and its computers since they need to apply to many jobs on line and not in person with a piece of paper. It seems that the foundation of many things is changing and being cut off. But it saves us from paying many taxes. Is that a virtue? What do we as a people want to have flourish? Ourselves or all of us together? Paula