OntheWilderSide

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IW:  Libraries are not some socialist institution that needs to be drowned in Grover Norquist’s bathtub.  They were established in this country by uber-capitalist Ben Franklin. And that sentiment was conitnued by the robber barons such as Andrew Carnegie who said:  “There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.”  The transfer of wealth to large corporations is destroying our society.  Without community institutions such as libraries, we are committing suicide.

All across the United States, large and small cities are closing public libraries or curtailing their hours of operations. Detroit, I read a few days ago, may close all of its branches and Denver half of its own: decisions that will undoubtedly put hundreds of its employees out of work. When you count the families all over this country who don’t have computers or can’t afford Internet connections and rely on the ones in libraries to look for jobs, the consequences will be even more dire. People everywhere are unhappy about these closings, and so are mayors making the hard decisions. But with roads and streets left in disrepair, teachers, policemen and firemen being laid off, and politicians in both parties pledging never to raise taxes, no matter what happens to our quality of life, the outlook is bleak. “The greatest nation on earth,” as we still call ourselves, no longer has the political will to arrest its visible and precipitous decline and save the institutions on which the workings of our democracy depend.

read the rest at A Country Without Libraries by Charles Simic | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books.

Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, grassroots democracy, News, politics, social & economic justice, US Politics | Tagged: Andrew Carnegie, Ben Franklin, Charles Simic, Denver, detroit, Grover Norquist, Public Library, united states | Leave a Comment »