Of all the current assaults on our noble republic, perhaps none is more dangerous than the public option - specifically, the public library option.
For far too long, this menace has undermined the very foundations of our economy. While companies like Amazon and Barnes & Noble struggle valiantly each day to sell books, these communistic cabals known as libraries undercut the hard work of good corporate citizens by letting people read their books for free. How is the private sector supposed to compete with free?
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Have you ever wondered who's really behind this public library option? And don't you think it's fishy that they mask their nefarious activities with benign-sounding names, like Friends of the Library? What's their real agenda - and why do they have so many "volunteer" meetings, anyway?
Read the rest at the link. I spent most of my working life in these places, and I attest to the dangers that lurk in public libraries. In the olden days, the subscription libraries charged for books. What a cockamamie idea to lend the books out FOR FREE. Someone's paying. There's no free lunch. It's your tax money and my tax money that pay for this socialistic, giveaway program.
H/T to Oyster.
The public library was my place to escape to when I was young as well as when I was a young mom. The books gave me a freedom that was such a blessing.
ReplyDeleteThere are germs anywhere you care to look (just go to a public restroom!). This one is a worthwhile place to take a chance on possible illness.
Oh, and our library went from the city's library to the district's library and I voted for it even though it would raise my taxes. Mainly because I really do not know how I would have survived in difficult times without it.
Ciss, I loved the library, too. I read out the neighborhood children's library and, at an early age, I ventured alone on the bus and streetcar to the main library which had a larger collection.
ReplyDeleteI read my way through the Carnegie library in my small East Texas hometown (it was a small library, too). It was a public library, but I suppose its connection to the old robber baron was its redeeming feature (I still remember the days when his funding such places for the public redeemed him! How backwards we were then!)
ReplyDeleteIt was my favorite place in town for years. It's still there, but now it's a museum, with a big, new library across the street. Which is nice, but it's not the same as the old place where the windows were open in the summer.
I was a voracious reader. By age 10 I was allowed to read books in the adult library, mostly biographies, as I'd read everything that interested me in the children's section. Now I should take more time to read books rather than this machine.
ReplyDeleteAs a child I devoured books. My mother and I made weekly trips to the library which was only about a mile from my home (perhaps a mile and a half; a nice walk). It was clearly a corrupting influence on me: I learned stuff.
ReplyDelete(I still remember the days when his funding such places for the public redeemed him! How backwards we were then!)
ReplyDeleteRmj, the chief of the Robber Barons surely made his way into the hagiography of philanthropic saints with his gifts of library buildings for the free circulation of books all over the country.
I never knew I'd strike such a chord with this satire. Y'all do know that the post is really about health care? Or is the satire too subtle?
As I was getting a bite to eat (late lunch) I watched a high school class go into the local library. Don't know what they were about, but it looked good to me. A high school choral group sometimes performs in the atrium, but that's earlier. The library is used for all kind of meetings and has a hall that shows classic movies on Monday evenings. The Damariscotta public library is called Skidompha Library (Name is an acronym formed from letters in the names of club members (fund raisers) who appeared in an 1885 production of "The Mikado." As a child I was also allowed to "go upstairs" early, but only the shelves for teens were open to me. The stacks were for high school and up.
ReplyDeleteSeems I was an underprivileged child, for I was in high school before I could check out books from the adult section.
ReplyDelete