free to the people

whew... that last post was pretty rough. remind me never to go that long without writing for an audience again. starting up is terrible.

something of substance: this. is sickening. infuriating. incredibly sad. and on all levels, wrong.

basically, if the PA state legislature doesn't approve a new sales tax, philly's library system will have to shut down, effective oct. 2.

i'm no expert on, well, anything, but it seems to me that killadelphia -- like any city -- could probably benefit from continued use of its libraries. not to mention that reading through the list of programs and resources that may be abandoned is downright depressing.

while the carnegie library of pittsburgh differs from philly's system in a number of ways, it's facing the same challenges. as someone who spends several hours a week at various branches and knows a few employees, i am certain that right now, the resources and programs provided by the carnegie library are vital to the pittsburgh community. i could go through the whole persuasive argument, but it's a library, for God's sake; it provides all sorts of media, and internet access, and a place to go, and community programming, for FREE, and if you really need to hear the whole argument in order to think it's a worthwhile cause, honestly, you should get your head examined.

something like the statement i just made can be conveyed to any of a plethora of public officials via communication methods suggested here.

even if you've never set foot in a library (and if that's the case, i do hope you'll give it a try -- they are lovely and, as i believe i just mentioned, FREE), this should be important to you. the entire mission of CLP is "to engage our community in literacy and learning." i know we're all still a little sore around the upper shoulders/neck region from the stresses of the whole "is it a speech about education or is it subversive propaganda?" ordeal, but collective exhaustion over a topic doesn't make the subject matter any less important. literacy and learning go in the "hooray, good things!" category, and shorting them out goes in the "boo, destructive and awful things!" category.

in other words, write a letter. please. even a postcard will do.