I fear you are correct. I just went to my blog and write a short piece suggesting that we demobilize a few divisions in Iraq and use the money to pay for libraries. As I said there, George and Donald would never really notice as long as they could continue to play with their military toys and keep killing Iraqis.

Uh, oh. A political discussion. This should generate 80+ replies. Maybe we can give ourselves little blue and red flags to put on our posts.

I'm a "red flagger" myself.

ac

Several years ago, a couple of a county libraries started to close early and one was closed for most of the weekdays. County said their budget had been cut and they had to divert the monies elsewhere. The following week the county hired a budget consultant (or something like that) to the tune of $90,000+ salary, had the county courthouse re-decorated to "bring it up to the times" and purchased six brand new vehicles for council members. They absolutely HAD to replace those other cars, after all, they were just barely over a year old. Our loss was, for that particular incident, was a case of mismanagement of money. It's unfortunate that when there are cuts to be made, the first throat that is gone after is the arts. One of the smaller libraries made a plea to their community, and they were able to stay open during normal hours with the help of volunteers. Our local school system has also been toying with the idea of cutting all arts and music programs and reducing sport activities because of poor budgeting. I'd hate to see that happen.

I believe Rita has a point.

As my pappy used to say when I would complain about my lack of things I deemed essential as a child: "It builds character."

I believe her point is not that we should suffer, but that we, as a people (Americans) tend to whine and complain about the silliest things in life while others in this world ( by world, I mean anywhere different, be it Sri Lanka or the Inner City Ghetto) who are not as lucky as we, suffer serious hardships: Death, Starvation, Disease, Torture, etc

I am not one of the coddled or spoilt and I do understand hardship - believe me, but I have also been many places in the world that made my worst days look like a picnic in the park. At least if I go hungry here, I know I only have myself to blame for not taking advantage of the opportunities this country provides, but elsewhere if you starve – it is because there is NO FOOD, nor is there a congressman to write to nor a Free online community to complain about it.


Different people who visit this Forum have different life experiences that have shaped their perceptions of things. If somebody’s experience or outlook on life does not coincide with someone else’s, I would hate to think that somebody here would have the gall to tell them they weren’t welcome here in this Free Forum.

QUOTE: Originally posted by LeeAnnSontheimerMurphy

Sad news indeed! It's not the first of libraries on limited schedules, though. When traveling, I often visit local libraries for research (be it for a writing project or family history) and I've run across this. I just settled in at a library in Texas two years ago when I was informed that the library was closing for the day - at one p.m.

As budget cuts continue thanks to our Republican economy, I fear we can expect more of this type cutback.




I hate seeing libraries close, but this doesn't have anything to do with a republican economy. Salinas is simply a town that let its annual budget get completely out of control, as most of California is out of control. and Salinas has three libraries that overextended themselves horrendously.

A city of only 150,000 that has a mostly immigrant and poor farmworker population should never have an annual budget of sixty million. (Formerly sixty-eight million.) When this happens, sooner or later severe cuts will have to be made, no matter how good the economy is. And three libraries in a town this size, with this population type, certainly shouldn't have an annual operating need of more than a million dollars each.
That is simply not sustainable when nearly all the money comes from the city.

Libraries are in trouble all over the country, but the republican economy isn't the problem. Traditionally, a republican economy has been extremely good for libraries, but libraries themselves have changed tremendously. In an effort to please far too many people, libraries have stopped being places where you go to get books, and have become places where the majority of patrons go to get movies, internet access, and comics, and where flocks of people come for numerous programs that cost much money, but contribute nothing to the budget. Libraries simply can't be all things to all people unless they draw funds from some source other than tax money.

All these extra services libraries have started may be good things for those who use them, but they aren't smart things when you're operating on money from taxpayers. Libraries across the country have been in the "we need more and more" mode for about fifteen years, and it's starting to catch up to them, even in states with great economies.

Libraries on solid ground are those that get their "more and more" from private endowments and private and corporate guaranteed long term sponsorship. "Get the money first, then become something other than a place to get books" is the way smart libraries have operated.

It's natural to want to join the computer age, and natural to want to give everyone something, even those who haven't checked out a book in their lives. It's natural to want many programs that help the community, natural to want to buy movies and tapes and comics, natural to want to build extra rooms where many groups can have meetings, natural to want internet access for everyone who comes to the library, natural to want extra staff to handle all these things, but it just doesn't work well in the long term, and the economy isn't the determining factor. It simply costs way too much money for taxpayers to fund over the long haul. The cost of supporting libraries has skyrocketed, and everything has a limit. That limit has been reached and exceeded in many cities.

More libraries are going to close, or at least cut way back on services, and I'm not at all sure this is a bad thing, if it gets libraries back into the business of lending books, and out of the business of being all things to all people.

Literature has import, everywhere. Inappropriate decisions and funding everywhere are felt everywhere. The blame for those problems lie everywhere. Looking around, I find that I am included in everywhere. I am surprised that so many people reside somewhere besides everywhere.

Why do we always want to point to the Political parties and their leaders for every problem facing society?

There have always been two sides - those that want to make government bigger, and those who want to make government smaller. This was true even in the days of the Whigs and the Tories.

Those that want to make the government bigger will soon realize that "big brother" will be able to tell you when and where to mate and where to find one; when and where and how often to go to the bathroom. Those that want to make government smaller will soon realize that there are no bathrooms, and no protection from the predators (pre dators).

Libraries, like anything else, is dependent on who their champion is. Presidents always get a library - one of the best there is, to honor them. Why, I never saw such extravagance as when the Clinton library opened. But then, Arkansas could (right or wrong) say "Clinton was from here" and "This honors him". True, it does.

When we depend upon Federal Government to do everything for us, watch it. The Sci-Fi horror stories might well come true. They shouldn't have that much say so in our schools or our libraries. Why do you think we have the problems we do?

Congress passes laws to make themselves feel good. They are good pacifiers. So too the states. Pacify too many people and you have a shortfall in the money sector. Government simply cannot pacify everybody. Then there's the county and local governments.

James presented a very well written point. It has alwasy been my contention that if we are to disagree, we should do it professionally. Present a good case. Give it your best shot, and be a writer. Don't be a whiner. Debates of this kind are won, not by the way we feel, but by how we present our case (our argument, if you will).