Closing U.S. Libraries to Fund the Iraq War

Children are always negatively impacted when a public library closes or prunes its hours. The everyday lives of middle-class Americans, of senior citizens, of immigrants, are diminished without access to public libraries.

A recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle told of a 15-library system in southern Oregon that lost $7 million in federal funding... 80% of its budget... and consequently, will soon shut its doors and services. All 100 library employees will be laid off.

Children will lose the library's homework services and reference resources. Reported the Chronicle, "Miranda Canfield, 13, worries she will get F's on her essays if she can't rely on the librarians at Central Point Library in Jackson County."

This at a time when the Bush Administration continues to cut back education budgets and underfund federal No Child Left Behind mandates, stretching public school budgets beyond reality and feasibility. This while the Bush Administration spends lavishly on the Defense budget. This while the Bush Administration begs for $200 billion more for the Iraq War, having already burned through $500 billion.

Library closures shock me. I suppose it's partly because I've always loved them. As a child, I spent hours upon hours in our community library, hungrily learning about the world beyond our town. Today, I'm a volunteer tutor in our local library's literacy program, which helps children with their school work and teaches immigrants how to read and write in English.

When Salinas, California's library system was set to close in 2005, I wrote Closing Public Libraries - A Death Knell of Democracy. In it, I quoted the American Library Association:

"... libraries are an essential public good and are fundamental institutions in democratic societies... intellectual freedom is a basic democratic privilege, and the ALA defends the right of library users to read, seek information and speak freely, as guaranteed by the First Amendment."

I reiterate my statement in that article: We are called, as citizens of a free and fair democracy, to recommit ourselves to support public libraries, and to make public libraries a budgetary priority at the state and federal level.

To do less is to foolishly, tragically undermine the future of our country.

Recommended Reading
Closing Public Libraries - A Death Knell of Democracy
Pros & Cons of the No Child Left Behind Act
San Francisco Chronicle, March 4, 2007: Largest library closure in U.S. looms
AP, via Yahoo News, March 7, 2007: Bill Gates pushes for better schools