However, I'm still frothing, so I'll deliver the slap here. But first, a story:
I once read an interview with a Libertarian candidate running for public office. He wanted to do away with public transportation. His rationale was that buses slow down traffic and "people like their cars."
When I got over my fit of apoplexy, my reaction was, "Yeah, people who own cars like their cars--the bus isn't for them, is it?"
The bus is for those too poor to own a car. It's for college kids and the elderly and the simply unfortunate. It's also for kids too young to get a driver's licence, and for the legally blind or those with epilepsy who cannot get one.
The bus isn't for drivers. I couldn't believe the guy was either too stupid to grasp that fact, or--more likely--too selfish to see any point in setting up the world to benefit anyone other than himself. And people like that? Should never be allowed into public office.
Ahem. Now then. This article reminded me a little of that:
My Library Card Expired: Why I Am Okay With It
The writer's argument is that "people in the library business are in trouble" because nowadays we all have Google to do our research with. Or, to put it in his ungrammatical words, "Library, meet 2010 and this thing called a computer, be envious".
Yeah, people who have computers get to substitute Wikipedia for actual research, but the library isn't for them, is it? (Skipping over the fact that most libraries are pretty up-to-date with using computers for research--when did this guy last enter a library?)
The library is for college kids who can't afford a computer, and the elderly who don't know how to use one, and the simply unfortunate--many of whom need to do research in order to get a better job in order to someday be able to afford a computer.
The library is also for people who simply love to read books, but if you scan over that article, the idea of going to the library for, y'know, a novel seems a possibility well beyond the writer's event horizon. Despite the bio claiming he engages in creative writing, apparently, to this fellow, libraries only exist to help you write your middle grade research paper. No, they could not possibly be used by people simply looking to read a great book for free! Who reads books for fun? Pshaw!
So, in summary: Grrrrrr... No, the world isn't only for you.
And also: Thanks be to Blogger for giving me a way to vent that doesn't wind up turning into a flame war! (Hopefully. There's always Google Alerts to play merry with that assumption, isn't there?)
8 comments:
And thus my ad nauseum refrain about e-readers replacing books - 'what about the poor who cannot afford e-readers?'
The stock answer seems to be - 'They'll get them.'
Makes no sense to me as they don't get most of what they need just to survive. Who will be supplying the poor with the e-readers? Amazon? Doubt it. Not to mention the cost of the books and the electricity.
And yet, here we are in L.A. cutting back and possibly closing branch libraries.
Yea I am car less again but don't really use the bus. i walk almost everywhere.
I think it is human nature to frame discussions from your own point view. so if someone is upset by traffic he will look for ways to make there problem go away, not realizing that they may cause problems for others.
Or something else I hadn't realized was such a cool and important (imo) service the libraries in this area provide... storytime for children who can't read yet or are just learning to. It isn't just about books, it is also a cultural, social outing for stay at home parents to get out & visit with other parents while also educating their young children.
I normally hate when people "pile on" in a blog comment stream, but man that idiot who wanted to dump the buses was a real... idiot.
Reminds me of the guy who was actually allowed a write-in opinion column a few years ago in our local newspaper when gas hit $4 a gallon round here. (That's US dollars, not Canadian, so yeah, it meant something.)
Anyway, this... idiot... writes in that he's proud to drive his 10-mile-per-gallon behemoth SUV as much as possible because it has been shown that stronger economies use more energy, so therefore we should use as much energy as possible because it will make the economy stronger. I was all like, "Really? Maybe you should think that through again."
The guy who wrote that anti-library article is like the kid that brags about getting Cs and Ds on his report card. "Yeah, I'm not one of them fairy eggheads." And everybody else is like, "Yeah, cool," while secretly wishing a meteor would streak in and rid the world of him at that moment.
I chalk these kinds of attitudes up to people who lack imagination. A common slogan against US health care reform has been, "Want Health Care? Get A Damn Job!" These opponents believed that people who don't have insurance under the existing/old system don't have it BY CHOICE. As in, uninsured people choose not to have a job that provides them with insurance; they must be lazy, and naturally no one wants to use taxpayer dollars to reward laziness. It never entered these opponents' minds the myriad ways they could find themselves uninsured in the blink of an eye.
My first visit here, and I love you already! Libraries gave my children a (hopefully) life-long love of reading, first supplying the countless picture books my tight budget couldn't then stretch to. It was also my haven as a child, a place to transport me to other worlds, ones otherwise I'd have been denied from. Oh, and my parents didn't own a car, by necessity, we had to utillise public transport to the full!
I recall when my mother received her pensioner's free bus pass, it opened up a whole new world for her. Living alone, the world was only an adventure away, she would hop on a bus without a care as to where it went, it was the journey, not the destination, she sought.
Many of us, myself now included, are lucky enough to lead a comfortable, some might even say privileged life, but there is a huge amount of folk out there for whom the basic right of mobility and of an access to information, is a struggle. Poo on that guy, is what I say (wink)!
Sarah: Totally; and a lot of people (on the internet) seem to never consider there are still many people with no home computer. Every time a service becomes online-only? That service has been taken away from the poor.
Sarf: That's probably why politicians get such a rap for being liars. They come up with campaign promises they really mean, but when they get into power, they realize the solution would be a bad idea for a whole bunch of reasons they didn't foresee. And then they have to either backtrack on the promises or rework the solution, which takes a long time and seems (from the outside) wishy-washy.
Heather: That is a cool program! And a useful one, too. Statistically, children who are read to regularly grow up with markedly better language skills.
Peter:
we should use as much energy as possible because it will make the economy stronger
BAH HA HA HA. Oh, that's cute logic. Yes, car use and pollution makes the economy strong, rather than being a side effect of a strong economy.
Sometimes, one can almost make an argument against democracy.
Kate: I so agree. I remember reading an Ann Landers column when I was a kid where a woman was complaining about going to a fancy restaurant and having to watch a deeply disabled man eat. Ms. Lander's response was essentially, "There's no guarantee you won't be hit by a car or diagnosed with a debilitating illness. Someday, that could be you. Would you want to give up enjoying your life for the sake of other people's squeamishness?"
Shrinky: *waves* Hi and welcome! Glad to meet you. :)
Failing to see things from other people's points of view is the whole issue here. So many people see no reason to spend tax money or invest public effort toward anything they, personally, use. Until the moment they or someone they love needs it too--then, suddenly, they're in favour of it.
Correction to Shrinky:
Oops! Make that:
...they, personally, don't use.
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