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Vote for library is investment in community’s cultural future
Letter to the editor
Twenty cents per day! Not even half the cost of a can of pop per day. That’s about all it will cost the owner of a $200,000 home in Louisburg to pay for a much-needed new public library building.
I sure think our three grandchildren are worth 20 cents a day, enabling them to better benefit from all the terrific programs and activities our library provides.
As we prepare for the Nov. 4 election, I would like to quote a passage from the book, “Porch Talk,” by Phillip Gulley:
“Someday I hope to vote for a politician who doesn’t think “tax” is a dirty word. Almost every benefit we’ve ever enjoyed happened because our ancestors were generous enough to share their resources for the good of the whole. Their tax dollars educated us, secured our health, promoted our safety, and enhanced our lives immeasurably.
“Shortly after my wife was born, the township she lived in voted not to pay its library tax. Then a relatively prosperous township made up of small family farms, it believed that particular tax was a waste of money. As a consequence, the children of that township were not allowed to use the public library. My wife didn’t check a book out of a public library until she was 21. She remembers wanting to enter and being told it was forbidden. Today, that township is one of the poorest townships in the state’s second poorest county, less than 10 percent of its children go to college, and they still believe they can’t afford to pay their library tax.
“When America thrived, it thrived because its citizenry invested heavily in one another. If America fails, it will be because we have placed our personal gain above the common good. If that day comes, a few of us might be richer, but we will all be infinitely poorer.”
Tom Lundblad
Louisburg
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I sure think our three grandchildren are worth 20 cents a day, enabling them to better benefit from all the terrific programs and activities our library provides.
As we prepare for the Nov. 4 election, I would like to quote a passage from the book, “Porch Talk,” by Phillip Gulley:
“Someday I hope to vote for a politician who doesn’t think “tax” is a dirty word. Almost every benefit we’ve ever enjoyed happened because our ancestors were generous enough to share their resources for the good of the whole. Their tax dollars educated us, secured our health, promoted our safety, and enhanced our lives immeasurably.
“Shortly after my wife was born, the township she lived in voted not to pay its library tax. Then a relatively prosperous township made up of small family farms, it believed that particular tax was a waste of money. As a consequence, the children of that township were not allowed to use the public library. My wife didn’t check a book out of a public library until she was 21. She remembers wanting to enter and being told it was forbidden. Today, that township is one of the poorest townships in the state’s second poorest county, less than 10 percent of its children go to college, and they still believe they can’t afford to pay their library tax.
“When America thrived, it thrived because its citizenry invested heavily in one another. If America fails, it will be because we have placed our personal gain above the common good. If that day comes, a few of us might be richer, but we will all be infinitely poorer.”
Tom Lundblad
Louisburg