Libraries and the War on America (aka the war on terror)
How many communities around the country are being
forced to cut services that up until a few years ago we took for
granted?
I think that many people in Western New York
think that the threat to close our entire library system was something unique to
the Buffalo area and mostly due to the total incompetence of the current
Republican County Administration and their nut-case-in-chief Joel Giambra. What
made the threat all more galling is Giambra's dedication to patronage give-aways
and corporate welfare. It seems the height of idiocy and hypocrisy that the
pro-child Republicans would consider shuttering the doors of the 52 library
system in favor of a multi-million dollar give away to bring a giant tackle shop
to downtown.
It turns out though that
it's bigger than Buffalo, Joel's extensive family tree and his love for the
latest corporate boondoggle not withstanding. In a December 27 AP wire story,
Salinas, CA announced it was closing it's entire library system (all three
branches). The AP story went on to add that over $51 million dollars was being
cut from the top 41 library systems in the nation and over 1,100 library systems
across the country were closing branches and reducing
hours.
And libraries are just the tip
of the iceberg, there's cuts to housing assistance, there's reductions in police
and fire budgets, and even after school programs. This is Reaganomics bearing
fruit. A lot of people think that reducing government to where you can drag it
into the bathroom and drown in the bathtub was an idea that originated with Bush
and his amoral rabble, but it's actually and idea that came out of Ronald
Reagan's administration. Reagan though, wasn't as boorish as Dubyah or his
mouth pieces like Grover Norquest, he wanted to cut funding until programs broke
on their own, resulting in their being swept away as just another failed social
experiment.
The difference with Bush is
he sees choosing tax cuts over gear for our troops, or money for libraries, or
fire departments as an article of faith. I would suggest that as we rightly
hold Giambra's feet to the fire, that we remember to put what's going on in the
context of the larger Republican national project. So when people are looking
for someone to blame they get to point the finger at everyone, not just the bag
men.