Moving to Asheville just as the plague set in was made easier by having ready, walkable access to our local Oakley branch of the city/county library system. The library is a source of information on topics near and far; it’s also a resource for the sharing of diverse ideas and the growth of a broader ecology of community.
And I suggest that money is not the foremost metric for individual and community well-being. We embody and enact what the library offers each time we have a meaningful discussion. The invaluable ecology of mind that is a library is embodied in our shared public thoughtfulness. Working through differences in outlook and creating worthy integrations among diverse disciplinary, practical, emotional and other kinds of understanding and commitment is the essential condition of a healthy body politic.
A city may be no better than the quality of its public discussions and decisions; the value of these depends on our ready access to both knowledge and to other persons and perspectives. Every family and household, all children, each person — especially without convenient auto or bus access — needs a library that is easy to reach and use in physical, interpersonal and electronic ways to foster this kind of democratic interaction.
I vote to keep the Oakley and other branch libraries intact and alive to the possibilities of a new order of community flourishing for persons of all ages and backgrounds and for a thriving ecology of mind and natural surroundings.
— Guy Burneko
Asheville
Just imagine! If we reallocated some of our tourism marketing dollars to keep libraries and primary schools open, our children could get a decent education, go elsewhere to make lots of dough, and come back and visit as tourists! What could be finer…?