Back on the soapbox.
At one time or another, Ben Franklin, Edgar Allan Poe, Louisa May Alcott, and Ezra Pound all called Philadelphia home. Mark Twain worked in Philly for a while. More recently, Philadelphia has been home to SF author Ben Bova and bestselling writer of thrillers, Lisa Scottoline.
Is it imaginable, I mean can you seriously conceive of the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence with no libraries? I thought this website was a hoax at first. But according to the LA Times, the public libraries in Philadelphia will be closed as of October 2, 2009, unless the politicians representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania get their act together and pass a state budget.
Libraries are not the only services caught in the vise of that state's political wrangling. For more than two months, the social service agencies of the state have suffered. Workers have gone without paychecks - but somehow I feel certain the politicians have been getting theirs. Pre-schools have closed, daycare centers have closed, mental health programs have been shut down, hundreds of jobs lost, and on and on the list goes.
At the root of the political divide appears to be the issue of underfunded municipal pension funds and the takeover by the state of those funds, as well as limited collective bargaining on pension issues. In other words, someone's had his/their hands in the cookie jar and someone else wants a share of the goodies. And by all means, pass a law to keep the victims from getting justice.
From Article 1, Section 2 of the Pennsylvania Constitution: "All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness. For the advancement of these ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think proper."
The Pennsylvania legislature doesn't seem to be doing much to maintain peace, safety, and happiness. Just the opposite. If I were a Pennsylvanian, I'd be thinking very hard about 'altering' and 'reforming' that government.
9 comments:
Oh. My. God. How can the country's 6th largest city not have any libraries? I think I'm going to throw up.
This is pretty frakkin' unbelievable! I hope their politicians catch all sorts of hell regarding this. Criminy!
This is worth being on your soapbox about. Some things in our nation helped struggling people pull themselves up--free public libraries and public education were among them.
And the mental health programs. This strikes me as a total disenfranchisement of the mentally ill/challenged. Along with children, they are the people without a public voice.
This is so sickening. I remember growing up in Philly and rejoicing when we got a real library branch instead of a mobile trailer. It is sick and all about re-election and not public good.
Absolutely fokking unbelievable! Seattle just closed their libraries for a week due to budget cuts. If the city threatened to close them permanently there would be riots in the streets!
I am very sad to hear this. How do the politicians think this is not a big deal? Pennslyvanians should be in an uproar.
Poor Ben Franklin, he must be turning in his grave. Good reason to be on a soapbox!
Corey, author Jason Pinter just tweeted (@jasonpinter) this:
With every Philadelphia library closing, what this country should fear more than anything is becoming illiterate. http://tinyurl.com/kmj5lx
Hopefully, more of this gets around to draw more attention to this.
Michael, I'm glad the news is out on Twitter. As we saw with the election in Iran, Twitter has the power to get some attention. Maybe even some action.
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