Category Archives: Civics

Stand Up for Journalists, Whistleblowers, and Peaceful Protestors Who Hold Those in Power Accountable

Civics, General, Media, Social Justice, , ,

Do you know about the press freedom violations that have occurred in the past year?

In a year’s time span – from May 26, 2020 (the day after George Floyd’s murder by a police officer, Derek Chauvin, to Chauvin’s conviction on April 20, 2021, where he was found guilty of second and third degree murder and second degree manslaughter by a jury.

Freedom of the Press Foundation’s project, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, reports that press freedom violations were reported across 36 states and more than 80 cities. In that time, an average of 1.6 assaults of journalists occurred per day. The majority of the assaults documented — more than 85% — were by law enforcement.

Specifically, that’s 580 assaults of journalists. 153 arrests or detainments. 112 reports of equipment damaged in the field.

Here’s the article:

Between the bookends: 1 year of press freedom violations

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Perhaps the Founding Fathers ought to have added a few words about police not having the right to beat the crap out of journalists and detaining or arresting them for reporting on people peaceably assembling – especially when they assemble to protest police brutality?

Virginia was the first state to formally protect the press. The 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights stated, “The freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic Governments.”

Do we have a despotic government, regardless of who is in charge? I’m not talking about just the federal government, but also state and local governments.

The rough manhandling and other abuses against journalists – as well as whistleblowers and peaceful protestors – by law enforcement over the decades, have sometimes made me wonder about government being despotic. That thought has been magnified in the past several years by our preceding president who was (and still is) allergic to being held accountable and who reveled in publicly bullying and belittling journalists.

You’d think publicly bullying and belittling journalists (and in some cases, detaining or arresting them) were the hallmarks of dictators in faraway lands, not of presidents in America!

What a fucking insult to the U.S. Constitution and to those who have the courage to report on corruption and injustices in our society.

Notice the photo in the link: it shows a freelance journalist glancing back as a police line advances in Minneapolis’ Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020 – shortly before police pushed him over a wall.

Stand up for journalists, whistleblowers, and peaceful protestors who work tirelessly for the public good – to hold those in power to account for their abuses.

Sources

U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
National Constitution Center
History.com

Fight for Your Right to Vote!

Civics, General, Social Justice,

Maryland’s House of Delegates passed the Student & Military Voter Empowerment Act the 3rd week of February 2021; I signed the petition to urge the Maryland Senate to pass it.

If passed, the bill will ensure that institutions of higher education*:

• Have a student voter coordinator, who will take point on forming a plan to support student voter registration and ensure students have the information they need to register to vote and turn out.

• Post the link to the online voter registration form on the website students use to register for classes to keep it visible.

• Provide input to local boards of election as they select polling locations for our elections.

And the bill will ensure military members can easily to register to vote online.

According to Common Cause Maryland, over 72% of people between the ages of 18-24 did not vote in the 2018 election. Historically Black colleges and universities report declines in overall participation, largely due to lack of access to information on how to register and vote, and thus, leading to young people voting less frequently than the rest of the population. But this legislation would help to reduce the barrier faced by young people who want to participate in our elections.

Attending college and university is often the first time many young people are on their own for the first time – a time to grow and learn. It was for me. I remember I looked forward to voting, to finally participating in society!

It seems to me that colleges and universities are well-positioned to inform students about voter participation; after all, what college or university doesn’t have a student government? If colleges and universities encourage students to vote for their fellow students, why can’t these institutions of higher education make it easy and accessible for them to vote in the outside world?

Voter registration, accessing voter information, and the act of voting made simple and accessible to ALL eligible voters – including students – this is a no brainer, right?

Young people, after all, are our future!

Empower them to vote! Some of them may be governing how we live someday, when we’re old and gray.

I’d rather vote for an informed candidate who (hopefully) respects the value of every eligible voter participating than a candidate who only thinks certain people ought to vote and harbors some perceived paranoia over voter fraud despite FACTS to the contrary.

As the most recent US Presidential Election 2020 laid bare.

Yes, even after the Director of United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – the agency handling election security, declared the 2020 presidential election was was the country’s most secure ever, repeatedly debunked the claims of massive fraud and election interference by the former president (and his cronies) to Congress and the media, a certain segment of society continues to believe the 2020 election was a fraud. A steal.

Even after the former president’s powerful lackey in the form of his US Attorney General said the US Justice Department found no evidence fraud to make a difference in the outcome of the election, that wasn’t enough to convince the president’s followers that the election was valid. The former president and many of his followers could not accept that the majority of the people spoke: they wanted a different president.

But what punishment did America get from those who could not accept reality?

No. 1: the January 6th, 2021 insurrection upon the nation’s capital to “Stop the Steal”.

And insidiously, as of February 27th, 2021, at least 253 voter suppression bills have now been introduced across the country in 43 states – just in 2021 alone. You read that right: 2021…THIS year!

Laws in direct contradiction to Maryland’s Student & Military Voter Empowerment Act.

Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman reported earlier this month on the GOP’s ongoing nationwide push to make voting more difficult, particularly for communities of color and other Democratic-leaning constituencies – and in some cases to empower state legislatures to overturn election results.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice’s report,

These proposals primarily seek to: (1) limit mail voting access; (2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; (3) limit successful pro-voter registration policies; and (4) enable more aggressive voter roll purges.

Here’s a very condensed sampling of proposed nightmarish laws to come:

Georgia

• Eliminating no-excuse absentee voting, which was passed on a bipartisan basis in 2014, and limiting absentee voting to only a few categories of voters who fit into narrow, predetermined exceptions.

• Restricting county election officials’ ability to utilize mobile precincts to serve rural and other hard-to-reach voters.

• Removing restrictions on poll watchers that keep election officials safe without facilitating additional transparency for voters.

• Eliminating automatic voter registration, making it harder for Georgians to register to vote and less efficient for Georgia election officials to update and maintain accurate voter rolls.

In most cases, according to various sources, these state lawmakers argue that these restrictive measures are necessary because, “the public has lost confidence in our election system,” but they refuse to acknowledge the reason some voters believe elections are unfair: because those same legislators spent months spreading disinformation about the integrity of the 2020 election.

Arizona

• Require voters to obtain a notary stamp on all absentee ballots, a not only burdensome but costly requirement.

• Prohibit voters from mailing their absentee ballots to election officials, instead requiring them to return them in-person.

• Require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote—a likely violation of federal law. 

• Purge eligible voters from the rolls if they change their address—even if that address is still in Arizona—another likely violation of federal law.

FYI: Arizona has had a robust mail voting system for decades with no widespread fraud or administrative issues, and Arizona voters across the political spectrum have been voting by mail since long before the COVID-19 pandemic—78% of Arizona voters voted by mail in 2018, according to Campaign Legal Center.

Pennsylvania

• Eliminate the permanent early voter list, requiring voters to submit a separate application for each election, rather than submitting one application for the entire election cycle.

• Prohibit the use of ballot drop boxes, eliminating a safe and secure option for voters to ensure that their mail ballots are returned directly to election officials on time.

• Increase poll watcher access to absentee ballot processing and canvassing activities (which are already publicly observable), allowing poll watchers to more easily harass election officials and volunteers and reducing limitations that keep our election officials safe while maintaining transparency.

• Prohibit counties from notifying voters about issues with absentee or mail ballots and providing voters an opportunity to fix those issues. Current Pennsylvania law allows, but does not require, counties to contact voters and give them a chance to fix issues with their ballots.

Campaign Legal Center writes that one legislator who sponsored an anti-voter bill said that his goal was “not to fix what happened but to restore integrity and trust” back into the voting process. That’s because these new voting restrictions wouldn’t “fix” anything—they only make voting harder for Pennsylvanians.

Geez, these anti-voter measures are created by legislators have a serious mean streak running through them, you think?!

To my mind, conservative lawmakers don’t have any ideas that can benefit ALL citizens. I mean, why the insane focus on restrictive voting measures – especially when these lawmakers lose the White House and collectively lose their seats in Congress and throughout state legislatures?

You must have a pretty sorry platform, if you have one at all, to be so paranoid as to make it hard for people to vote – people who you think will likely not vote for you! People who include minorities, women, students, those low on the socio-economic ladder who may not vote for you due to your record of misogynistic laws against women’s health care, tax cuts for the uber-wealthy, cutting of social programs that address mental health, health care access, education, job training, and yes, restrictive voter suppression laws.

I find voter suppression laws disgusting. The very thought of them makes my blood boil. Voter suppression laws demonstrate a cynical and contemptuous regard for people.

Hey, anti-voter legislators and supporters:

You don’t like democracy?

You dig authoritarianism? There’s plenty of authoritarian regimes around the globe you can try! Why not try Russia? China? Brazil? Iran? Saudi Arabia? I’d venture to say there’s plenty of people in those countries who would LOVE to swap places with you! If you don’t like democracy here, then get the fuck out of here.

Take your authoritarian tendencies to the lands of Vladimir Putin, Xi Xinping, or any of the other countries led by dictators drunk on power – those who want to rule til their last breath. Go find out how beautiful life in an authoritarian country really is! You respect strongmen, don’t you? There’s plenty of strongmen to spare around the globe who cannot handle the slightest bit of criticism, and who cannot handle the idea of everyone having a voice. Go live with them! But do not shove authoritarianism down America’s throat – not least of all by severely restricting Americans’ vote.

You’re such sore losers! You lose an election, then you immediately scream FRAUD!

Why don’t you come up with ideas to empower every American to thrive instead of resorting to restricting voter participation?

If you really “love” America and want to “fix” voting problems (and they do exist), why not urge Congress to pass the For The People Act, H.R.1/S.1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, H.R. 4?

The For The People Act sets national minimum standards for our elections based on bipartisan best practices, ensuring that Americans’ ability to access the ballot isn’t dependent on which state they live in, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would revitalize the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to defend against racial discrimination in our elections.

Instead of trying to spread disinformation and making American lives harder through stupid voter suppression laws that threaten our democracy, support the Congressional acts listed above…dig yourself out of a dark, insidious, anti-voter hole!

Just sayin’.

* note: according to a campaign email.

Sources

Common Cause Maryland
Alternet.org
Campaign Legal Center
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law
Salon
ABC News
CBS News – 60 Minutes
LA Times
PBS News Hour
Fox13 News
Mother Jones
CNN
Salon
Campaign Legal Center
Congress.gov
Campaign Legal Center – The Bipartisan Origins &Impact of the For the People Act (H.R. 1/S. 1)
Human Rights Campaign
Wikipedia

A Ray of Sunshine

Civics, General, Media, Women, , ,

Do you know who Maria Ressa is?

I only vaguely knew of this renowned journalist who was accused of cyber libel in June 2020, and then the other night, PBS’ Frontline show had a great documentary on the threatened status of press freedom in the Philippines, focusing on Maria Ressa. She is a dynamo! Intensity and reslience packed into a small stature. Check out this documentary:

A Thousand Cuts

With press freedom under threat in the Philippines, A Thousand Cuts goes inside the escalating war between the government and the press. The documentary follows Maria Ressa, a renowned journalist who has become a top target of President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on the news media. …

Her resoluteness, her confidence, and her forthrightness shine bright – so much so that she has remained ingrained in my mind for days. And I’ll venture to say, for years to come.

Ressa is a top target of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, having been an outspoken critic of his policies for many years – in particular, the extrajudicial killings, human rights violations, and fast-rising death toll from Duterte’s brutal war on drugs as well as the alleged pro-Duterte online “troll army” who were pushing out fake news stories and manipulating the narrative around his presidency. She has posted bail 9 times and has endured relentless political harrassment by the Duterte government and its supporters. Yet it doesn’t deter her from battling disinformation.

Bullies like Duterte don’t seem to faze Maria Ressa. (Would you expect less from someone who spent many years investigating terrorist networks in Southeast Asia?)

And she says she will not let herself be intimidated.

I love that about her!

For me, Maria Ressa is a ray of sunshine in these dark days of the pandemic. She is an inspiration for those who are deeply disgusted by the US wanna-be dictator who has repeatedly called the press the enemy of the people and has denounced any journalist who has committed the “crime” of criticizing him. She may be in the Philippines – she is by the way also a US citizen, but she nevertheless is an inspiration to many around the world who value and respect a free and open democracy.

Amendment I of the US Constitution clearly states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Similarly, Section 4 of the Bill of Rights in the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines clearly states:

No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

Nice to know the US Constitution has inspired others around the globe to enshrine similar rights into their own countries’ constitutions!

But not-so-nice to know that the most powerful man on earth has been inspired by the dictators of the world with regard to how to treat members of the press, as per his own acknowledgment.

Neither the leader of the Philippines nor the soon-to-be former leader of the United States like the press, let alone respect it. Well, arguably, no political “leader” does; however, but when you, Presidents Duterte and Trump, publicly single out journalists by belittling them in front of their peers at a press conference or at a mass rally of your followers because they wrote something you didn’t like, arrest them on allegedly politically motivated charges, insinuate that a certain journalist “could be a target for assassination”, laugh when your dictator buddy calls the press corps “spies”, announce in a jesting tone that you think it’d be a good idea to arrest and maybe “get rid of” journalists who criticize and contradict your mistatements with facts just like another dictator buddy, and worst of all, say that the press is the enemy of the people, then I’d say that you, Dear Leaders – and there’s more than two of you on this planet, have an unimaginable contempt for your fellow citizens. For those who elected you as well as those who did not.

Journalists are here to hold our elected leaders accountable! Every last one of them, from the local level all the way to the president.

It disturbed me recently that CBS News had recently put out a promotional ad about themselves stating the obvious: without a free press, we don’t have a free society. Probably not the exact words – I can’t think of them at this moment…but you get the idea.

I thought to myself: What?! This is what our president inspired – that a national media company felt compelled to remind the public of this?

Fortunately, we have courageous journalists like Maria Ressa here in the US, too. Like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, who is one of my favorite investigative reporters and no stranger to having put her life on the line as has Maria, to report the news.

To Maria and Amy and all the intrepid journalists like yourselves out there in the world: you are essential to our freedom to live and breathe safely by keeping check on those in power, informing the public when you expose abuse, corruption, and goodness knows what else has occurred. You shine a spotlight into the dark nooks and crannies of our world for the public good. America needs you now more than ever. The world needs you.

I need you!

We can’t fight monsters by becoming monsters. ~ Maria Ressa

Sources

PBS Frontline
Rappler
Elle
Wikipedia
NPR
The Guardian
U.S. Constitution
constituteproject.org
Vox
Washington Post
National Review
Global News
The Guardian

In Praise of Ms. Jones

Civics, General, Media, Women, , ,

On the morning of December 7th, 2020, former Florida COVID-19 data scientist Rebekah Jones had her home raided by state police. They aimed their guns at her and her family, as seen on video. They seized her phone, computer and several hard drives, preventing her from continuing to publish data on COVID-19 outbreaks.

Jones wrote on social media after the raid:

“They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids… This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo [sic].”

She built the much-praised COVID-19 dashboard before being fired over what she said was refusing to “manipulate data”, according to USA TODAY. She was fired from her job as Geographic Information Systems manager for the department on May 5th, 2020. 

The World Socialist Web Site reports that the specific allegation made against Jones that led to the police raid was:

that she was responsible for an email being sent to Florida’s Department of Health employees imploring them to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead,” which Jones denies having sent. She asserts that, in part, officials seized her devices to determine what contacts she has within the Department of Health, who will in turn likely be victimized in the near future.

Rebekah Jones has since launched her own COVID-19 dashboard after being removed from the state’s project. You can find it here. And explained in some detail, here.

She has also just filed a suit against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over the raid at her home.

Why am I writing about this?

Because when I think about what happened to her, this is what is going through my mind: This is where hard-earned taxpayer monies go – to use armed state police to harass an unarmed scientist and her family in their home due to an unsubstantiated suspicion? Is this perhaps a retaliation against Ms. Jones from certain leaders in power who didn’t like that she refused to fudge the COVID-19 numbers to make their government look better?!

I personally have never had any really negative encounter with local or state police in my lifetime. Not even from two encounters with state police who issued me the traffic tickets I’ve gotten in the past. (getting the tickets was more painful!) I don’t have any personal grudge against police.

However, I do take great issue with law enforcement officers who abuse the public trust when they engage in corruption, sexism, racism, or employ excessive force against peaceful, UNARMED, law-abiding citizens, be it a scientist or peaceful protesters. Particularly against people of color.

I had a close, late friend who relayed his tale of walking home from work one night when he was suddenly bodyslammed to the ground because…why? He apparently resembled a suspect accused of some offense. It was a case of mistaken identity and he was released. But I don’t know if the officers apologized to him. My friend was a big man, originally from India. And no security officer ever came to his rescue when rocks were thrown at him and his friends by a crowd who supposedly “didn’t want his kind” at a country music concert somewhere in a southern state. My friend loved American country music. I thought part of security personnel’s jobs was to prevent and stop harm to others.

And I think it is deeply dangerous to idolize police, as if they are all angels who can do no wrong. They are human beings, for crying out loud!

To put them all on some fantastical, god-like pedestal and make excuses for those who perpetrate heinous crimes against their fellow citizens is irresponsible and a betrayal of public trust. It’s a willful denial of the lived experiences of those who have been the target of police brutality, especially in the face of overwhelming evidence. Call a spade a spade and quit giving a free pass to law enforcement officers who do wrong to others, instead of trying to immediately shift blame on the injured (or dead) party by casting aspersions on their character or actions. Like, if only he wasn’t swaggering around the way he did, or he should have answered/obeyed the officer immediately (like a dog?), or why was she out at night and dressed like that, or why did she have to be so loud and sassy? That’s bullshit.

Disgusting.

I do not condone crimes; I want public accountability of those who have been entrusted with power – who abuse it and harm others.

What’s so hard about not using excessive force on peaceful, unarmed people? Particularly in the privacy of their own home?

The important point, to my mind, is that Ms. Jones kept her fellow Floridians and researchers around the country informed with facts about the spread of COVID-19. Determined to do so even after she and her spouse were violently harassed by state police, and her young children terrified by them.

(remember, violence is not always physical; it can be verbal, too)

She has stood up for science. For public health. For FACTS. And has not been afraid to tell the truth about what has happened to her — she has refused to bow down to bullies. I respect all of that. Immensely.

If anything, this pandemic has helped me to appreciate and respect science that much more. I’ve always liked science…I just didn’t apply myself very well on science exams during my school years, from elementary school through college. And I felt guilty when I didn’t do so well because I knew instinctively that science was important.

So huge kudos to you, Rebekah Jones, for your work in helping to inform others. For standing up for yourself, for standing up for Floridians’ health, and not letting anyone bully you! I hope you will keep doing your work for many, many years to come. Florida is lucky to have you.

Sources

USA Today
Florida COVID Action
NPR
World Socialist Web Site
CNN
Tampa Bay Times

Petition to President-elect Biden: Free Palestine—and the Sahrawi people too!

Civics, General, Social Justice, ,

I signed this petition from CODEPINK today:

Free Palestine—and the Sahrawi people, too!

[edited from  my codepink email]

Trump is obsessed with arming the Middle East. Last week, Morocco became the fourth Arab nation to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in yet another fake “peace deal” via Donald Trump. In a quid pro quo, in exchange for normalizing Israeli apartheid, the U.S. is recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara — an area, and native people, illegally occupied, just like the Israeli occupation of Palestine. To no one’s surprise, the Trump administration has also just reached a deal to sell Morocco $1 billion in weapons — drones and munitions made by General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing. 

After more than 200 years of occupation, Spain withdrew from the region in 1975 and split control of the land between Morocco and Mauritania — despite demands for independence from the Sahrawis. By 1979, Mauritania had relinquished power over the area, but Morocco maintained its iron grip through decades of brutal war. In 45 years of Moroccan rule, the Sahrawi people have endured endless oppression, including violent military occupation and the persecution of peaceful activists. Thousands have been forced to flee their homes and live their entire lives in refugee camps. 

Last month, on November 13, the Moroccan army invaded the Al Guerguerat village in Western Sahara where around 60 peaceful Sahrawi protestors had set up an encampment. After the military “successfully” dismantled the camp, Moroccan police launched a crackdown on the Sahrawi activists, including home raids, surveillance, and arrests. On November 30, just days before the Israel-Morocco normalization deal, Amnesty International called for a thorough investigation into human rights abuses in the region. 

No country other than the U.S. has recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Western Sahara belongs to Morocco as much as Palestinian territory belongs to Israel — IT DOESN’T! Just as we support indigenous rights in the U.S. and in Palestine, we must speak up for the freedom and dignity of the Sahrawi, people. We — including President-elect Biden — must join in solidarity with their struggle for freedom and do everything we can to block the recent sale of $1 billion in weapons to Morocco to fund their oppression.

It is unacceptable for the United States to perpetuate the oppression of the Sahrawi people, just as it is wrong for the U.S. to arm Israel in its war on Palestinian rights.

Ask Joe Biden to support Sahrawi freedom by signing our petition to undo Trump’s recognition of Western Sahara as Moroccan territory. Sign our petition asking him to reverse Trump’s declaration that Western Sahara belongs to Morocco.

 

You may also be interested to learn more about Western Sahara in this documentary from Democracy Now!, by one of my favorite investigative journalists, Amy Goodman, who’s no stranger to putting her life on the line. I didn’t know a thing about Western Sahara until this news from Democracy Now!  Transcript of documentary provided in link.

Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara —  A Rare Look Inside Africa’s Last Colony as Ceasefire Ends

[November 27, 2020]

Bullies Everywhere

Civics, General, ,

What the devil is wrong with a certain set of spineless politicians who will do most anything to overturn a national election because they can’t handle a loss?

Whose party leader inspires his followers to threaten and bully even their own party politicians who decide they have their own brains to follow the law?

Who are, in essence, behaving like schoolyard bullies, expecting everyone to kowtow to their wishes.

Sore losers!

I despise bullying.

I’m no psychologist, but I feel there has to be something sorely lacking in these people’s lives that they would willingly subvert the will of their fellow citizens who voted for another candidate.

Don’t we have enough sickness with the pandemic going on, with thousands dying daily, and new cases of people getting infected daily?

Yes, sickness.

I think you have to be sick both head and heart to want to waste people’s time (and money) trying to overturn an election that has repeatedly been shown to have no evidence of fraud. Repeatedly.

Denied by the judges! Lack of solid evidence.

Even more deeply sickening is that these “leaders” rarely condemn the violence perpetrated against others, be it politicians, poll workers, or peaceful protestors. And violence includes threatening phone calls to secretaries of state and encircling their homes in person, carrying guns.

WTF?!

I’d venture to say there’s probably a bully in every school and workplace.

But not everyone who’s experienced abuse, neglect, grief, or any kind of hardship resorts to bullying others – using someone else as a convenient punching bag to cope with their inadequacies.

Who hasn’t had at least one bully encounter in their lives? It’s painful, to say the least. It’s mean and it’s cruel.

 

To bullies, I want to say:

You like threatening to harm others because it’s soothing to your fragile ego? You can’t stand it if you don’t feel you have power over others?

What ails you?!

There’s a fucking pandemic going on, for goodness sakes! Our country can do without more meanness and cruelty from you.

Go take a walk in the park or the woods and contemplate the beauty of nature…absorb some positivity instead of infecting others with your toxic negativity!

“I would rather be a little nobody, then [sic] to be a [sic] evil somebody.” ― attributed to Abraham Lincoln

Libraries: An Antidote to Baseless Negativity

Civics, General, Libraries

“I couldn’t live a week without a private library – indeed, I’d part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I’d let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.” ~H. P. Lovecraft

 

I can empathize with H.P. Lovecraft…I value my books more than my furniture. I’ve put a lot of thought into much of my private library over the years! If a stranger walked into my home and noticed my many books, which are not as numerous as Mr. Lovecraft’s was, she or he would definitely know where my interests lie. I can’t imagine not having (most of) my books around!

Books have been part of my life since I was little. Taking me to the public library throughout my school years was one of the best things my father did for me. My big sister picked out my books for me at the library when I was little and learning to read. The public library has always been THE FIRST place I look for whenever I have moved to a new locale because I know I will be going there A LOT!

I’ve even joined the local university library as a public patron for free so I can get more mind-y, hard-to-access books (though only limited to three at a time).

I will be a library advocate til my last breath!

The public library is the  great equalizer. It is for EVERYONE.

So why wouldn’t anyone use their local public library? It’s free!

Some excuses I’ve heard from friends, loved ones, and co-workers over the years:

“It’s the government.” (a conspiracy?)

“I won’t remember to return the books.” (how do you know?)

“I thought it was just for kids?” (nah!)

“Aren’t the books dirty (esp. during the pandemic!)?”

As to the last comment, I’ll say that my local library quarantines returned items for a week. And by the way, isn’t money dirtier? Money passes through the hands of untold numbers of people daily, more than books.

I confess I am wary of those hostile to libraries. Totally can NOT relate to them on that level. The politicians  hostile to funding libraries and  the corporate types who would be in 7th heaven if public libraries didn’t exist at all? I’ve no sympathy for them. I think: Whatsa matter with you?! You’re not curious? You have an issue with people wanting to learn, to read? Get outta here!

Same thoughts with those who want to censor what others should read because they don’t like the content of a novel, usually due to sex, violence or blasphemy. Too bad for the censors; why deprive others of the opportunity to think and explore just because something offends you greatly? Don’t read it then. Well, that’s another topic for another day that I feel strongly about.

It’s not just books you can borrow; there’s audiobooks, cds, dvds (do I sound old school now?), magazines. You can use their computers; do research with access–or limited access to various journals that cost money; join in computer classes, resume writing, cooking/language/exercise/arts and crafts classes. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Granted, I’m only referring to my local public library, but you get the idea.

Or  join a book discussion group in which you can meet monthly and meet new people who may share your interests.

You might say: “Hey! There’s a pandemic going on! What are you talking about?!”

To which I respond: Have you checked out your local library yet? They might be going virtual with their programs. They might have “curbside pickup” whereby you can request your materials online and then you pick up your stuff when notified by email that it’s ready to go, retrieving them in a designated area like the lobby, so there’s no person contact.

FREE your mind! Explore! Save your hard-earned $$ on books, magazines, and audio-visual materials…check out your local public library. It’s meant for everybody. For the whole community. Even during a pandemic.

The pandemic has fostered much fear, uncertainty, and misinformation. Consider your local public library as an antidote to baseless negativity. A refuge that promotes freedom of your mind.

As for my own private library, I tend to buy used books…and ONLY if I cannot find a wanted title in the local or state public library system (my state has an awesome inter-library loan system) or local uni library, unless I feel I HAVE TO HAVE it.  If you’re thinking to buy a book for someone and not sure about it, why not check it out at the library first? That’s how I bought all the books I bought for my nieces and nephews when they were young. At least you won’t piss off a bookstore person for having spent time hemming and hawing about it for god knows how long and walking out the doors undecided, not having bought something. ??

Library staff won’t lay a guilt trip on you. They’re some of the coolest, most helpful people I’ve known throughout my life.

Yeah, I love my libraries! I can’t live without them.

Get thee to your library!