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Cutting Library Funding Is Unacceptable
Governor Ted Strickland:
Please DO NOT permit CUTTING of the public library funding
in Ohio. Why jeopardize the system that helps assure ALL
Ohioans' public access to
published information?
Free access to public information is what fuels and expands
our collective capacity to intellectually prepare for and
negotiate present and future challenges. Public library cuts
have the propensity to ultimately create a devastating
domino effect. Such cuts may ultimately frustrate EVERY
single state system [political, economic, business,
agricultural, industrial, medical, military, Internet,
educational, religious, spiritual, and entertainment] that
relies on "informed" people to operate them effectively.
I'd like to think the majority of Ohioans desire to be
"informed "people. Is Ohio's budget in so much trouble that
we would devour rather than leverage our intellectual
resources? Is there no alternative other than choosing a
solution which aggregately produces negative implications
for years to come?
What of the overall effectiveness of prior preventive fiscal
decisions--made by our Ohio
electorate, those decisions that led to our public officials
to now consider our public libraries as a prime sacrificial
lamb offered unto the impotent god of faulty reasoning?
Where else do we look to stimulate much-needed innovation by
Ohio's citizenry--our entrepreneurs, our educators, current
and future community leaders, etc.? Ohio must protect itself
from statewide intellectual malaise resulting from
self-sabotaging type budget cuts negatively affecting all.
Of particular concern is the unfavorable impact upon the
most vulnerable of our citizens – the youth, elderly,
unemployed and disadvantaged. Where else then will we look
for the requisite public info to reinforce our collective
capacity to develop, excel and contribute to society as
productive Ohio citizens? Where else do we look to develop
minds which can engineer Ohio's future well-being within
every system operating in our state?
In NW Ohio particularly--first the ill-fated measures to
improve our public schools, then the closure of COSI, now
impair or destroy our public
library system?
JUST
SAY NO--TOO MUCH AT STAKE!
Esteemed Ohio Electorate, I urge you to view this proposed
measure for what it truly means now and futuristically for
ALL Ohioans. This is no time for a myopic assessment of the
probable cumulative negative consequences of this proposed
budget slashing. These proposed public library cuts will
create an unaffordable dearth in Ohioans' public access to
published information. This dearth will also yield fewer
citizens having the capacity to make well reasoned, well
researched and forward thinking decisions about even future
proposed legislation such as this.
Who would make it a priority to vote to cut off or limit
access to free public books and other media resources in a
failing economy? Ohioans can least afford to be "dumbed
down" at this point in our history!
We Ohioans must prepare ourselves to survive and to thrive
amidst the demands of unprecedented changes in our local and
world economies. Who would detract from a peoples' access to
obtain public knowledge about emerging trends in technology,
energy, business – and in every discipline within the arts
and sciences?
Face it, the world will never be the same. Generally, we are
rapidly moving toward unprecedented local and
global changes. We must
remain intellectually competitive and encourage the same in
each other.
We must assure that our children do not inherit a bigger
mess than has already been created by us adults. This public
library-cuts issue is a constituency-buster...don't sleep on
this one, Elected Officials.
Do the right thing in the right season ... for the right
reasons! We Ohioans are watching and weighing this issue
right along with you ...
Avalyn Pitts
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