Friday, October 28, 2011

Closing Libraries

I'm getting a little nervous here. As a writer. But more than that...

The schools in my state are just dying - one by one. They've cut sports, transportation, music, art. Today I learned some schools in my area are going to close their libraries.

As an author, this sounds like a death-knell for any hope for future readers. Yet, putting myself aside, I weep for our children. 

With the resurgence in reading after the Harry Potter series started, I had hoped that children would feel the love for a book that I did and still do. 

Parents are out of work and food is hard to come by. What priority do books have when the basics of life are tenuous? When children live out of cars? When a federally-subsidized breakfast is the only meal a child will have in a day?

We must change. We must remember that art is worth the cost. That a society without poets is doomed. Somehow, children must be nourished, physically first, and then mentally, spiritually, and morally.

Life is learned.

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