Libraries are sanctuaries of quiet and aid
- col-lee-elliot-aging-graciously
- April 17, 2025
- 732
What’s in a name? As someone who has had my name misspelled all my life…(Lee-Leigh-Lea) (Elliott-Eliott-Elliot-Eliot) I am used to it, and it doesn’t really bother me. However, your name is truly important.
Recently, Little Theatre Director, Don Irven’s name was misspelled in one of my articles as Irvin instead of Irven. I don’t know how that happened. When there are many names in an article, sometimes one will slip by during proofreading, or sometimes the computer will take over and change spelling to fit its mood. At any rate, I apologize.
John Proctor, in the play, “The Crucible” refused to sign his name to avow that those around him were witches. When harranged as to why, his famous reply before he was hanged was: “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another…”. Our names are a powerful influence in our lives, and we cherish them.
Which leads me to another name conundrum. Women can have “another” name. The news tells us that in the future, if the name on your birth certificate and your social security card do not match, you won’t be able to vote.
Does that mean that if a woman took her husband’s name before she got her social security card, that she will have to go through some sort of rigamarole to have the one on the card changed so that it matches the birth certificate? Have you tried getting through to Social Security on the phone?
On another recent subject, This past week was National Library Week. In that news, I heard the state is planning to cut its share of the funding of our libraries. First it is the schools, and now the libraries. To my way of thinking, I don’t know how they could even consider either one. I have talked about schools, let me talk about our libraries.
If you do not know what our local libraries give to us and do for us, then you are missing out on one of the most important aspects of the area in which we live. If libraries were just a repository to give and receive books, it might be thinkable that they don’t need much money, but look at what our libraries are offering us.
There are special learning programs for everyone from young toddler to old toddler and all those adults and teens in between. If you need to learn how to use or do something, chances are there is someone at the library who can help you, whether it is how to use a computer, how to write better, play the ukelele, use the 3D printer, work on language translation or many more. The friendly staff members are available to help with a large assortment of things that go way beyond just finding you a book.
Look at the interesting people we get to hear tell their stories nearly every night of the week. Our libraries are sanctuaries of quiet and aid, and it’s all free for us. Let me repeat: Free for us. Here again, it is time for all of us to speak up. Contact your congressperson, the governor, the attorney general, anyone who will listen. Call or write, but speak up. We need our public school programs. We need our libraries. Let’s not be the ones who sit back and let them be taken away.
Oh, and by the way, the little pill with the big story to tell has expanded its advertising from the dance in the grocery store to a dance on the gym floor, and you all know how I feel about that.