Friday, July 9, 2010

Stand up!

I'll be there. Will you?

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A call to arms

Waiving arms, that is. Waiving toward reach other, not at each other, across this ideological divide within our community. It threatens to permanently damage us so now is the time to move beyond it, to embrace the common wishes which bind us a community.

The whole point of this blog was to bring people from differing points of view together for a community solution to our fiscal problems. To a certain extent we've failed - so far. Too many people in positions of authority are more concerned about their positions than they are about the truth. I wish it wasn't so, but since no one in authority has ever attempted to prove us wrong, for obvious reasons, we consider our case proven. And since none of them have stepped forward to say, "Okay, I'll cut my salary to $80,00 or $90,000 per year during this crisis" then it's clear these are not people with the community's best interests in mind.

But as the old saying goes, "You're right - so what's your point?"

Well, at the moment the point is this: One institution in this community, one keystone of civilization - our library - stands athwart the madness of political maneuvering and agendas from all manner of sources (politicians, administration personnel, unions), and yet is threatened with its very existence. But it is also the single source of convergence, the one thing we can all agree is valued, valuable, and worth coming together to fight for. So let's put aside our differences, even the large ones, and get behind this effort.

I know the people behind this effort and they are not doing the bidding of the City Manager or City Council. They are, as we all are, genuinely concerned about the kind of community we'll end up with if we let the 40 years and millions of dollars invested into building one of the finest community libraries in the country go to waste. And that would be wasted money.

Saturday morning, at the library, come and lend your voice to the process. Stand up and say you resent the city manipulating of the process if you must, but remember, this is our library and this effort is all about taking it back. Let's put the public back in the Troy Public Library.

Friday, July 2, 2010

To be or not to be

[I wish to apologize for this blog's problems over the weekend and this past week. I thought I had them resolved earlier, but it appears that if you didn't use a web browser that isn't from Microsoft you had problems accessing previous posts. It now looks resolved. My apologies.]

No matter how much data is unearthed that refutes the city administration's "need" to close the Troy Public library on the pretext of balancing the general fund, and no matter how much more money the city administration continues to funnel into the police department, it is becomingly increasingly clear that our city leaders damn well intend to close the library on June 30, 2011. Believe it.

Others do.

I note the Troy Citizens United folks are complaining a bit (not all of them) on their Facebook page about the attempts by the residents (spearheaded by the Friends of the Troy Public Library), to put a dedicated millage proposal on the November ballot. I understand those concerns. But TCU supporters, with all due respect, now is the time to set aside rigid political philosophies for practical considerations. This is a call for a rare opportunity to combine community honor with personal interest. It is an incontrovertible fact that our very high quality library delivers huge value to our community's intellectual, economic, and social life -- not to mention our property values! Surely it is evident that the passage of this millage would free the library from the chains of political agendas (now and in the future) that can threaten to deliver irrevocable damage to our community.

Yes, it's true that if all the other rumored millage proposals (police, nature center, etc.) come forward at the same time (they won't), it would be a worse and more expensive combination than the original proposition put before the voters this past February. But what did everyone expect? Does anyone really think that allowing the library to be shut down without a fight is a solution to the city's fiscal crisis? Reality check time: We need to get behind this effort to fund the Troy Public Library, no matter how manipulated we feel by the city. Remember, there are other actions that can be taken to assuage that anger.

For more information on how you can help and follow this process, please go here. Information about how to join the process or attend the rally on July 10 (wouldn't it be awesome to get 1,000 or more people out there for that), can be found there. Tell your friends and your neighbors. We may argue about its services, costs, organizational structure and funding requirements, but if we don't support a new, dedicated and modest millage proposal, there will be no further point to such arguments. It will be too late, and quite possibly forever.

Please, everyone . . . let's save the library now and argue the other points later. See you July 10!