Ray Bradbury is launching fund raisers for public libraries

[Robert]

Ray Bradbury rides out in defence of libraries

He might be almost 90 but Ray Bradbury's quest to save US public libraries rolls on, with the author appearing last Saturday at an event in California to raise money for a library in trouble.


The HP Wright library in Ventura is threatened with closure due to cuts in public funding, unless it raises $280,000 (£171,000) by next March. Bradbury's event was the first in a year-long series of author appearances designed to help keep the 44-year-old library open. The $25 (£15) ticket offered patrons the chance to hear a talk from the author of Fahrenheit 451, as well as see a screening of The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, a film based on one of his short stories.

Comments?

 

[beer good]

Comments?

Nicely done, I suppose. Pity it's needed.

 

[Robert]

When I read it, I was wondering if he was just delaying the inevitable.

 

[beer good]

You could say the same about any doctor, couldn't you?

I don't see what's inevitable about it. If the problem is cuts in public funding, then unless the US economy is shrinking dramatically, it all goes back to what people want the government to spend money on. If they can be shown - for instance, through campaigns like this one, even if it's a drop in the ocean - that libraries are worth spending money on, it's quite... uh, evitable.

 

[Robert]

Yes, but I wonder if perhaps the doctor in this instance isn't an oncologist?

Even if Bradbury raises the money to keep the library in Ventura and others open, what's to keep them open when the money is gone and there is another funding shortfall?

A Pitty the library is such a low priority in some communities.

 

[beer good]

Even if Bradbury raises the money to keep the library in Ventura and others open, what's to keep them open when the money is gone and there is another funding shortfall?

Same thing that keeps schools and police stations open when there's a funding shortfall, I suppose. That people are willing to pay to have them. If not, then sure, but I don't see why the libraries are somehow fated to be closed. Government funding is, at least in theory, founded on what the people want their tax money to pay for; the issue isn't when somebody will turn off the tap, but getting enough people interested to keep them voting for the politicians who keep the libraries open.

As the original Bradbury article states:

The fund-raiser’s financial goal is not a long-term fix. That would come only if property taxes crawl back up or voters approve a proposed half-cent increase in the local sales tax in November, some of which would go to libraries.

Ray Bradbury also doesn't like the Internet.

“Yahoo called me eight weeks ago,” he said, voice rising. “They wanted to put a book of mine on Yahoo! You know what I told them? ‘To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet.’

“It’s distracting,” he continued. “It’s meaningless; it’s not real. It’s in the air somewhere.”

 

[Robert]

Same thing that keeps schools and police stations open when there's a funding shortfall, I suppose. That people are willing to pay to have them. If not, then sure, but I don't see why the libraries are somehow fated to be closed. Government funding is, at least in theory, founded on what the people want their tax money to pay for; the issue isn't when somebody will turn off the tap, but getting enough people interested to keep them voting for the politicians who keep the libraries open.

Exactly. If the people or their representatives care little enough for the library now, what's to change their priorities so there is enough funding to keep it open?

We don't have that problem here. The people of our county approve funding for everything on the ballot, then they complain when their taxes are raised to pay for it.

 

[beer good]

Exactly. If the people or their representatives care little enough for the library now, what's to change their priorities so there is enough funding to keep it open?

Widely publicized campaigns by popular authors, perhaps?

 

[beer good]

He failed. Pity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09library.html?_r=1&hpw