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Since it would be improper to ask ya'll generally to donate money to ME, I'll instead send out the hat for the non-profit organization I would donate to if I had any money to donate, ie... um, my current employer.
No, really, here's to the Greater Canonsburg Public Library and its efforts in serving the community, and to the fact that it needs support from kind, intellectual, civic-minded people like yourselves. Inspired by this article about the expansion (and its perpetual waiting-for-funds) in the Post-Gazette, I feel the need to expound upon the importance of a charitable cause that often gets overlooked-- the public free library.
Does anybody truly realize what an amazing resource the library is? We're not just talking books. We're not even talking books, magazines, newspapers, and computers. We're not even talking about all that plus movies, a gathering place for hanging out, and programs for all ages. We're talking about ALL THIS STUFF IS FREE! Free and for EVERYONE! You can get these things other places. You can get reading material and Internet access and classes of all sorts out there in the rest of the world, but you have to pay for them. This means these things are abundantly available to the affluent, but not to the poor. This means the Haves also have the means to Get More, and the Have Nots, well, have to make do...
...BUT FOR THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY! The one institution that isn't out to sell you something! It's got all those things and it'll share them with you if you just give them a chance (oh, and promise to share them with everyone else, rather than hording it overdue to yourself or destroying it). It offers classes you could take at the community college that you don't have to pay for! It offers enrichment opportunities galore for children that don't require you to enroll them in an elite preschool, music, art, athletic, etc, class that costs tons of money and has a waiting list, nor require you to purchase extensive sets of educational toys! It offers not only sources of endless information, but people who can help you sift through and understand it all!
And I have to say again that the most important thing about this is that it is FREE. That is why Andrew Carnegie so famously funded free libraries in the first place-- he credited his success to the access he had to a library when he was younger-- it was that library that allowed him to work his way up from Rock-Bottom Immigrant Poverty to Mondo Frickin' Huge Wealth. It needs to be accessible to all! And the only way libraries can keep up this noble work is with the support of the people who DO have some money to spend.
So support the public free library! And particularly support The Greater Canonsburg Public Library because it is a particularly needy-serving institution that is also REALLY CRAMPED AND NEEDS NEW FACILITIES DESPERATELY!
Thank you.
No, really, here's to the Greater Canonsburg Public Library and its efforts in serving the community, and to the fact that it needs support from kind, intellectual, civic-minded people like yourselves. Inspired by this article about the expansion (and its perpetual waiting-for-funds) in the Post-Gazette, I feel the need to expound upon the importance of a charitable cause that often gets overlooked-- the public free library.
Does anybody truly realize what an amazing resource the library is? We're not just talking books. We're not even talking books, magazines, newspapers, and computers. We're not even talking about all that plus movies, a gathering place for hanging out, and programs for all ages. We're talking about ALL THIS STUFF IS FREE! Free and for EVERYONE! You can get these things other places. You can get reading material and Internet access and classes of all sorts out there in the rest of the world, but you have to pay for them. This means these things are abundantly available to the affluent, but not to the poor. This means the Haves also have the means to Get More, and the Have Nots, well, have to make do...
...BUT FOR THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY! The one institution that isn't out to sell you something! It's got all those things and it'll share them with you if you just give them a chance (oh, and promise to share them with everyone else, rather than hording it overdue to yourself or destroying it). It offers classes you could take at the community college that you don't have to pay for! It offers enrichment opportunities galore for children that don't require you to enroll them in an elite preschool, music, art, athletic, etc, class that costs tons of money and has a waiting list, nor require you to purchase extensive sets of educational toys! It offers not only sources of endless information, but people who can help you sift through and understand it all!
And I have to say again that the most important thing about this is that it is FREE. That is why Andrew Carnegie so famously funded free libraries in the first place-- he credited his success to the access he had to a library when he was younger-- it was that library that allowed him to work his way up from Rock-Bottom Immigrant Poverty to Mondo Frickin' Huge Wealth. It needs to be accessible to all! And the only way libraries can keep up this noble work is with the support of the people who DO have some money to spend.
So support the public free library! And particularly support The Greater Canonsburg Public Library because it is a particularly needy-serving institution that is also REALLY CRAMPED AND NEEDS NEW FACILITIES DESPERATELY!
Thank you.
