Save the Libraries

Prompt: If you were given $5000, how would you use it to promote education in your community?

The cool, quiet of a building of books has never failed to cheer my spirits, to enliven my imagination, to broaden my horizons. Libraries are my favorite places under heaven, places like no others, but soon to be places of the past. On an extended vacation, I drove block after block searching for a public library, to no avail. Friends explained: libraries all over town had closed for renovations but never re-opened -- budget cuts and zero interest, the serial offenders.

As Cicero stated, “A room without a book is like a body without a soul,” so a community without books is soulless, lifeless, and ignorant. Libraries, the homes of books, are essential to education but are viewed today as luxuries, evidenced by the ruthless budget cuts. We strive to save the earth, the lost, the manatees, but who will rescue the libraries? With the proper funds and special events, libraries can woo citizens back: regular toddler’s story-times, children’s homework helps, modern resources for teens, book clubs for adults, family enrichment evenings, educational lectures, and book drives for charity. 

After a class, I zipped down the road and into the children’s corner, my favorite spot in my library, only to find it empty. Not a soul, not a sound inhabited that room -- only the walls, the shelves, and the books. With five thousand dollars, I hope to banish empty libraries in my community. May their memory be erased and libraries eternally be beacons of knowledge.

Scholarship applications are one facet of my life right now. ;-)