Email to the Editor: Our Library, Our Children

For over a year, I’ve been an unabashed champion for merging our local library into the county library system.  A system rated as one of the finest in the nation.  

The opponents of this annexation have steadfastly insisted upon local control.  We now have a sort of half-time library with no librarian and staffed only by two full-time employees and four part-timers.  They do their very best to serve our community with a diminishing and increasingly obsolete and worn collection of books, DVD's and CD’s.  So much for local control, eh?  

I’ve talked to a lot of people about this issue and I point out that,  when our little library can no longer keep the doors open,  we citizens of Enumclaw will lose access to all libraries in King and Pierce County.  The first reaction is always one of dismay.  The next reaction is invariably - “What about the children?  What sort of future do they have without a library?”  That’s a very important question.  It’s too bad the children can’t vote but must rely upon us adults to decide their future.  I don’t know what they think about our squabbling over this important issue, but I do know what one little girl thinks about our library.  This is her gift to our hard-working staff trying to keep the library afloat:  

TO THE LIBRARIANS  

'Living here for over a year
For awhile it was living in fear
The teasing and torment when it came from school
When it came to home, had no power or rule  

But then I learned of this little place
That had silence and books, which was good in my case
I got on my shoes and left my so-called home
And into town I decided to roam
I walked into the place, it was small and sweet,
Though not as quiet as I thought
I trudged right in, and a friendly smile I caught
Books and shelves, computers and desks
Small kids running around giving siblings a pest  

Ever since then, I’ve been here day after day
Listening to the “how are you’s” “hello’s” and “heys.”
Life got so hard, so I came here
Trying , every day, to not shed a tear  

This place makes me feel comfy and at home
And I have friends here, so I’m never alone.
Homework and divorce and friends going away, too  

But then I realized it wasn’t just this place
But it was all of you'  

An important issue involving the future of our community and our children.  Please take the time to vote and, when you do, think of our children.  

Dick Hughes, Enumclaw