Email to the Editor: The Library - A Valued Commodity

Library:  a place set apart to contain books and other literary material for reading, study or reference.   (Webster’s Dictionary)

I find it interesting that a subject of such contention and such emotion in this community is…a library, a place of learning and growing, a place to do research, a place to spark an interest in books and reading for children, a place to gather for meetings and functions. I think it says a lot for our community, our town, that this is what is important to us, so important that we take desperate measures to hang on to it. We recognize that our library is no frivolous thing, that it is essential to the health and wholeness of our town.

What if the consensus among the citizens was, “Who cares? I don’t go there anyway. And I certainly don’t want to pay taxes to support it.” We, the citizens of Enumclaw, obviously don’t, as a general rule, hold that view.

I see red and white signs around town that say “Save Our Library” and black and white signs that say “Keep Our Library.” The pro and con groups essentially want the same thing: a viable, healthy community library. They just have different ways of approaching that same end.

I’m glad to live in a town where people care about things that truly matter.

Kathleen Elfers
Enumclaw