What I mean to say

E.D. Kain on Civil Societarianism:

There are more important freedoms than economic freedoms and even economic freedoms can be understood in different ways (not just the freedom to choose what to buy or how to run your business, for instance, but the freedom to be able to afford to buy things like healthcare in the first place). Public education, public libraries – these are essential pieces of our society that we can’t put a price tag on. In the red and black ink-stained columns of our little theoretical ledgers, all we can see is their cost, not the value they create. Which is why education is one of the first places we see cuts, then healthcare for the poor, then libraries and other ‘non-essential’ public services. And this worries me deeply.

The disdain for all things government really bothers me.  Luckily, in the last budget cycle, when libraries were on the chopping block, there was some pretty serious outcry from this generally radical conservative part of Western Ohio.  I really wanted to tell people that if you really want to complain about the state cutting funding for libraries, encourage your representatives to quit cutting taxes.  But on WLW, Mike McConnell was bitching about why in the hell libraries still existed.  He was asking, why didn't the poor folks buy books or rent movies at the video store?  Luckily, quite a few people called in to take the other side of the argument.