The Union County Carnegie Library and USC-Union are two of the best things this county has going for it. They demonstrate the determination by people to improve themselves and provide a better future for their children.
As institutions of literacy and learning, Carnegie and USC-Union are a natural fit. I was delighted to learn that they collaborated to win an $8,000 “Big Read” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The goal of the program is to restore reading to the center of American culture by bringing communities together to read, discuss and celebrate a great work of literature. Carnegie and USC-Union chose Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” for their program.
In an age of Tweets and Twitters, I can think of no better use of federal spending than a program that promotes literacy and intellectual development through reading a book. I’m happy that Carnegie and USC-Union won the grant and I urge people to take advantage of this opportunity to immerse themselves in a great work of literature.
Granted, $8,000 is not a lot of money compared to the billions already allocated for various bailouts. It’s even less compared to the trillions the White House and Congress plan to spend on their health care, “cap and trade” and other boondoggles. Spending any amount of money to return reading to its rightful place in American culture is better than using it to bailout California or some other failed Third World state.
The question remains: should we be spending this money when the federal government is increasingly insolvent? Part of me says yes and part of me says no, a dilemma I suspect many thoughtful Americans face.
The part of me that remembers a happy childhood spent in a library and still finds reading one of life’s greatest joys says yes. By all means, spend that money and give this country a renewed sense of the joy of reading and a love of books.
There’s also a part of me that fears for the future of this country if steps are not taken to reverse Washington’s never ending orgy of borrow and spend and spend and tax. Washington won’t do it because every program — from the truly deserving like Big Read to the most outrageous flimflams politicians use to reward their cronies — has their defenders. Sadly, not only do the deserving usually receive far less than they should, but their presence in the federal budget is manipulated to provide cover for the undeserving.
So what should we do with that $8,000? Exactly what it has been allotted for. Carnegie and USC-Union should proceed with Big Read because it encourages values needed to restore this country. When the time comes for the restoration of America — if such a thing is even possible — it will come from communities that value life-affirming values such as culture and civilization, family and community over political opportunism, ideological fanaticism and corporate greed.
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Charles Warner is a staff writer for The Union Daily Times. He can be reached by phone at 427-1234, extension 18, or by e-mail at cwarner@uniondailytimes.com.
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