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The Library Treatment
The current debate over the need for a new downtown library is perplexing. I agree with detractors that branch libraries are important and should be modernized/expanded/replaced based on community needs. But I also know that throughout history and around the world great cultural centers have grown up around great libraries. These centers provide a rich resource to outlying communities that will never have the means to develop such centers on their own.
In the past decade there has been a library renaissance across America. Richmond, Seattle, San Antonio, Phoenix and, yes, Nashville are some of the cities that have seen a renewed vitality downtown as a result of their superb new libraries.�Libraries are now multi-use facilities that form partnerships for services related to workforce development, small business, and support to children, youth and families. Lawson-McGhee was basically a functional library when library Director Larry Frank arrived. He has enhanced functionality with creative use of limited resources, but Frank and the intellectual community envision a library of the future, a destination place, an instantly recognizable landmark that enhances Knoxville’s identity.
Those who say libraries are becoming obsolete are people who either a.) don’t use them, or b.) belong to the middle and upper classes whose homes contain all the technology they need.� Libraries are the largest source of free access to the Internet and bridge the divide between those with computers and those without.� When all levels of society have access to techknowledgy, everyone benefits. That is the often-overlooked human side of economic development. Given the interdependent relationships between physical and human development, and the particular infrastructure and skills needed to thrive in the new economy, vibrant public libraries are allies and resources for local economies.�
The cities that don’t get it focus on ways to attract tourism revenue. Tourism is unpredictable and superficial; it treats the symptom. Strong libraries are visual and permanent reminders of a city’s commitment to its residents and to its current and potential business partners. Libraries treat the disease.
Judy Loest
Knoxville
The Rich and a Fair Share
Mr. [Mark] Broussard has responded [May 20] to Julie Hendrix’s recent letter with an impassioned affirmation that the wealthy pay their share in taxes, coupled with an implication that the working poor do not. He states that in 2001 the top 1 percent of wage earners paid 33.9 percent of all income taxes. These 1.3 million households earned 18 percent of all taxable income in the United States, compared to 14 percent for the 64 million households making up the bottom 50 percent of all wage earners. Pardon me if I fail to feel the pain of the wealthy 1 percent, with a yearly taxable income (that is after deductions) averaging over $852,000 per household (all statistics from IRS).
Apparently President Bush feels their pain. Allan Sloan provides a truly remarkable expose of the tax cuts in the April 12 edition of Newsweek. Not only has Bush slashed taxes on this group by 13 percent, but he also has even bigger plans for the future: the repeal of the estate and dividends taxes.
The estate tax is based on an estate of $1 million, applying to only 2 percent of the population. Through repeal of this tax, Bush, in the words of Allan Sloan, “would create a new class of landed aristocrats who could inherit billions tax-free, invest the money, watch it compound tax-free and hand it down tax-free to their heirs.” This is not exactly the hallmark of a democratic society.
Repeal of the tax on dividends would be even worse. The logic behind such a repeal escapes me. This is after all “income,” and our tax system is supposed to be an “income tax system,” is it not? A repeal of this tax would favor the wealthy far more than the middle-class, especially the top 1 percent of the population. Most of these individuals do not receive any sort of an “income” in the traditional sense of the word: their income derives largely from investments and dividends. Thus, these people would no longer have to pay taxes on most of their income.
In this way Bush’s tax cuts threaten the future of working and middle-class Americans while sheltering the wealthy. This is especially ironic considering the war he has led us into. As a former infantryman, I can attest that a volunteer military, such as our own, is not composed primarily of wealthy or even middle-class men and women. Young men and women from the bottom 50 percent of the income bracket, the working poor, fill most of those body bags coming home. I ask you, Mr. Broussard, are these the people whom you imply are not paying their fair share?
Scott Hendrix
Friendsville
Abortion as ‘Murder’
Thank you for publishing Patrice Cole’s letter regarding abortion in your May 13 issue. Frankly I was surprised your management attitude or policy would allow such a letter, having read your publication for sometime. Please express my sincere appreciation to Patrice Cole for her brave concern and action; however, when she used the word to describe the murder of a human fetus as “killing” it would have been more correct to describe the procedure as “murder.” Please relay my appreciation to Patrice for her appreciation for life as described in her letter. Know that there are more out here that think about the right to life than Metro Pulse knows about.
Jerre Williams
Rockford
A Good Bitter Pill
I’ve just finished reading Jack Neely’s [May 20] “Myopia” column about the unkind labels that respectable journalists have applied to Knoxville. The column was like the cod liver oil of olden days...bitter to swallow but necessary and healthy.
The column raises good points about property rights. But my comments here go in a different direction. Every other city seems to recognize the need for a neat and tidy “civic living room”—usually a neighborhood in or near downtown that is kept freshly scrubbed and well-appointed just in case company drops in. If there is laundry to be aired or a cluttered mess on the back stairs, those are swept completely out of sight.
So what about Knoxville? Does it have a civic living room where we can usher our guests to impress them? Alas, despite heroic civic buildings strewn here and there, we still treat visitors like family here. Just as in decades past, a visitor can easily glimpse everything that we see: rowdy babies, noisy cars, bits of litter, or tainted puddles. These same things are found in every city but somehow are kept away from visitors elsewhere. Clearly when it comes to putting on airs, we’ve faltered.
J. James
Knoxville
May 27, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 22
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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