Wednesday, October 29, 1997

Bring out silent majority to the polls

By Richard Horn / Abilene Reporter-News

It's too big. It costs too much. They didn't do their homework. We don't need to build it.

Does this sound familiar? It should. Those are some of the arguments people made against building Lake Fort Phantom back in the '40s.

Several years ago, a new generation of civic leaders launched a campaign to clean up the railroad right of way, a desolate, post-apocalyptic eyesore through the middle of town.

This was quite a controversy, even though most of the project was funded with private money. It was ridiculed as wasteful, unnecessary, foolish. But I dare anyone to look at photos of our original desolation row, compare it to what we have today, and tell me that effort was a mistake, or anything but a bargain.

I bring up just two such examples to point out that people had to fight hard for almost all the public projects that help make Abilene a decent and even livable place.

There have always been good reasons not to undertake major projects, whether they were a city lake, a coliseum or a new school. But those who cared took up the task, bore more than their share of heat and abuse, and then fought on, harder each time.

And that is why, as several people have pointed out, a library is back before voters for the third time in 14 years. Because people who care believe Abilene needs a better library. And a lot of people who don't salute everything that comes out of City Hall agree.

My preference from the start was for a new downtown central library built from the ground up and designed to support branches. But I was open to other alternatives.

Had committee members urged the library be built in the NationsBank Tower or on the southside, I would have voted for the bonds even though they didn't fund my preference. I was convinced the committee did a thorough, sincere study and would recommend what it thought best. I still believe that. And please understand: If this fails, we are not getting a new library for a long, long time.

By now, I can't imagine anyone who hasn't made up his or her mind on this issue, but two opposition arguments really rankle.

One is the notion a new library will be obsolete. Just the opposite is true. We need to build a far better facility so Abilene's library doesn't become obsolete. What we're dealing with is not the near-end of books but a tidal wave of valuable information in new forms, which our current library is utterly unable to contain.

A 1996 New York Times article, which I'll be glad to show you, reported a booming nationwide investment in computer-enhanced public libraries that is "unparalleled to anything we've seen in this country since the time of Andrew Carnegie."

If libraries are on the edge of obsolescence, then why did Microsoft's Bill Gates set up a $400 million charitable foundation to help bring library services to low-income areas across America? Cynics will say it's so Gates can then sell more software, but that would only prove the point: Brother Gates does not invest in no-growth ventures.

Another phony argument is the land. During the last library election, like many people I was angry about the way the land purchase was handled. But the city owned the property, and I saw no benefit in voting "no" in order to "show somebody." I was on the losing side.

But after voting that day I went to the library, and it was crawling with people, mostly children, as it is on most Saturdays. There wasn't an empty seat or terminal and scarcely an aisle with fewer than three people searching bulging shelves. It was a dictionary definition of "overcrowded," and it was embarrassing.

To me it was obvious who the real election losers were, and they weren't city officials, downtown dealmakers or the "establishment." Far from it.

I'm convinced there's a majority of people out there who aren't angry about this and that and what happened five years ago, who've been to the place with their kids, know we need a new library and feel now is the time. For this to pass, they've got to turn out.

Meanwhile, much gratitude is due the many people who've poured their time, their hearts and their souls into studying this project and fighting to get something passed.

Those of us who believe in their work can thank them not only by voting ourselves, but by finding members of the silent majority who believe we need a new library and making sure they get to the polls as well.