by Ronald G Baars

Created on: December 28, 2009

The role of free public libraries in democracies

            To understand the importance of Free Public Libraries to a Democracy we must first understand the basic tenets of and underlying principles of democracy.  The Democracy of the United States of America as defined in our Constitution, which states “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” We can also gather further insight into the hearts and minds of our founding fathers by reading the following excerpt from the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”.

As we ponder the principles expressed in these founding documents we must also understand that a Democracy is a particular kind of government that requires a high degree of commitment from its electorate.  It requires each of us to step out of ourselves and see the world through the lens of its creator.  As an example, our human eyes tell us that all men are not created equal.  Some men are tall and some men are short.  Some men have red hair and some men have black hair.  They are not alike.  So what were our founding father’s thinking?  There are, of course many answers to this question but one of those answers is that they perceived, as they stepped outside themselves, what every parent sees in the eyes of their newborn child.  They saw that even though men and women may look different on the outside they can be counted as equal in the broader context that each of us is born with infinite potential.

One element of that infinite potential is our capacity to learn.  That learning can come from many sources.  Unfortunately, for those who don’t have the resources to travel the world or the social connections to speak with people who have traveled the world, there is diminished return on their

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>