Bastions of Freedom

Volunteers move books from old public library (in background) to a new library.

    People in my town lined a downtown sidewalk. Books passed from hand to hand. No, the public library wasn't on fire, it was moving. This book brigade stretched from an old library to a new library.
   One book caught my attention. The cover illustration depicted Benjamin Franklin.
   As a founding father of this nation, Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence. Doing so was risky. He said, "We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
   On July 4th, we celebrate the anniversary of that declaration. This time around, disquiet tempers my enthusiasm. News stories are reporting that our government is keeping tabs on emails and phone calls sent by ordinary citizens. I can't imagine that Ben Franklin would condone such abuse of power.

A children's book about Benjamin Franklin.

   Franklin established the first book lending library in America. Thanks to his vision, any citizen can walk into a library and obtain books, videos, and get online. Citizens can access rooms for meetings.
   This kind of public assembly checks--or at least slows--abuses of governmental authority. So does public access to information.
   Libraries are bastions of freedom.