Books Make Free Men to the Chagrin of Would-Be Enslavers

Father Eby had such a beautiful, sonorous voice that I didn't even much mind sitting through the sermons every Sunday, singing in the Good Shephard Episcopal Junior Choir.

I vowed to read the Bible, and bored by who begat whom, finally skipping ahead to the words in red, thanks to an Apocropha.

The words in red, what Jesus is purported to have said, is baby, and religion, its bath water.

Christ's teachings spoke to me, shaping how I wanted to live.

Later I wondered if I should be a Jew because Jesus was, and I don't think he'd be very pleased with what has been done in his Name. 

I think he'd enter the temple and kick over all the tables in a terrible temper.

I didn't see the humor until much, much later;  my nineteen year old self, blythe, earnest, and proud, presenting, and defending my paper that proved quite clearly that Christ Fufilled the Prophecies and stuff and so-on to my two professors, who I remembered later were both Jewish.

They were kind, and while I was entirely oblivious to it at the time, their manner, their polite-ness, maybe their silences,  floated up in my memory from time to time and gave me questions, until I saw it and laughed loudly.

When I understood more
the impact of politics,
that history belongs to the Victor,
the power of translation to change a work,
how many lies I had been taught as history,
the lengths some will go for money and power,
that the same wisdom occurs in a variety of religions,
that poverty is not an accident,
and that my God would have a sense of humor and overlook it
If I'm wrong to think the Christian leap of faith, blood sacrifice of an innocent, idolatry, and fear, is illogical.

When I see a flower, I am unafraid.

When I see the "Justice" System preying on the poor,
when I know how expensive it is to be poor, with added chains, spit, and indiginities and almost impossible to escape,
When I know that hunger is more about power and distribution than world resources,
When I know the system set in place to deal with domestic violence makes things far worse,
These things, and many more: When I see them, I know it could be different.

Each world citizen should have their basic needs met in order for the world to evolve to a place where higher thought is even possible. When you are hungry, your dreams are of food. When you have food and shelter, you may dream of many things.

The Library is at a unique crossroad in the transition from providing citizens with basic needs and ensuring the right of each person to have information and the tools needed to access it, a higher level need. The Library gives the homeless shelter from the elements, and gives the lonely a place to be, while it provides the books, computers, and instruction that allow higher level thinking opportunities.

I am intrigued with the future of the Library.

I plan to write my vision for the Library of the Future when I learn more about what the library is facing with the digital age.