Last night the results came in about whether we should have a county wide library system. The majority of voters said no. I was surprised at this because this is a largely Mormon county and things like education and taking care of our communities are supposed to be important here.
What shocked me to the core was the venom that came out against the idea. People didn't just disagree, they were cruel to those who thought it was a good idea. It just brings to mind an idea that I have had for a long time now, that is that the legacy of this Tea Party movement will be the break down of civil dialogue between citizens.
The county wide library system would raise property taxes by $85 a year, that is a hefty sum no question. The thing is, that just a few years ago the cost would have been the debated issue, not so now. Now the Tea Party are calling people who use libraries, Marxist, lazy, entitled, and worse. One man wrote to the "Utah statesmen" and said that we as citizens should wait for a wealthy family to "gift" us a library, he also said that we (those who don't own a library) should be deported to another country. Now clearly he was alluding here to the fact that he believed the library was to be built(or expanded) because of "illegal" immigrants.
My point is not that you should agree about the library, it is expensive, my point is what the hell happened to civil, logical discourse in America.
It breaks my heart knowing that this idea was rejected, not because of the cost, but because people have decided to label all forms of government as "bad".
But WTF do I know, after all I am just a Communist Marxist Socialist, who likes to read?
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