There is a really neat article, "Maine Librarian's Pointed Budget Message Hits the Mark" posted on Common Dreams. The librarian in question is Kelley McDaniel. She was one of several individuals who was allotted 3 whole minutes to address the Maine legislature about their proposed state budget.
I agree with reporter Bill Nemitz's assessment of her remarks.
If you belonged to a club and there were members who steadfastly refused to pay their dues, wouldn't you kick them out?
That's what we should do.
I agree with reporter Bill Nemitz's assessment of her remarks.
If politics these days is all about what the experts call "driving the message," McDaniel spent all of her precious three minutes in the fast lane.What a great metaphor she chose!! The point she was driving home is that some members of the "club" want to enjoy all the privileges and perks of membership WITHOUT chipping in their share of the dues. Even worse, while not paying their share, they demand that others less fortunate pay their dues and more FOR them.
She told the committee that she recently won a national "I Love My Librarian" Award from the Carnegie Corp. and The New York Times -- an honor that included a check, made out to McDaniel, for $5,000.
"I plan to report that money on my income tax and I expect to pay taxes on it," she told the lawmakers. "Even though I donated the money in its entirety to the public middle school where I work."
You heard that right.
She gave the whole five grand, after taxes, to her school. If you live in Portland, that's your school, too.
It was only the beginning.
McDaniel said she's "happy to pay those taxes" because the way she sees it, taxes are "like membership dues" for being a citizen of this great state.
She said that while she gets lots of things (education, health and safety, arts and recreation) in exchange for those "dues," she realizes "I may not personally benefit from everything that tax money is used for."
She has no problem with that. As McDaniel put it, "I try to trust that elected officials will spend money to the best benefit of society and not just to a handful of individuals."
Then, without missing a beat, she turned her attention to the budget...
If you belonged to a club and there were members who steadfastly refused to pay their dues, wouldn't you kick them out?
That's what we should do.
Librarians are generally really cool people. (Liberal really...they are never the ones who want to ban books.) My husband's career has been largely in librarianship. He turned down a raise recently so that he could hire a particularly qualified candidate for a position who needed the money he didn't.
ReplyDeleteBut sacrifice doesn't seem to get notice by the narcissistic and paranoid leaders who surround themselves with OCD and dependant, avoidant, and not a few borderline types. I love this idea you came up with.
fantastic post. great find. have forwarded to my friends in wisconsin
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