Here's a link to a newspaper story about tonight's rally and meeting at the library with a nice representative photo of part of the group.
The mayor and the library director said they'll give us until the end of the year before they close the library, and in that time we'll have conversations about "alternative service models" for the library, which to the library director and mayor seems to mean renting the building to a non-profit agency. So there is still much work to be done. But at least we may not have such horrible time pressure hanging over us to save the library NOW.
I'll need to figure out how much more energy I can expend on this and find a way to compartmentalize the library work so it doesn't keep taking over my brain and my life. Not only am I supposed to be homeschooling my kids and paying them at least some attention, but I also set a goal at the beginning of the year to finally finish a suck-ass draft of the memoir manuscript I've been tinkering with for lo on to 5 years now.
I am such a perfectionist and have such a hard time letting go of my work and making it public. That's part of why this whole library effort has been a good push out of my comfort zone. I'm making public statements all over the place without benefit of scrupulous editing and proofreading. And it's not as bad or scary as I thought it would be. It actually makes things happen when people take the risk of doing something, even when it's imperfect. If we hadn't fought the way we had, we might not have earned our library a possible stay of execution.
I wish I could say with certainty that a year from now I'll still be walking down the street to the library every Thursday afternoon and hauling away a little red wagonload of books with the kids. But times being what they are, I'll take what incremental progess I can make.
2 comments:
You are such a badass! I am excited that we are both having "coming out" years at the same time!!! Let's encourage each other! What is that bible quote? "Thy must not hide thy light under a barrel" or something? I wonder if we have the same numerology this year. . . hmmm. . .
BTW, what *are* you thinking - don't you think having an activist mama will stick with the kids and teach them more than anything you could do directly with them? My parents were so apolitical when I was little - you are setting an example of being a "stateswoman"! Go you!
Thanks! I'm just so happy you're commenting. Now I don't feel so silly writing my little posts. And yes, let's keep encouraging each other to let our little lights shine.
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