It’s National Library Week, so I’ve been thinking a lot about knowledge and the idea that knowledge should be readily available – for all. An informed populace is crucial to the health of the nation and a bulwark of democracy. The ability to think, to reason, to avoid being fooled, all these notions are tied to reading and easy access to the wisdom of the ages.
And this is exactly why libraries – and their contents – are under siege these days.
HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery recently told readers:
“Librarians are living in constant fear. They have become the targets
of Republican politicians and far-right groups like Moms for Liberty
Liberty that are hellbent on burning books about LGBTQ+ people,
people of color and racism. Some librarians are quitting their jobs
because of constant harassment; others are getting fired for
refusing to clear shelves of books that conservatives don’t like.”
If that’s not bad enough – and it is – Bendery informs us there’s another evil twist in the tale: “The GOP’s censorship campaign has shifted from book bans to legislation threatening librarians with jail time.” Idaho’s tried several times to enact such legislation; this February, West Virginia passed a bill “making librarians criminally liable if a minor comes across content that some might consider obscene.” Idaho, Iowa, Alabama, and Georgia are also considering various means of keeping books they don’t like off the shelves...and they’re not alone.
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom shared some frightening statistics: “The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023; school libraries saw an 11% increase over 2022 numbers.”
Given these ever-more-frequent, ever-more-strident attacks, what can a concerned reader do to stem the tide of book-banning?
PEN America, an organization whose mission “is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible,” offers a number of ways to make one’s voice heard. Whether you’re a student, a parent, an author, or a librarian, PEN America provides advice, assistance, and resources to keep you informed and ready to push back.
The need to support the nation’s libraries is more urgent than ever. In Bendery’s HuffPost piece, American Library Association President Emily Drabinski draws a chilling conclusion: “What gets lost in conversations about book banning is that it’s really about eliminating the institution of the library, period. It’s not about the books. Well, it is about the books, but the books are the way in to gut one of the last public institutions that serves everyone.”
“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture,” Ray Bradbury once said. “Just get people to stop reading them.”
Bradbury was one of the 20th century’s finest fabulists, the author of The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the worldwide blockbuster Fahrenheit 451. Published in 1952, the novel Fahrenheit 451 is set in a future where books are illegal and firemen don’t put out fires – they start them. Printed matter is what they burn.
Bradbury was writing in the tense, paranoid early years of the McCarthy era. But he might as well have penned those words last Thursday.
Support your local library. Speak up for the voices the hate-mongers would shut down. Before – as history’s proven again and again – they try to shut down yours.
---
Students fight a book ban by giving away free banned bookswww.youtube.com
The New York Public Library has also weighed in on the matter, you can find its suggestions here.
Is Affordable Health Care and Education Even possible?
Affordable health care and education is beginning to feel more and more like an unattainable luxury.
It is still a struggle for Americans to access affordable health care and education. Unfortunately, this is largely because companies are looking to profit rather than have tax money benefit the actual taxpayer.
There is no denying that business owners work hard for the money that they make. However, as more money is funneled into the pockets of the 1%, it means there is less available for health care and education assistance. Rather than improving the country by ensuring accessible health care and education for all, business owners are purchasing boats, second (or third) homes and luxury cars.
If each business made a small shift, they could still profit without cheating the American tax payer out of affordable health care and education. Let's take a look at a few ideas business owners could implement to improve their profit margins without taking tax dollars.
Cut out Waste
Whether we're talking about wasted productivity or wasted products, many companies aren't operating as lean and efficiently as they could be. They waste time, money and other resources putting too many employees on the schedule or throwing out products that weren't properly assembled or may have been past their expiration date. Unfortunately, any kind of waste can hurt a business's profitability.
If more businesses would adopt a leaner business model, they can eliminate this waste and ensure they're not throwing money right down the toilet. By only scheduling employees when they're actually needed, ensuring they're meeting the appropriate demand requirements, and not wasting so much product, business owners can make enough profit that they won't need to swindle taxpayers out of their cash.
Focus on Gaining Repeat Customers
Acquiring new customers is expensive for any business. Because companies need to go through the entire process of attracting new leads and nurturing them into clients, they need a larger marketing budget. However, if they put their focus on getting past customers to purchase again, they could cut their marketing spending and increase revenue at the same time.
Repeat customers mean that companies get more return for their initial investment. Unfortunately, many companies only look at landing that first sale and do very little to encourage buyers to come back for more. If they instead focused on building strong communities that continuously purchase from them, they could bring in more business and leave tax money for education and healthcare.
Reduce Indirect Spending
When we think about spending as a company, we usually think about direct spending, or products and services that go directly into making the products the company sells. These raw materials and subcontracted work contracts are extremely important, but indirect spending can really cause a company to overspend.
Reducing indirect spending, or spending on products and services that don't contribute to the products being manufactured, can result in savings of more than 25% for a company. If companies consider purchasing cheaper items or just begin tracking their spending, they can find additional costs to eliminate to put more money in the pockets of their employees and owners.
Improve Pricing Strategies
While consumers hate to see price increases on the products or services they love, companies need to be smarter about the way they're pricing their offerings. If they're not leaving enough room for a sustainable profit margin, owners are likely to get greedy and start looking for profit opportunities elsewhere.
Companies can improve their pricing strategies a couple of ways. First, if they're not charging enough, they can restructure their price scale to reflect the boost they need. On the other hand, if they're simply charging too much, they can reduce prices to improve demand and sell more products. Companies may also want to cut out products or services that are expensive to produce but do not bring in a particularly high return.
Unfortunately, it isn't likely that companies are going to leave tax money for education and health care. Because many business owners are only looking to put more money in their own pockets, we can expect to still see the 1% raking in cash while many of us continue to struggle to pay for basic needs.
Offering affordable health care and education to Americans doesn't need to become a difficult process. If we can rearrange some of the tax money that individuals are already paying, we should be able to make health care and education much more affordable. However, it would take serious restructuring to our entire system before we can really see change.
- This is How to Make Higher Education Affordable for Everyone ... ›
- Community college may be the secret sauce in affordable education ›
- Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 - Wikipedia ›
- Read the Affordable Care Act, Health Care Law | HealthCare.gov ›
- Why Luxury TVs Are Affordable when Basic Health Care Is Not ... ›