Difficult choices ahead as funding cuts loom

Much has been written and said recently regarding the significant cuts in education and library services that the state is contemplating. While everyone recognizes the need to respect budgetary limits, the devil is in the details about which path to best reach that goal.

For better or worse, oftentimes it is literary or artistic support that is first looked to for savings. Roads, public safety, health and welfare all have their very vocal supporters. But who speaks for literature, music and art? And are these even endeavors that deserve our support when so many other areas are being cut?

The answer to those questions depends on what kind of a society we wish to bequeath to those who come after us. Each day, we enjoy the tangible fruits of the Industrial Age, as well as the current Information Age. But are we as mindful of preserving the legacy passed on to us from the Age of Reason, when humanity was freed from so much tyranny that had ruled over the mind of mankind? What would our world look like today if there had been less concern for intangibles like freedom of thought, creative energy and the worth of the individual? None of these contribute in any measure that would be directly scored in Gross Domestic Product, and yet we would be infinitely poorer without them.

What would a world without the inspirations of Bach or Hemingway set down to paper be like? If we never had a Tolstoy or a Da Vinci, would we even notice? Does anyone still care?

We should. We should care because, no matter how many new technologies we develop, regardless of what undreamt-of gadgets we may one day possess, we are all, at the most fundamental level, still human. And it's the humanity in us that art and literature and music speak to most directly. To starve this wellspring of our nature is to starve the one thing that makes everything else possible, whether manifested as applied science, commerce or even our social ordering. Rather than looking at this enrichment as an expense that can be shaved away with no consequences, we should think of it as eating our own seed corn. Are we renewing that nourishment with new insights into our world, and ourselves, by our own commitment to supporting art, education, literature and music? The decisions we make today will determine the world we, and our children's children, will live in. We should choose wisely.

Wayne D. Holt
Interim Library Director, Pasadena Public Library