It's been a month . . .

Rumors. . . Right now that is all we are hearing. No definite answers, no resolutions, no nothin'.

I have only been inconvenienced by this flood. Just a bit of water in the basement, easily dried and cleaned.

I have only been inconvenienced. Just a feeling of the world being slightly oblique and tilted. My life is usually that way, but now it seems to be a permanent part of my being.

If I am inconvenienced, what about the thousands without homes and jobs? What about the hundreds of people coming into our small library who a so very cheerful with our staff--who have lost everything? How can they remain optimistic? Hopeful?

The latest rumors, in the Gazette, indicate that the Cedar Rapids Public Library may no longer have a budget. That their recovery is hindered by lack of interim funding. They, apparently, are not a "necessary service of the city in terms of public health and safety."

Tell that to the hundreds of new patrons that the Hiawatha Public Library has been seeing every day for the last month. Tell that to the people who need to contact government organizations through the Internet and have no access to the Internet other than at the libraries. Tell that to people who now have no homes or telephones that they cannot contact family members in other areas that they are okay and need (or don't need) help. Tell that to the waiting lists that the Hiawatha and Marion libraries have for their Internet computers.

Not a necessary service--my asterisk.

Absurdly,
Pat