• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About

From Franklin to Flint, the Library Unites America

March 26, 2012 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

Readers of the late John Michael Flint’s Modesto Bee Community Columns were continually impressed with the breadth and depth of his knowledge. Few could have guessed he was mostly self-taught.

Flint claimed that when the movie, “Animal House,” was released it was so like his one and only year at college that he researched the script’s origins, convinced it was based on his own experience. Though his short acquaintance with college didn’t include much in the way of courses, he was nonetheless an exceptionally learned man who read voraciously: his university was the public library.

Flint read everything from John Grisham thrillers to American history to libertarian philosophy.  Virtually everything he read was borrowed from the Stanislaus County library. As a spirited participant in the American project of self-government, Flint took James Madison’s famous words to heart:

“A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

The result of Flint’s lifelong project of arming himself with knowledge was an exceptionally well-informed citizen who shared his knowledge on the Bee OP/ED page with thirteen years of eloquent contributions.

It is a lamentable sign of the times that citizens must even consider the question of keeping our libraries open, but so we must. The one-eighth cent sales tax, which provides 84 percent of library funding, will expire in June of 2013 but must be approved by a two-thirds vote in the June 5 Primary Election this year. Fortunately, public-spirited citizens are already rallying around the library, and they form a diverse group.

Few Valley residents are as skeptical of taxation as Stanislaus County Supervisor Jim DeMartini, but DeMartini has already hosted a library tax fundraiser at his home near Patterson. Recently elected Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh just had another fundraiser at the McHenry Museum. Both events were attended by people of every political stripe, from rock-ribbed conservatives to life-long leftists, every one united in support of our library system.

Springing as it did from the fertile mind of Benjamin Franklin in 1731, the public library was a wellspring of American citizenship even before there was a United States. It is among our greatest public institutions and among the greatest unifying forces our country shares. Today, the library includes more programs than ever, everything from adult literacy classes, to children’s story programs, to Internet access.

The most recent Stanislaus County year’s figures showed 3.59 million library transactions—remarkable testimony to the library’s enduring role in endowing even the humblest Valley citizen with the true wealth of the ages. And at one-eighth of a cent, even Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard couldn’t have conceived of a better bargain.

 

 

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Stanislaus County Library, Stanislaus Library tax

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Markie Flint Blackmon says

    May 1, 2012 at 2:39 am

    “From Franklin to Flint, the Library Unites America” – Johnny would have liked that.

    Re: Animal House – I remember Johnny’s researching the script’s origins, convinced that Faber College was really St. John Fisher; the events in the movie closely matched his own, down to specific details. Road trip!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has 'paralyzed' California cities
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has ‘paralyzed’ California cities
The Democratic governor’s intervention lays down a mark in a legal dispute with potentially profound implications for one of California’s most pressing issues.
www.politico.com
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
www.propublica.org
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How bad is hunger in California? A lot depends on your access to food aid, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic but now is being reduced.
calmatters.org
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento County had nearly 9,300 homeless people in 2022, based on data from the annual Point in Time count. That was up 67% from 2019. Roughly three-quarters of the county’s homeless population….
www.mercurynews.com
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
After decades of minimal action, Congress passed the largest and most comprehensive piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. Will we make the most of this opportunity?
www.audubon.org
How the fentanyl crisis' fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
How the fentanyl crisis’ fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
The epidemic’s staggering scale and infiltration of communities is laid bare in a new study.
www.bbc.com
Can licensed tent villages ease California's homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Can licensed tent villages ease California’s homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Taking people off the street and into tents is a new twist on homeless shelter being explored by the San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy in two tent villages operating in Los Angeles and Culver City.
www.latimes.com
Mississippi has problems, but it's handling homelessness better than L.A.
Mississippi has problems, but it’s handling homelessness better than L.A.
The public tends to blame homelessness on poverty, drug use, crime or even warm weather. But other cities don’t have L.A. levels of street homelessness because they have more available housing.
www.latimes.com
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
The demonstrators raised “Heil Hitler” salutes and waved flags with swastikas.
www.thedailybeast.com
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom's CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom’s CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Gov. Gavin Newsom?s experiment to push Californians with mental illness off the streets and into treatment, CARE Court, starts soon.
calmatters.org
Pope says 'backward' U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
Pope says ‘backward’ U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church. He says they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.
apnews.com
The Anti-California
The Anti-California
How Montana performed a housing miracle
www.theatlantic.com

Find us on Facebook

pp
The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design