Farenheit 451

It's a sad day when arsonists set fire to the same library twice in two weeks. The Julia Davis branch of St, Louis Library was vandalized and set ablaze with an accelerant (again) around 4am on Thursday. Luckily, the fire was contained and not very large, and even more lucky, most of the books were not harmed. Several had water damage and the building will be closed until sometime next week for repairs.

Here's the thing though, it's a library. Who can you possibly be making a stand against or trying to piss off? It's not like you're giving the finger to The Man. You're spitting on your own community. You're taking away something that belongs to everyone, and for what? I love that library. I drive past it all the time on the way to work. It's a nice branch, and it's used-- a lot. Especially in summer, when school is out. Many of my students, the lucky ones, go there habitually. When I was a kid, a week without a trip to the library would have been like a week of the silent treatment. For so many people, the library is their only communication, their only escape, their route to the power of language.

It just makes me angry.