“I’m just a soul whose intentions are good. Oh, Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” — Eric Burdon and the Animals

It was with great regret that I noticed negative comments in response to the news the Dorr Township Library is going back to the drawing board and asking for approval of another millage request, this time in March.

There appears to be a lot of misunderstandings about millage requests and taxation in general.

These are the misconceptions, followed by what I hope clears them up:

“What part of no don’t you understand?”

Some voters don’t like it when a public entity asks for tax support and then comes back to ask again. They somehow believe taxpayers are getting badgered into doing something they don’t want to do and the requests won’t stop until they give in.

The Dorr Township Library Board asked for an 0.789 mill levy in August 2018, but it was rejected, leaving the library with no funding after 2018. So another request, this time for a mill, was put on the ballot in August 2019, and it was turned down, but this time by a smaller margin.

The third try features a reduction in the millage request, down to six-tenths of a mill.

Voters need to view this as just like haggling or bargaining at a garage sale or when buying a car.

Where did this Friends of the Library come from?

The Dorr Township Library Board has not traditionally had a “Friends” group, which is established to provide some extras, such as fund-raising, much like an athletic boosters club. It was formed for the first time this year. The money they are tasked with raising this time would be used to help fund the election in March.

The library is just a summertime baby-sitter

Library staff and its director do all they can to avoid just being a place for parents to dump their kids. They encourage parents to participate, and if it’s true that children go to the library to read books, get on the Internet or check out videos and CDs, it’s a good thing, not a bad thing. It’s much better than having them hang out at home, glued to their cell phones, or getting into mischief because “there’s nothing to do.”

I’m too poor to financially support the library

There’s more than a grain of truth to this claim. We’re being told the unemployment rate is at historic lows, yet so many have low-paying jobs. The well-to-do are telling us to dislike or oppose public services for which they don’t want to pay for. Perhaps they can afford to buy their own books, but many cannot. And the library millage amounts a small percentage of just about everybody’s budget.

Don’t waste money on special elections

The “Friends” plan to help fund costs for the election in March. The Library Board indeed spent $6,000 to have the special election last August and a lesson has been learned as a result.

Why should I pay for a library I don’t use?

Besides being awfully selfish, it’s the same argument used by too many in turning away from supporting public services. Why should I pay for roads when I don’t travel on most of them? Why should I pay for schools when I don’t have any of my kids attending? Why should I pay for police and fire if I don’t use them?

Please note: Taxes are the costs of having a civilized society.

That is an important and basic point that gets lost in our popular but wrong-headed collective hatred of taxes. We don’t seem to understand that individually none of us can pay for a police officer to guard our home or put out the fire when that calamity occurs.

Paying taxes for schools is intended to help create educated citizens who will contribute to our society.

If we believe reading is an important part of education, we should encourage it at every opportunity. Neil Postman in “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” posited that the laziest way to gain information is to watch it passively on TV or in a video. Visual learning is the poorest form. Audio learning is slightly better because it encourages the individual to imagine what’s going on.

Reading forces the individual’s brain to work a lot harder and should be regarded as good mental exercise. Therefore, we should provide our young people and even adults with ways to keep them fit.

“Some of you like pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read… Why don’t you go the library and educate yourself, if you’ve got any guts?” — Frank Zappa