Let’s not let Dorr Library be a victim of ‘Bowling Alone’

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

It’s no surprise to anyone when I add my voice to those who support the Dorr Township Library’s request for one mill in the Aug. 6 special election. For what it’s worth, perhaps not a lot because I personally won’t have to pay for this levy, I back the proposal for a different reason — “Bowling Alone.”

For those not aware, “Bowling Alone” is widely regarded as one of the most important sociology books written in the last half century. Author Prof. Robert Putnam argues that American society in the last 50 years or more has drifted apart from one another. Many of us hardly know our neighbors, most of us no longer are members of community service clubs, we don’t work together to solve problems, and about the only time we gather together as a community is at sporting events.

Putnam paints a dreary picture of people who spend weekdays working, coming home for dinner, watching TV and then going to sleep, repeating the schedule five times each week. When the weekend arrives, we watch sporting events on TV, work in the yard, go to a big box store or the mall, but do not often gather with friends or colleagues.

This wasn’t the case between 50 and 100 years ago, when the pages of the Wayland Globe featured robust community service clubs, community celebrations and collaborative spirit. There wasn’t really much of an attitude back then of “every man for himself,” as seen and heard so often today.

Some of the reasons for this show deterioration of community life are women joining the workforce outside the home, television and the Internet keeping us home and increasing work obligations.

There are some services and organizations that still fight against that isolation, and one of the most important is the library, a place where you don’t have to buy a book, you can check it out for free, where you can get on the Internet if you can’t afford it home, where you can acquire information that may not be available or affordable on line, where you can rent a DVD movie at no charge, where children’s programming helps the youngest among us get acquainted and socialize while learning.

I remember too well in August 1962, when I and my family came to Wayland, I knew no one and for at least a month my only friends were books I checked out of Henika Library. But libraries over the years have become more than just places to get a book and now have become progressive institutions that offer links to some of the latest and greatest technology.

The library is a service for all of us in our communities, and the cost is that one mill per year, which is shared by everybody who lives in its district.

Though I acknowledge the argument that perhaps asking for one mill after living (barely) on a third of a mill was risky, I also understand this wasn’t arrived at lightly. It was a decision by board members who also are neighbors and members of the township and who will have to pay their fair share to keep things going.

I was told by Library Board members that they believe a one-mill levy is necessary just to keep the doors open and continue offering quality and affordable services to everyone. I believe them. Unlike so many politicians, they don’t lie.

Letting the library slip away because of finances would be just another step toward “Bowling Alone.”