Cold Redux

It's a bit chilly out there, cold up there in them these here hills. Dry snow covers the landscape, or perhaps in these here hills, the cityscape. This is indeed a city, albeit a small one, and a tortured one, having had its glory days around 100 years before now. And back to now, this small city on the river struggles to find new meaning, new life, new vibrancy.

So what does this city do? Treats the public library as a cash cow that can be slowly slaughtered in a desperate attempt to balance the budget. And because of some (excuse me) imbecilic requirements, now that it is 2009 and the library can only open for three days a week, it is now de-certified, meaning it has been ostracized, cast out of the library network, so all that exquisite inter-library service is now no more than a mashed polecat smeared across the cold, hard pavement. Way to go, in these times of trouble and desperation, when demand for and dependence on the precious resource of the public library is greater than ever, lay off most of the staff and lock the doors most of the time. Let all those books, CDs, videos, magazines, newspapers, just gather dust in the dark for four days in a row. Let the only truly free internet access be mostly off limits to the poorest job-seekers. Give those with no place to go even one less place to go. Here's to the city you've torn out the heart of, Fitchburg you better find another country to be part of.