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Some person from the local Tea Party has gone after my library saying that all our branches should be flying US flags, and this isn't currently the case.
Most of our branches are, indeed, flying the official flag of my library, which is a plastic take-out bag fluttering from razor wire.
Now, I may be Canadian, and I may be pretty anti-Tea-Party (though very much on the side of good tea with cakes and tiny sandwiches), and I may be somewhat anti-nationalist except when it comes to cheering for the Olympic women's curling team, but I cannot think of one good reason why our library branches should have to fly an American flag.
We're not an organ of the federal government. We're not an organ of the state government. Most public libraries, I guess, are organs of city or county government, but mine isn't; we're an independent organization that takes state and city money. We are not ultimately accountable to the mayor or any other government official. I'm not sure why else we would need to fly a flag, except to say "Yay, America!" -- which is why private businesses do it, to say they're more patriotic than that other guy, and I think that's awfully cynical and nothing to do with actual patriotism.
Ideally, libraries deal in real civic engagement. Tea Partiers, in their zeal to do away with any kind of government spending that doesn't fight wars, would be happy to do away with that. Getting people registered to vote, getting tax forms for them, making information available -- whether the Constitution or just books by Glenn Beck -- is not as important, I guess, as having a flag waving around out front, slowly getting faded and tattered.
Most of our branches are, indeed, flying the official flag of my library, which is a plastic take-out bag fluttering from razor wire.
Now, I may be Canadian, and I may be pretty anti-Tea-Party (though very much on the side of good tea with cakes and tiny sandwiches), and I may be somewhat anti-nationalist except when it comes to cheering for the Olympic women's curling team, but I cannot think of one good reason why our library branches should have to fly an American flag.
We're not an organ of the federal government. We're not an organ of the state government. Most public libraries, I guess, are organs of city or county government, but mine isn't; we're an independent organization that takes state and city money. We are not ultimately accountable to the mayor or any other government official. I'm not sure why else we would need to fly a flag, except to say "Yay, America!" -- which is why private businesses do it, to say they're more patriotic than that other guy, and I think that's awfully cynical and nothing to do with actual patriotism.
Ideally, libraries deal in real civic engagement. Tea Partiers, in their zeal to do away with any kind of government spending that doesn't fight wars, would be happy to do away with that. Getting people registered to vote, getting tax forms for them, making information available -- whether the Constitution or just books by Glenn Beck -- is not as important, I guess, as having a flag waving around out front, slowly getting faded and tattered.