TESTIMONY
An attendee's Testimony on the Importance of Libraries and Advocates for Funding Reallocation
1:59:49
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162 sec
A member of the public reflects on libraries' significance during their upbringing in New York City, acknowledging librarians' dedication to privacy and education. Having worked with librarians, the speaker praises their resistance against the Patriot Act and their role in educating teens and new arrivals. The testimony concludes with a call to reintroduce the move the money resolution, urging the reallocation of federal funds from military spending to libraries, schools, and other essential public services.
UNKNOWN
1:59:49
Thank you very much for this opportunity to testify before the committee.
1:59:55
I grew up in New York City on the upper west side in the fifties and sixties when it was still west side story.
2:00:02
And every week, I went to a Carnegie library and the the library was a very important part of my growing up.
2:00:10
Before I retired, I spent decades working for a major publisher in New York City, and I an executive producer of a large website for teachers and librarians.
2:00:21
So I got to know a lot of librarians professionally, I would attend ALA, every year.
2:00:27
I have a lot of respect for librarians, and I know the work that they do.
2:00:31
They were at the forefront in fighting back against the Patriot Act.
2:00:36
Which required librarians to turn over to the government, the the things that people were waiting, and the LA stood up and told libraries to public libraries throughout the country that they should purge their lists as soon as the book was returned.
2:00:51
That they were not going, they were required to turn it over.
2:00:54
They said, well, we'll just get rid of those records because they believed in privacy and they believed in the right to read whatever you want to read without repercussions.
2:01:05
They were also important in teaching people how to research both teens who come in and new arrivals in the United States to research in the library and the library stacks themselves and how to use online databases.
2:01:21
They were really crucial in the education of our populace.
2:01:27
And it's heartbreaking to hear about the programs that are being cut and will continue to be cut as the budgets for public libraries have cut.
2:01:37
And so I want to mention that we want to see or remove the money resolution reintroduced to the council to say that this country has the money to fully fund our libraries and our schools, and our transit systems, and our public housing, that money is there, but the federal government is spending it on the military.
2:02:00
It's spending it to enrich weapons manufacturers.
2:02:03
It's spending it to wage war, against civilians in many parts of this world.
2:02:09
And so I fully in support of librarians, and fully in support of getting the council to reintroduce the move the money resolution and stand up and say to the feds to congress and to the president, cut the money to the Pentagon, spend it on whatever people need.
2:02:29
I thank you very much for this opportunity.