Why Is New York City Planning to Sell and Shrink Its Libraries?

Defend our libraries, don't defund them. . . . . fund 'em, don't plunder 'em

Mayor Bloomberg defunded New York libraries at a time of increasing public use, population growth and increased city wealth, shrinking our library system to create real estate deals for wealthy real estate developers at a time of cutbacks in education and escalating disparities in opportunity. It’s an unjust and shortsighted plan that will ultimately hurt New York City’s economy and competitiveness.

It should NOT be adopted by those we have now elected to pursue better policies.

Friday, October 13, 2017

How Did Trump Get Elected?: Michael Moore In “Terms of My Surrender” Envisions That It Was A Dumbing Down of the Country That Involved Closing Libraries

Michael Moore, the Film maker and activist provocateur, is currently on Broadway in “Terms of My Surrender,” his one man show still playing through October 22nd.  If you can get out to catch it before it closes do.  If you are an activist you will be rewarded.  If you are worried about what’s happening to this country you are more likely to come out an energized activist with some clearer thoughts about what to do.

And Mr. Moore surmises in his show, at least the version of it that we (two of the co-founders of Citizens Defending Libraries) caught, that defunding and closing libraries, dumbing down this country, has likely helped set us on this path.

Near the beginning of the show Moor asks: How did Trump get elected? . . .

. . .  How did the dumbest person to ever run for president get elected?  (And, parenthetically, how did we lose control of the Supreme Court and both houses of the Congress?)

Providing an answer, Moore envisioned a meeting thirty years ago in Queens when there were discussions to figure out: “How do we get this bozo elected as president of the United States thirty years from now?”

“And somebody said, you know, I’ve got the plan: Let’s start defunding education; let’s start closing libraries; let us buy up newspapers and close those; let’s dumb down this country to such a place where stupid will vote for stupid. - And here we are!”
Michael Moore gets a look at some information about Jared Kushner was involved as a major financial beneficiary in the shrink-and-sink deal disposal of the Donnell Library to replace it with a luxury tower. . .

After the show, we met long enough to have a few words with Mr. Moore by the stage door and he wanted to know more about the closing of New York City libraries.  His bodyguard (Mr. Moore’s activism has engendered attempts on his life) was clearly up on the topic: “Like the library in Inwood,” he instantaneously said.

We gave Mr. Moore information about how Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was involved as a major financial beneficiary in the first major shrink-and-sink deal disposing of the beloved central destination Donnell Library to replace it with a luxury tower. . .

. . . Wouldn’t it be great if that gets incorporated as an expansion of Mr. Moore’s observational reflections on the state of the union?
A nice fellow

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