Thanks to CM Niziolek for sitting down at his computer at the very beginning of this Independence Day to write at length and with care about his purposes related to the renewal of the Uptown branch of the Minneapolis Public Library. We had a Carnegie library in Portage, WI when I was a youngster in the late 1940s and that treasure house stood out for me far beyond other institutions in my home town. I had to partner with my parents, teachers, and religious mentors because I had a fierce curiosity about every sort of thing and the structured learning environments and interactions with my own age peers couldn't hold a candle to the wonders at my fingertips a few short blocks from where I lived. To this very day I view the public library as a sturdy and reliable source for the intellectual building blocks I've accumulated over the years.
Whatever the roads I've traveled since those early days, I still relish the sense of potential discovery that comes over me when I walk down the Greenway from Ebenezer in West Phillips to the Walker Library in Uptown. Sometimes I prefer to amble through my old Whittier neighborhood or down Lake St. - ever interesting alternatives - but the clarity of the purposes of my trip to the library has never wavered for the thirty-five years that I've spent here in Minneapolis since I arrived on July 4, 1969, as it happens. Thank goodness for the MTC when I'm not up for the exercise and more thanks for the Library's digital world. We are so very blessed in this city and this country of ours. There are plenty of nifty positives I can trot out about Minneapolis and its leadership but not all gardens are tended in public view and not all contemplations are meant to be shared. Even the grand universities I've had the privilege to be a part of don't have the unique blend of repository of knowledge and precondition of populist access that invites my still youthful, sometimes private, but still persistent curiosity. The Walker Library should surely be there for Dan's twins and all the other youthful lights that will celebrate our Independence Days on into the future. Fred Markus, West Phillips REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
