The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Can this really be happening? I’m talking about the petition to close our beloved, free public library. Are there better ways to solve our differences than to go to extremes? Why would we want to emulate dictators in other countries who suppress their people’s freedoms? Because of the first amendment, we are free, and we need to stay free. There are ways to work out our differences,

Do we change the locks on our doors and kick our children out of the house because we have a disagreement or we don’t like the color of their hair?

Do we poison our neighbors’ dogs because they bark?

Do we close our schools, get rid of our City Council, or our churches because we don’t agree with 100% of their teachings and philosophies?

Do we demand that our local grocery stores close because they sell items we don’t approve of? I could come up with so many examples of extremism. Ones that would remind us of past atrocities and wars. But I think you understand where this is going.

I have always liked the idea of King Arthur and his Roundtable. There was a reason why it was round. So that everyone could face each other and no one was above another. Everyone’s ideas could be expressed.

Rather than closing our community center for enrichment, why not continue to meet with the library board and the library director? Just because it didn’t happen the first or second time is no reason to go to extremes. Try again; show your children that you are willing to sit around the round table.

Let’s not have Dayton be the center battle of a civil war. Civility, kindness, compassion, and communication have been the tenants of our community. Isn’t that what we want for our families, for the new people, businesses, teachers, and medical personnel who are seeing if this is a good and reasonable town in which to live?

And where did I first learn about King Arthur? Why my hometown library, of course!

Voters: Please consider what our county stands to lose if this proposition passes. Please vote NO on the proposition to dissolve the library. I’ll see you at the Round Table.

Roslyn Edwards

Waitsburg, Wash.