Letters to the editor

Contrast in spirit
I couldn’t help but be struck by the contrast in spirit between your editorial of the 27th and the op-ed page article on Rights and Democracy. It was almost like the divine and the base elements of our humanness coming out on opposite sheets of the paper. Your editorial articulated, in such a clear, visionary and inspiring way, some of the highest human values to which we can aspire; the universal goodness of our human spirit. This, then, immediately followed by a political attack against people who don’t exactly share the author’s views on how best to achieve global democracy. If you have a noble vision for R&D, articulate it so that all can benefit, instead of just exposing your opposition.
Nigel Martin
Montreal

The CSL library matters too
Joel Goldenberg reported in the recent issue of The Suburban on the passing of the budget in Hampstead. Unfortunately, he did not mention the debate about the support for the library membership. There were a number of residents who appealed to the council not to reduce the funds dedicated to the support of library membership. Unfortunately, the council members were split on this issue and reached an agreement before the budget meeting to provide $10,000 for this cause. The appeals from the residents had no effect because the council members did not want to revisit this issue. Several of the residents who voiced their concerns were youth arguing that the society should support access to books and literature as part of the approach to education and not recreation. Here is my perspective:

When Hampstead demerged from the City of Montreal 800 of its residents were members of the CSL library at the cost of five dollars per year. In the first budget as an independent town Hampstead budgeted $160,000 for a deal with CSL according to which Hampstead residents had to pay approximately $75 per year (youth and seniors $25). In the subsequent years Hampstead decreased this budget item to approximately $70,000 with increased membership costs resulting in approximately 200 members in 2009. The final decrease of this budget line to $10,000 will lead to further decrease in the membership.

In my mind discussion about usefulness of a library and public access at a very small cost has been resolved a long time ago. Just like schools and daycares (in Quebec) are heavily subsidized, so are the libraries. As far as I know, Hampstead is the only town within greater Montreal (and likely well beyond) that does not have its own library. OK, we are too small to support our own library but we still could help our residents to join one of their choice. Hampstead passed a $21 million budget, there is $2 million in this budget for ‘recreation and culture, but really only $10,000 for the latter. That is 0.05 percent of its total budget. For comparison, CSL spends five percent of its budget on the library and Westmount three percent. The situation in Hampstead is a real disgrace.
Mirek Cygler
Hampstead