Good afternoon, commissioners. Speaking as an anonymous citizen, of course, and stop the hate, stop the ignorance, don't give money to the Friends of the Library, don't accept money from the Friends of the Library.
There is a very common literary conceit to take a real circumstance and put an fictional character into it in order to fully explore the implications. The tessential example is a Scottish sailor set ashore on a deserted coast and somebody says, "Aha, Robinson Crusoe."
So, let's do that. Let's take a fictional character, appoint him to the Library Commission, and make his very first commission meeting March 2026. Rich with possibilities, right? We need a fictional name since he's a fictional character. So, let's call him Josiah Bartlett.
Mr. Bartlett has never been to a library commission meeting, never even sat in the audience, which is typical. Before he sits down at his first meeting, he is told that the library commission that he is joining has been breaking the law for more than a year by illegally limiting public comment in an evident attempt to deter public participation.
The first thing that Josiah Bartlett says is, "Wow, San Francisco has a commission system to assure public participation." That's what they teach you in a high school. The second thing he says is, "Who do we fire?" I have a reputation for honesty and integrity. Integrity implies accountability. Nothing says accountability like firing someone. Besides, if someone let us into this, they really deserve to be fired.
Next, we have to honor the person who blew the whistle and got this fixed. Most importantly, we have to apologize to the citizens whose rights were affected, assure them they have our deepest regrets and that it won't happen again.
The City Librarian comes to him and says, "We're not going to do that. We undercut those laws completely because they promote democracy and reason. The city's librarian says, "Well, we undercut reason because we're the elite. And if they acknowledge reason at all, we won't be elite. Intelligent will be the elite."
The Josiah Bartlett says, "Wait a minute. If we are against democracy and we're against reason aren't the advocates of reason and democracy our enemies? And the City Librarian says, "Aha, welcome to the library commission." Well, Josiah Bartley says, "I'm profoundly against this big, but it's going to take me a few minutes to organize my thoughts. Perhaps we'll hear what he thinks in July.
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