Las Vegas needs books

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 10:03:30 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED MAY 21, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Las Vegas needs books

Students at the Tate Elementary School in Las Vegas lined up May 14 to help unload 300 new library books provided by Wells Fargo Bank and delivered in the bank's signature, public-relations stagecoach.

Prompted by the abysmally low ratio of library books to student in local schools -- seven-to-one, as opposed to a nationwide average of 18-to-1 -- the Clark County READS campaign has set a goal of collecting or buying 400,000 books for students in kindergarten through third grade by the end of the year. Within two years, sponsors (including Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera) hope to have added 1.5 million books to school libraries and classrooms in grades K-through-12.

Laura Schulte, CEO of Wells Fargo Bank Nevada, challenged other Nevada businesses to make the same commitment to child literacy.

The first instinct, of course, is to race an emergency (and desperately needed) supply of free-market economics texts and about a thousand copies of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" into every high school in Southern Nevada. Spokesmen for the school-based program (headquartered at 5450 W. Sahara Ave., Suite 330; phone 598-5373) did not return calls the day I rang them up to ask whether such donations would actually be welcomed, however, while the program's web site, at www.clarkcountyreads.org, somewhat cautiously advises:

"Can I donate my used books to the campaign? A primary goal of Clark County READS is to raise money to buy new books. Those who wish to donate books directly are encouraged to choose from the list of needed books developed by the Clark County READS campaign. However, gently used, age-appropriate books also will be accepted at any Clark County school as well as dozens of other locations throughout the valley."

No one would want to see the toddlers start opening boxes of pornography, of course. One merely hopes this instinct to control what kids read doesn't overshadow the wisdom of the initial goal.

The other problem worth noting, of course, is that Nevada taxpayers already subsidize public school educations to the tune of $4,900 per student (the national average is $5,500) ... and that doesn't include the cost of erecting school buildings or interest payments on construction bonds. Yet out of all those funds, our government-school administrators somehow never got around to spending enough on books? Would they care to itemize the number of administrative salaries and expenses to which they've awarded higher priorities than books?

Donating funds for books sounds all very well, but under these conditions isn't that a little like giving free hot meals to drug addicts already signed up for Food Stamps, because they already sold their Food Stamps on the black market to buy crack? Wouldn't we thus encourage them to continue "converting" the food subsidy we already give them?

"It just turns into another slush fund," warns Ken Ward, freelance education columnist for the daily Review-Journal. "There's no way you can stop them shifting any portion of those donations into salaries and overhead."

Yes, the sponsors are absolutely right that access to books is a key element in general literacy and developing a lifelong love of learning: Local businesses and individuals may very well want to participate in "Clark County READS," if the spirit moves them.

But for heaven's sake don't give cash. The school district already gets oodles of cash from taxpayers, and has always managed to find things to spend it on other than sufficient books ... or we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

Just as you'd be wiser to give a panhandler a sandwich than a 20-dollar bill, give Clark County students what they really need: Give them boxes of books.

I'd start with a dozen copies of "Atlas Shrugged" ... though columnist Ken Ward did have one other pixieish suggestion:

"How about a couple boxes of 'Send in the Waco Killers?' "

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to Privacy Alert, 1475 Terminal Way, Suite E for Easy, Reno, NV 89502. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at 1-800-244-2224, or via web site www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair