America's Democratic Spirit in Action

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In the old barn-raising spirit, all sorts of people joined the effort, though they didn't have to build a barn, since Denison's wealthiest family, the Munsons, offered one of their old homes rent-free for two years. This fine building had been the first brick house built in our town, so housing the library there added both cachet and seriousness to the cause.

The town held a fund-raising carnival at the high school. Boy Scouts assisted in collecting books and magazines. The high school librarian -- Ms. Pauline Jordan -- directed the cataloguing, and, on November 22, 1935, the library formally opened with a 'book and silver tea' attended by 250 proud Denisonians. The book collection totaled 1,200 volumes.

The public response was so strong that the voluntary library did not have the operating funds and books to meet the need. So an election was called and the good citizens of our town voted to raises their property taxes and adequately fund a full-time public library. Bear in mind, this was in the midst of the Depression!

By the time I was old enough to get my own check-out card, Denison's library had moved into a first-rate, modern building with air-conditioning and thousands of books that opened the entire world to my fingertips. All of this was available to me because others thought that it was a matter of providing for the common good. My parents, Lillie and 'High' Hightower, had been part of this community development, voting all along the way to tax themselves in order to make such a possibility available to the people -- especially including those who couldn't afford to buy books.

Actually, my folks might have been considered likely to oppose the availability of free books and magazines, since they ran a newsstand and a wholesale business selling books and magazines. But they believed that a library was good for all, and that what was good for all would be good for them...and for their three boys.

This is the true spirit of America, the public spirit that the rest of the world rarely glimpses - and that we're rarely shown by our own media and political powers. This is the spirit we must highlight, tap into...and build our democratic future on.

Adapted from 'Why Libraries Matter,' originally published in American Libraries Magazine, January, 2004.

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