Letter from Milo Laufeyjarson

Fight Censorship, Defend Libraries

Libraries are havens for the impoverished. Growing up, I went to libraries to escape the rampant bullying I dealt with at school because of my disabilities. Then, when I was homeless, it was resources found at the local library that got me off the streets. Finally, libraries enabled me to get my high school equivalency diploma when I was too poor to afford the Internet at home.

Three times libraries have saved my life.

This sadly goes beyond just unnecessary, unconstitutional censorship—yes, you read that right. Telling authors and creatives what kind of art they can create is a direct violation of their freedom of speech and, again, while censorship is horrible, there is more than that at stake here.

Cutting funding to libraries will not only force good people out of work, it will steal precious resources from the most vulnerable. This will lead to worsening crime rates and an increase in the ongoing homeless crisis. Because there is a direct pipeline from poverty to criminality. That is not a political statement. It is a scientific observation. It is cause and effect: Poverty causes criminal behavior.

If you care at all about our communities and the people who live here, then please fight censorship and fight to restore funding to our public libraries.

Milo Laufeyjarson
Utica