Stephan:   Now we are seeing a move to close some libraries, and privatize others. For over two hundred years, Left or Right, we have recognized the importance of libraries as something a civilized society supports, essential to an informed electorate, and our democracy. Along with prisons, schools, we now add libraries. Slowly the entire structure of support that creates national wellness is being undermined, and turned into a profit machine. It is another act of societal self-mutilation.