Save the Stowell library

I’m sure you’ve heard that there has been an offer to the town of the store in Cornish Flat to replace The Stowell Library. It is a generous offer; the store and its lot would be given to the town as a gift. The process by which this would happen is a complicated one, too complicated to cover in a letter to the editor.

Fortunately there is information available online and on Facebook. The town website has the majority and minority reports from members of the Cornish Library Exploratory Committee. There is also a Facebook page “Save the Stowell” that represents a grassroots group arguing the case for making the Stowell building accessible to all while adding water and restroom facilities.

Why does Cornish need a “new” library building? Doesn’t it already have one, the lovely old Stowell Free Library on School Street? The Stowell is an architectural gem, why not bring it up to snuff? Why abandon an historic building? It was suggested some years ago that Stowell should be on the register for historic places. Why wouldn’t the library board of trustees want to carry out its responsibility to the Stowell library not the Cornish Flat store?

It needs handicapped access, running water, an accessible restroom and handicap parking space, all of which are attainable without spending millions. Looking at the committees’ proposed plans for the store, one has to wonder if what the library trustees want is a community center with a library attached?

In fact, the town may be able to renovate their Stowell without an effect on taxes. There have been a number of plans commissioned by the town in the last few years with as many price tags as plans. Sadly, the one put forward by the exploratory committee is by far the most expensive. Why offer that one?

Be sure to come to Town Meeting on March 18 at 10 a.m. to vote no on this very important question, Save the Stowell.

Cheston M. Newbold

Cornish

Cornish voters have rare opportunity to improve town resources

On March 18 Cornish voters will make a major decision concerning the Town Library. Will they decide to accept the generous gift of a newly renovated building, tax-free, to be a library and community center, or will they choose to renovate an antiquated building that would still be unsuitable — at taxpayer expense? This would appear to be an easy choice, even a no-brainer. But in true small-town tradition, there is lively debate.

The advantages of an expanded library and community center are many. There would be a meeting room with a separate entrance, a spacious area for children’s activities, room for a library of things, a local food co-op program, cozy computer area and coffee bar, not to mention ample parking and easy handicapped access.

But beyond the physical advantages, the new library would provide a center for imagination and creativity as Cornish residents confront the challenges of a rapidly changing world. It would be a spacious and welcoming environment for the community to gather, and to be proud of a place to make connections and reach out to friends and neighbors as we adapt to the cultural changes of the future. Libraries are so much more than books they are multifaceted community resources that are leading the way as we adapt to our digital, climate-changing world.

This is all about making the best decision for the town of Cornish, about moving forward and adapting to change. I hope that the voters will embrace this one-time opportunity and vote for the library to move to the renovated Cornish Store.

Leigh Callahan

Cornish

Get with the system?

It’s clear to see the so-called “System” is not only rigged, it’s also screwed. By that I mean (whether you’re a quant on Wall Street, Santa, or a wee little mousie) your behavior is modulated by rulers, be they institutional or not. I can’t say there’s any animal that’s not constrained by rules. We have our human laws, of course, microbes must pay their way across a gradient, spending energy for sustenance ... even the entire cosmos will eventually come to pass (and maybe bounce back, transformed).

Truly we are those little bugs on the gradient of privilege, which could actually be an emergent attribute of localized power. In time, the hoarders — the rich and powerful — aggregate resources in a zero-sum manner from the general population, with the (perhaps planned) side effect of diminishing the power of the people. By doing so, the resource barons pull the rug from under their own feet: a destabilized society will not prosper.

I’m thinking the BIG Lie’s still a big problem. Do you think Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Snooze will help? What about Microsoft’s plan to bundle their Bing browser with ChatGPT? I certainly won’t use Bing for fact-finding!

But let’s make our stay here on earth hospitable, rather than adversarial. Becoming partners in our dynamic environment(s) is key, requiring our adaptation, illustrating Ben Franklin’s point why the ability to keep our democracy is so pertinent today: Eighteenth-century constitutionalists can’t lead the people who have 21st-century concerns.

A true democracy is necessarily not a representative one since the former’s vote is direct, hence, not via proxies. We must empower the populace with the right to vote on all policies, and be careful to do so in a gradual and systemic way (remembering the destabilized society).

Do I embrace Plato’s “imperfect reflection of the perfect apple that resides in the ideal world”? That must be the rose-colored glasses I’m wearing, since they ease my mind — yet won’t cloud my vision.

Kevin M. Leveret

White River Junction

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