Did Alna’s Sherry Lyons think rallying in support of libraries might help to save their federal aid?

In the sun and wind next to Route One in Wiscasset April 10, Lyons explained, she felt doing nothing would have been worse.

“This is doing something. These (people) are speaking up, and all these people driving by us (sounding their horns), they are actually responding and supporting us as well, so I think it’s just really important.”

In the hour-plus Wiscasset Newspaper was there, including as Bath Iron Works’ day shift headed home, honks were frequent and, of the occasional callouts from vehicles, one voiced opposition. 

Edgecomb's Cara Gaffney said motorists’ reactions to the rallies she has been at as a member of Lincoln County Indivisible have been about 90% positive and, she said, Thursday’s in Wiscasset ran at least that high. 

The sign Lyons held read: “Cowards bow to Trump. Patriots stand up.”

“Keep your tiny hands off our libraries,” read Edgecomb resident Suzi Thayer’s that included a “Saturday Night Live”-style tiny hand on a stick.

Like some of the other 17 participants Wiscasset Newspaper counted at the bottom of Wiscasset Common downhill from Wiscasset Public Library, Thayer has been to other rallies that supported things the new administration has targeted. She said the news out of Washington these days is infuriating and she has found rallying with others is something that makes her feel better.  

Also taking part in the citizen-organized event was WPL’s longtime director Pam Dunning. In a phone interview hours earlier, she said she would be there “to support those who support us," including WPL's patrons she said speak daily in appreciation for the library and its completeness. 

A March 14 executive order, viewable at whitehouse.gov, called for eliminating “the non-statutory components and functions of” the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, the Minority Business Development Agency and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). According to imls.gov, the agency supports libraries, archives and museums nationwide. 

Last month’s order stated the document “continues the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary.”

Dunning said interlibrary loan deliveries, audio book downloads and many other services, including a “huge, huge” one, free Internet, all get federal aid. “These are really important services that libraries give that could go away.”

She said the impact could start to show within a few months if the federal funds are not there to renew libraries’ subscriptions, etc. to services and that, by year’s end, libraries could go back to only being able to loan out books from their shelves. WPL has about 37,000 items in the building, but has access to millions through the interlibrary loan system, Dunning said.

“I think individuals in town deciding on their own that they need to step up … I believe just shows how much people need and want their libraries, how important it is in their lives," she said about Thursday's gathering. 

What would Alna's Merry Fossel say to someone who said libraries are nice, they like libraries, but he or she wants lower taxes? That's a hard question, she said. But, Fossel said, she would say libraries are about more than books, they are about community, and have been about community for a very long time.

Amid the horns and rally-goers' smiles, Edgecomb's Carl Root kept drumming on the finished birch plywood-topped drum he made and has taken to other recent rallies. "The energy of the drumming makes people feel better, which is useful, in these times."