Mike Washburn

There was a superbly written letter to the editor in the Jefferson City News Tribune about Religion and the Government by gentleman named Larry Johnson. It was clear, well written, and obviously well thought out. (Here’s the link, but I’m not sure how long the News Tribune keeps an archive of their paper on line.)

It was about the most coherent letter I’ve read in quite a while – but I must respectfully disagree with the conclusion he’s drawing. I see the laws and court judgments that are doing the opposite of what he’s talking about. I’m sure I could Google and find half a dozen easy cases where people are trying to impose their religious beliefs on the public – first thing that comes to mind is the bloody Kansas board of education and the Intelligent design.

My problem is that I’ve studies history. I know that it’s easy for fundamentalism to lead to fanaticism. Fanaticism leads to persecution. Is it so hard to see the line? In the Thirty Years War people were forced to covert from Catholicism to Lutheranism, and then back – depending on which army was marching through at a time.  More wars in history have been fought because of religious differences than any other reason. Freedom of Religion and separation of church and state mean something very important to me. It means that I have the right to practice what ever religion I choose to. I don’t want to see the marble carving of Ten Commandants in front of the courthouse. I also don’t want to see a carving of quotes from the Koran there. Or the saying of Buddha, or the Dalai Lama, or any other thing from any other religion you care to mention. The State should be …. not necessarily above religion, but not beholden to it either.

I have my personal religious beliefs. I belong to a church. I’m not interested in discussing them, and I’ll fight to the end to keep anyone from infringing on them.

Blah. Ok sorry, getting off the soap box now. 

Ok my “homework” for the Library 2.0 entry is on Myspace and Libraries. A few months/”some measurement of time” ago I went ahead and signed up for a Myspace account, and like my blog, I’m afraid it goes largely ignored by me. Right now my internet presence is 4 email accounts that I check daily, 5 forums, 4 blogs that I read, and then my blog and my Myspace. I’m afraid that I have trouble managing my time well enough to pay attention to all of these as much as I should.

Anyway, I’m suppose to be writing about what I think about libraries using Myspace. Actually I think it’s a good use of internet technology. But it’s like me and my various internet obligations – it’s only good if the library has staff who has the time to keep up with it. It’s a great way to reach out to teens and others who use these social networks, but the time commitment is there. Also the staff needs to understand the dynamic of these social network and know how to use them to get the word out to these people about the library and its events and programs.

An example of a good use of Myspace (that’s being done by someone other than a library) is several TV shows. Both Heros and Veronica Mars have characters who have Myspace accounts (http://www.myspace.com/clairebennet   http://www.myspace.com/veronicamarscw ) They’ve in the past had contest, comments about current episodes, spoilers, previews, etc. These are good examples, in my humble opinion, of using Myspace well.