Letter: Courtesy within our community must extend to all humans

By Letter to the Editor on December 7, 2023.

Dear editor,

I’d like to thank Linda Tooth for raising important issues in our community in her regular columns. Her recent “Do you love to read?” from Nov. 29 highlights the important role of public libraries.

As a former board member of the Medicine Hat Public Library I always appreciate fellow library lovers. In particular, I enjoyed how she encouraged folks to sign up for an MHPL card and enjoy the many benefits of a 21st century library.

Where my view diverges from Ms. Tooth’s is who should or should not “be seen by children, or any of us really” in the library. I assume she is talking about the many members of our community who may be experiencing addiction, poor mental health, poverty, or homelessness.

Butting up against folks “living rough” can be difficult for us to wrap our heads around. It is unsettling and raises a number of questions we, individually and as a community, have few answers for.

But there is one thing I am sure of: public libraries are the last free, open and democratic spaces in our communities and everyone (regardless of what they look like) should be welcomed in those spaces.

MHPL staff do a remarkable job ensuring that happens, in spite of the fact their formal library education may not have properly prepared them to do so.

Over the years they have had opportunities to address those gaps through professional development training. And I suspect many staff are more than happy to have colleagues with the expertise, such as social workers and security staff, to ensure all members of our community continue to feel welcome and safe in our library.

Ms. Tooth has educated us about why it is important to provide safe, healthy spaces for feral cats (and ask for city support to do so). She has passionately argued that these animals should be “seen” and valued.

I hope we can extend the same courtesy and compassion to all human members of our community as well.