I admit, I’m not unbiased on libraries. I am the son of the founding dean of the University of Michigan School of Library Science, and my work performing as Alexander Hamilton (cough… HamiltonLives.com… cough) has often brought me inside the walls of these vital public buildings. Heck, less than a month ago, I was presenting my Hamilton show to the good people of Johnstown in that lovely city’s small library.

I love libraries.

And so, it will not come as a shock that I support the proposed property tax increase in Denver to fund that city’s libraries, as reported in a recent Colorado Politics story. Now, honesty requires that I admit that as I live in Colorado Springs, it is easy for me to support a new tax that won’t actually affect me, but here in my area, I do consistently vote for library and school funding when such measure are on my own ballot.

The good folks running the Denver library system are asking the citizens to approve a November ballot measure that would raise $32 million for the district. And though that is a chunk of change, Denver is a big place. The actual cost per homeowner is estimated to be roughly $50 per year, or a tad under 14 cents per day. I’m guessing that most of us would not miss 14 cents per day, yet that tiny fee will have a dramatic impact on the city’s crown jewels, its libraries.

Now, I can almost hear some voices decrying the proposed tax, with the basic reason being, “what have libraries ever done for me?” Lots of folks never even visit one. The Denver library system had more than 4 million visitors in 2019, but perhaps you were not one of them, so why should you have to pay for books and such?

My first response is what good to you is, say, a hospital you will never visit, or a road you will never drive down? Simply put, such resources are good for our communities at large, even if a particular person never enters said hospital or walks through a library front door (but you should, because libraries are magical places). We as citizens don’t only support our own interests, but also those of our fellow Americans. And heck, that thing you ordered from Amazon may be in a truck driving to you, down that road you think you don’t need.

A quick internet search for the term “why are libraries important?” will yield article after article pointing out the ways in which the community at large benefits, and how certain people and groups are especially helped by libraries. The Denver library system will use that new tax revenue to increase hours, particularly on nights and weekends, when lots of people who work all week need the resource available.

Immigrants and refugees would particularly benefit from new and expanded programs to help them enter our American society more smoothly. Additionally, the tax money will be used to do basic repairs needed in a variety of buildings, fixing floors, updating community rooms, and making more facilities ADA compliant.

But let’s assume for the moment that you are one of those folks who never sees the need to visit your local library, and you think that 14 cents would be better spent letting it add up for, say, a month, when it will be enough money (about $4) to supersize a meal or two. Well, as Carl Sagan once said, “the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.”

I hate to break it to you, but someday you will, well, die. But the date of that departure has yet to be determined. It is quite possible that a condition that would otherwise have sent you shuffling off this mortal coil will, in fact, be cured by a physician or research scientist who got her start in a public library, adding years to your life. Libraries also boost the local economy, especially when they offer free resources to patrons who otherwise would not have access to a computer and the internet, vital tools in any modern job hunt. And that is particularly true for non-English speakers, who often find libraires as a key link in becoming Americans, both literally and figuratively.

Libraries, when unfettered by petty politicians seeking to control history, are vital preservers of the truth. Librarians buy lots and lots of books, covering the full range of human expression. As I have often asserted, I believe firmly that the antidote to “bad” ideas is the fullest possible expression of all ideas. Libraries are the repositories of all ideas, from the radical to the mundane, and that is a vital service. As author Neil Gaiman once noted, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.”

Back in 1964, I was a first grader, and I was selected to participate in the making of a then-advanced technology — a film strip, on how to check out books from the school library. Oddly, that memory, from more than 20,000 days ago, remains firmly and clearly locked in my memory. I would guess that the nice librarian and the other adults who helped me “act” that day are gone, or perhaps in the extremes of age now nearly 58 years later, but the lessons of that day, that libraries are vital resources to me and to my community, echo onward.

I can almost feel my late father’s smile over my shoulder as I type about the glory that is the library system. But don’t just take my word for it. As a great American, Dwight D. Eisenhower, once noted, “the libraries of America are and must ever remain the home of free and inquiring minds…”  and as Franklin Roosevelt once observed, “I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them.”

Happily, an initial poll of Denver voters found that a very solid majority, fully 69%, support the idea of a new library tax, huzzah! Please keep an eye out for the library question on your November ballot and vote for your and your community’s future.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.