Not all that many years ago “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” was an aphorism parents taught their children from an early age. It was so common you often heard kids on playgrounds chanting it in an almost-taunting, sing-song fashion.

In today’s full-employment-for-psychologists,-sociologists-and-lawyers society, however, “sensitivity” is a virtue and “victimhood” has gained almost sacred status. And a an expanding contingent of the shameless not only seek to reap what they have not sown, but when called out for their avarice they feign sensitivity and claim victimhood. Or their sympathizers and apologists claim it for them.

So it came as no surprise that a recent article in the Park Ridge Herald-Advocate (“Park Ridge library fees mean lower use, fewer ‘parasites’,” November 4) would seize on how the editor of this blog – in his role of Park Ridge Library trustee – used the word “parasites” to describe a certain group of non-resident Library ex-patrons at last month’s Library Board meeting.  Especially since the H-A reporter who wrote the story is no “fan” (to put it mildly) of this editor or his philosophy of local government.

She also wasn’t in attendance at that meeting.  So it must have been her muse that inspired her to listen to the tape recording of the meeting, because she seems to have gotten the quotes right…or close enough for government work.

To be clear, the “parasites” label was not conferred on all non-resident Library users – just those who had been coming to our Library for the past few years for free use of our computers and programs but recently stopped doing so because (according to our Library’s director) the Library started charging non-residents for those privileges. Although this editor voted to approve those fees, they were actually proposed by Library staff in response to Library Board requests for ideas on how to raise needed revenue.

One of the definitions of “parasite” in Merriam-Webster’s on-line dictionary is: “a person or thing that takes something from someone or something else and does not do anything to earn it or deserve it.” That pretty much describes those non-resident Library patrons who profited from their lower-than-Park Ridge property taxes because they could get free library computer time and programs – compliments of our taxpayers – while their own communities saved money by offering less amenities and not even keeping their libraries open as many hours as ours.

But judging by the hue and cry from a couple of Library employees and a few suspected parasites (posted as comments to the H-A article, many of which this editor sportingly responded to), one might think labeling parasites as…well…“parasites” was some heinous crime; or, at the very least, an outrageous social faux pas.

Admittedly, “parasites” in this context is probably as provocative as it is descriptive, with a decidedly negative connotation. Nobody who regularly uses somebody else’s resources without paying fair value for them – no matter how shameless they have to be to do so – likes to be compared, even indirectly, to a leech or a tapeworm.

But as the Library’s director seemingly lamented the departure of those shameless non-resident patrons, “parasites” was actually the nicest term that went through this editor’s head: none of the other ones, including the several adjectives that might have preceded them, can be printed here.

That’s because Park Ridge Library trustees like this editor owe a fiduciary duty to our residents and taxpayers – and ONLY to our residents and taxpayers – who foot the bill for the Library’s maintenance and operation through payment of their property taxes. Many of them struggle mightily just to pay those taxes. When it comes to spending those tax dollars, therefore, every penny had better benefit OUR residents and taxpayers first and foremost.

That sense of duty became even more honor-bound when, just this past Tuesday, those taxpayers conscientiously and graciously voted to tax themselves even more to keep our Library open, operating and improving.

So if Chicago residents, for example, want free library computers and free programs, they should demand them from Rahm Emanuel and his alderpuppets, many of whom were co-conspirators with Rahm’s predecessor in the decades of stupidity, irresponsibility, mismanagement, graft and/or corruption that have virtually bankrupted that city. And they should be willing to have THEIR property taxes raised to pay for them.

Meanwhile, the doors of our Library remain open to Chicagoans and other suburbanites who are content to enjoy our Library’s ambience and its printed materials, or who are willing to pay the modest non-resident fee of $3 per hour for computer time – more than a sawbuck less than what Kinko’s charges just 5 minutes down the road.

The “parasites,” on the other hand, can do our taxpayers a favor by staying away.

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