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Jan. 30, 2005 Mussolini made the trains run on time and the obsessive compulsive fascists in Singapore arrest people who spit on sidewalks and fine folks who don't flush toilets. And now Singapore has library cops to make sure that nobody speaks above a whisper. Volunteers patrol the island's libraries urging people to pipe down and turn off their cell phones as part a "library etiquette campaign." The library monitors do not have the power to fine or ask people to leave the library. The noise police can only ask them to stop talking. Library officials say that offenders tend to be "genuinely apologetic." I would love to see how library patrons in New York City would respond to officious library monitors telling them to pipe down. "You talking to me? You talking to me? " At the same time whipping out a gun that would make Robert DeNiro proud and threatening to blow them away to the Great Library In The Sky. A library shouldn't be as noisy as a nightclub, but it shouldn't be as quiet as a morgue. I sometimes go to the library to write my essays. I feed of the energy of the people around me. The conversations buzzing around me gently massage my mind while I write my editorials. I have a feeling that even the genteel people of Lynchburg wouldn't be "genuinely apologetic" if reproached by a library cop. They may not react like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, but no doubt their response would earn at the least a PG-13 rating. ------------ About the author: Robert Paul Reyes is a columnist for the Lynchburg Ledger. Email: rreyes4966@aol.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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