“The only thing you absolutely need to know is the location of the library.”

- Albert Einstein

The conservative majority—okay, let’s call them that for now—on the Huntington Beach City Council, which sought to “outsource” or “privatize” the city’s library system, seemed genuinely shocked by the level of negative reaction it received at the June 18 meeting.

I don’t really know these four people, so I don’t know to what extent they are library fans, but there are many of us who are library fanatics and would value librarians more than… well, let’s not be mean about it.

There are no institutions in the community that have as much impact as libraries. It was a pleasure for me to visit our little branch just a few blocks away on Euclid Street in Garden Grove. So many books, and you could read every one of them… well, almost every one of them… for free.

From elementary school through high school and beyond, I hung out in the hallways, and later—after the new, larger library was built—I was one of those people still stuck in the caves between the bookshelves when the librarians had to flash the lights to warn us that the store was closing in 10 minutes.

Most of what I learned was not in the classroom, but from books - and sometimes from newspapers and magazines - in libraries, there and later in college. My university library had seven floors. Seven floors! Santa Maria was like one of the seven wonders of the world!

After college, I moved to Huntington Beach for a while and discovered the shiny new Central Library on a hill in Central Park. To me, it was a sign that this community was surpassing all others in its readiness for glory in the coming new century.

I can accept that the policies targeted at the Huntington Beach library system - censorship and privatization - may not seem harmful to those who support them, but I hope they understand how valuable these buildings and all the knowledge hidden within them are to other people.

Ronald Reagan, a true conservative, compared the United States to a “shining city upon a hill.” Huntington is, in the truest sense of the word, a city of accumulated human wisdom on a hill at Talbert Avenue and Goldenwest Street.

Who wouldn’t want to defend it if they felt it was in danger?