Where have all the caregivers gone?

While it is sad that the Boundary County Library's future is uncertain, I must admit that the article and the photo of the hearing tickled my macabre sense of humor. Those seeking to undo the library are part of the only human population on earth with a declining life expectancy: poor middle-aged white Americans (do the research, lol).

I've probably got it all backwards: their shortened lifespans should be making me sad, rather than the demise of the really nice small-town library I remember. But regardless of anyone’s sense of humor, Bonners is demographically doomed. An upside population pyramid, declining fertility and declining lifespan are its hallmarks. Trying to understand the reasons for that, instead of trying to blame a culture that has already left them behind, seems to be a good idea. But they’d have to go to the library to figure it out.

Ironically, the people who buy their estates will most likely bring the library back.

Anyone who is anti-library, or wants to ban books, is an extremist, but we can have fun with what it is about them that makes them extreme. Christian is the last word I’d use.

In the near term, their community is going to suffer: any young person who can leave, will. In the long term, they'll just be remembered as a group of people who threw temper tantrums until they were alone.

Until then, the question most likely to be asked in Bonners is: where have all the caregivers gone? Long time going.

JON WALDRUP

Sagle