Hi Everyone: Ann and I exchanged emails earlier in the day about my response to the Governor's canned response to everyone who had sent him an email concerning his proposal to break up the State Archives and Library. She asked if she could send it in full and I suggested my bluntness with him might offend some so I would edit it and share. Dear Governor: Your proposal is a bad idea. It demonstrates your lack of understanding of the role of a State Library. It demonstrates your disdain for the Legislative process and the need and expectation of Voters for politicians to be knowledgeable representatives of the People. It demonstrates your financial link to Nova Southeastern supporting your current and future political aspirations. It demonstrates your disdain for the Florida residents and sons and daughters of Florida across the country and our ability to read agreements and follow the conversation and still manage to smell a rat. Let me help you out by summarizing my concerns with your proposal: * A State Library is an asset for all of the State and especially the persons at the Capitol who want to be informed Legislators and staff. Certainly there are still some. All state residents already have access to these documents through interlibrary loan and they can actually get ACCESS to the documents and get a LIBRARY CARD by simply coming to Tallahassee and completing the paperwork. The State Library is not a County Library. It should be compared to other State libraries in looking at its productivity. Your proposal will only make the documents accessible to Broward Co. residents and Nova students. Everyone else will have to do interlibrary loans. The real purpose of a library collection of related documents is to be able to sit among them and do research, following up with links in other documents while you are there and then being able to check them out if you need to. That will now only be possible for the good folks of Broward Co. That's not better access! , that is worse access, and almost everyone can see that except you. Even the Broward County Commissioners think this is a bad idea. Go figure. * You failed to offer any funds to FSU, a public university, even after significant reductions of their budgets; but readily rose to magnanimous levels of funding for Nova, a private university, to move and house these priceless documents. Why is that? ($10 million collection given away, $2 million the first year, $1 million thereafter) * The agreement provides no remedy (including removal of the collection from their possession) should Nova breach any of their requirements under the agreement, though I have to admit you and your folks did a wonderful job of not including too many. You essentially give this collection to Nova and once the documents are there, they are the property of Nova, regardless of the reason for the breach or termination of the contract. While you may have the ability to do this since the reorganization of the State, you still have to go to the Legislators for funding. And while you may be able to do this, it may come back to haunt you. Remember the Republicans (Newt who?) in Washington a few years ago that thought because they were in a slight majority that the voters had given them carte blanche to reform and destroy. Got their message loud and clear the next time the voters were allowed to speak, didn't they? And we do speak loud and clear, Mr. Bush. This isn't an oligarchy, we are still a democracy. We value our history in Florida and wish to preserve it and provide a vital resource to our Legislators who we expect to be knowledgeable and independent enough to seek the truth, past and present. I think you will find that the Florida people who you have such disdain for when they disagree with you aren't as cowed as some State employees who are being told they better not be involved in any of the p! rotests to dismantle the State Library, even on their own time. Just remember the old adage about the "Bigger they are, the harder they fall." Or as one of my Florida grandmothers use to say, "Don't get too big for your breeches". Some folks may decide to take you down to size (i.e. THE VOTERS). Sharon Come visit the family (30+ lines online) www.roadshometofl.com