Three Questions for Mr. Ford

1) Can you read?
2) Do you read?
3) Do you enjoy reading?

The above three questions seem particularly relevant given the fact that Mr. Ford is cutting some critical library services. Specifically, the Ontario Government has proposed to halve budgets of the Southern Ontario Library Service and Ontario Library Service-North (https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/04/18/ford-government-cuts-ontario-library-service-budgets-in-half.html). These are the services that ensure that all Ontarians have access to all of the library books within the total system. For example - if your small, perhaps rural library cannot afford to buy a book that you want or need to read - the above services will find the book for you at some other library and then send it to your home library. It is a wonderful system that means that everyone has equal access to information. It is a service that is particularly useful to rural or isolated communities and for people who lack sufficient income to buy books.

One has to assume that given Mr. Ford's age and his job, that he is at least functionally literate to survive in the world he lives in. That is - he can read a menu, subway directions (as if he ever takes the subway alone!) and understands basic written communications. Although it is true that many people who are not literate can fake their way through a variety of daily living activities, Mr. Ford must be above that level ( I hope!).

However, just because someone can read, does not mean that they willing or easily read. There are no indications that Mr. Ford reads anything other than the comments of pollsters and sycophants who want to curry his favour. I suspect that any reports that he has to read are summarized and/or "dumbed" down. There are no indications that he ever reads anything that requires concentration or intellectual processing.

I appreciate the fact that Mr. Ford probably has less time than I to read for pleasure. I, as a retired person, have a lot more control over my time. I do not have to attend political fund-raising meetings so that people can bask in my "wonderfulness"; I do not have to spend my evening talking to people who either agree with me or else do not want to anger me and I certainly do not have to spend endless hours looking as if I care what other people are saying. But still, there must be a few hours here and there when others would pick up a book - either to relax or to learn about something new. Surely before going to bed, he has a few minutes. He would find that reading something is relaxing - it calms the mind down, it allows one to drift off to sleep. Of course, if one's mind is already a blank, perhaps calming it is not necessary for a good night's sleep.

Perhaps if Mr. Ford read for something resembling pleasure or because of a desire to learn he would appreciate that access to books is a privilege that millions and millions of people around the world do not have. Ontarians have had it and now some of them don't. His government's decision to halve the budgets of the Southern Ontario Library Service and Ontario Library Service-North is urban-centric in that it does not recognize the needs of rural or isolated Ontario, it assumes that everyone is as uninterested in books as he is, or as for his rich friends, neighbours and colleagues, everyone has sufficient funds to buy want they want or need.

It is a small thing in terms of the many problems the world faces. But surely we should not be going backwards in terms of empowering people to have access to information.