Give me a library without a ring tone
By BILL DUNCAN Remember the days when, if you so much as coughed while visiting a library you got a stern shhhh! Have you noticed how libraries aren’t those quiet sanctuaries anymore? Times have changed. I must confess, I am still awed by the library and hold the institution in total reverence. I even whisper when I have to ask a librarian a question. Churches used to be that way too, but even there it has become a noisy auditorium instead of a Trappist Monastery. Ever since they took out the index card file, libraries are no longer those hushed, reverent places. On a recent visit to my hometown library, a woman seated in the magazine section, surrounded by readers quietly self-absorbed in reading, was loudly carrying on a cell phone conversation and there wasn’t a librarian about to shush such rudeness. If she had, she’d probably been sued by the library patron for invasion of privacy by interrupting her private conversation. That loud, rude conversation the woman was having, was about a friend who should divorce her husband because the caller has just heard from another party the husband was carrying on with another one of her friends. On a need-to-know basis, I certainly didn’t need to know that bit of gossip, nor did anyone else who had gone to the library for peace and quiet. In my opinion, cell phones should be banned from libraries and public places. The last time I visited my doctor, I noticed a large sign in the consultation room advising patients not to use their cell phones. I asked him about the sign and he said that I would be surprised at how many times patients received incoming cell phone calls and delayed the medical visit by chatting with the caller while the doctor waited. Cell phones have become the scourge of society. One cannot go anywhere without encountering someone talking to themselves. Schools probably have more discipline problems over cell phones than for any other reason – cell phones going off during class, text messaging to fellow students during class, storing test information, taking unauthorized photos of other students and sending inappropriate pictures. Recently I was at a meeting in which cell phones kept going off, interrupting the session. The chairperson finally demanded everyone turn off their cell phones so the meeting could proceed without interruption. The members complied and the meeting went on, only to be interrupted once more by a ring tone from a cell phone. The chairperson had forgotten to turn off her own cell phone. The San Francisco Chronicle asked its readers to name the worst example of cell phone misuse they had witnessed. Kim Moore from Antelope, Calif. said she was at a funeral and in the middle of the eulogy someone’s cell phone rang and that person carried on a conversation. Cell phones often ring during church services, lectures, and in movie theaters. Once I saw a play stop its performance while an actor answered a cell phone call – not part of the script, but dialog nonetheless. In this sophisticated world I would favor the development of a device installed at the door in public places that would automatically shut off cell phones upon entry and only restore the phone capability when the person exited. Or, better yet, follow the rules of the courts. The bailiff announces that all cell phones must be turned off. If a cell phone rings during the court proceedings the phone is confiscated. However, carrying on a cell phone conversation in a library is the most appalling to me. But then I am just an old fashioned kind of guy who believes like Mark Twain who wished everyone a merry Christmas except that fool who invented the telephone. Well maybe I won’t go that far, since I do rely on the telephone. I can tolerate the telephone, so long as the instrument is black, has a rotary dial and is tethered to the wall. (To answer a question on every reader’s mind, Bill Duncan can’t be reached by cell phone because he is so backward he doesn’t own one. He can be reached by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470)
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