"We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible... Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." – Barack Obama
Mr. Obama's words are a response to a nation that in many ways failed to educate the populace. But what do 21st century librarians have to do with this problem?
Democracy is our means of achieving the exceptionalism that is the United States. The goal of a liberal society that values the rights of all citizens is fruitless without an educated populace, otherwise we would succumb to uneducated citizens who vote themselves into fruitless endeavors and create an unequal class structure. Therefore, a liberal society such as ours must have some universal mechanism of educating the general population. Few citizens disagree that publicly funded education is a means to that end since not all can afford proper schooling.
The 21st century librarian has the obligation to invest the necessary time to support citizens that desire knowledge.