On Monday I emailed L.A. book critic, KPCC contributor, lending library owner (Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights), former NEA official and literacy advocate David Kipen to share my column about Measure PPL on Tuesday’s ballot to aid the Pomona Public Library. He’d cared enough to attend a Pomona council meeting in 2012 about the library.

He replied with a short but thoughtful essay for me to share if I chose — and I do choose.

“Name me a great man or woman who never owned a public library card. I defy you. On the off chance they don’t use the card much anymore, it’s because they’ve parlayed early library use into the kind of success that buys you any book you need, or earns you access to a great university library.

“The only reason I can think of not to support a library bond issue is if you’ve been so burned by the dumb things government sometimes does that you don’t trust it anymore to do a smart one. I can understand that. I can understand it better than a former G-man like me ought to admit. But I promise you this: If you think your government wastes your money now, just wait until your local library cuts its hours, or closes completely. Just wait till people without library cards start casting the deciding vote — the few of them who bother to vote at all — to elect your leaders. Then you’ll see what government incompetence really looks like.

“But if I can’t convince you to support your library, just make me this one promise in return. After the library bond passes without you, do me a favor and pay a visit to your new library. Look around you. See a librarian, who could be making triple the salary in a law firm across town, helping somebody who just lost a job find work. See a librarian connecting patrons with novels that somehow make them feel just a little less alone. See a librarian reading to kids whose parents don’t make the time to. See all this — and then see if you don’t, like me, find yourself supporting library funding every chance you get.”