Bridge too far

 Are there certain news stories that are "minor" and don't directly affect you that just have that "straw and a camel's back" feeling, that feel like a bridge too far?

I heard one last night. I did my weekly FaceTime with my mom and she talked about how in her town there's been a rash of minor arson - a toolshed at a joint university/community college agricultural area was set on fire, but more concerningly: apparently several "Little Free Libraries" have been torched.

And on one hand: it's likely it's either bored teenagers* or someone with a mental issue (often so-called firebugs suffer from some form of mental illness). 

(*And if it is? And they get caught? They need to do community service cleaning stuff up or fixing stuff and/or do restorative justice to the people whose Little Free Libraries they burned. This is a case where I think "juvie" would do more harm than good, but maybe showing these kids that casual destruction isn't funny or cool would. Or maybe I'm being optimistic)

But the fact that these are both things that were basically "public goods" worries me - IIRC, the agricultural area often provides produce to various groups, and it also provides education for people who might not want to follow a "traditional" academic career. And the Little Free Libraries - that kind of broke my heart. People do this out of the goodness of their heart, it's a sharing thing. There's one a few blocks from my mom, she's taken books she was done reading down there and left them for another person to enjoy. (I don't think that was one of the ones that was burned; anyway, I think it's a repurposed newspaper-vending box and so it's metal). 

And I admit, at one point in time I contemplated looking into what it would take to get permission to have one, but then I realized that my yard is small, and I'd be kind of skeeved out by random strangers coming into it. And given that there's someone in my neighborhood with a slightly destructive bent right now, maybe not. 

But the thing that worries me is this: could this be a *political* statement? I mean, there are a lot of people out there right now with their fringe-flags flying - you hear really weird "takes" on social media, like "no one should be permitted to read this particular author, ever" or "our kids are being corrupted by anarchist librarians" or similar. And so I do wonder: is this someone who just hates the idea of, fundamentally, "democratizing" books, having them out there as a "take a book, leave a book" honor system?

I admit, yes, there are a few concerns about LFLs that I've seen that seem to be ones that maybe should be discussed - like the whole tragedy-of-the-commons problem where the "good" things get cherrypicked out (maybe even by people who sell them to used bookstores) and replaced with books no one really wants (though like I said: there are probably enough people like my mom - and I'd do it, too, if I had a LFL near me - who leave books that many people might want to read (my mom reads a lot of mystery novels))

The other issue is this, and it's partly why there is no LFL near me: you only see them in upper-income, usually heavily-white neighborhoods. (Here, instead, we have "Blessing Boxes" - places where people who are better off can leave nonperishable food for people who either have fallen through the cracks of SNAP/the food bank system, or people who are too proud to use those, but it would be very difficult to feed yourself JUST based on what's in Blessing Boxes). So it's less egalitarian than it looks, and I know people have talked about that. (Not that that's maybe a PROBLEM; I tend to feel like if someone gets a good feeling from having a little free library in their yard, they should do it). But again - the lack of them in lower-income areas could be an indicator of lower trust in those communities? As I said, I'd not be entirely comfortable basically inviting strangers to walk up my sidewalk to grab a book - though that's partly "single woman always lived alone thing" and partly my particular brain wiring. I am perfectly comfortable donating books to the public library to either sell or give away)

But I don't know. A few years ago a town here had a library fire (fortunately not much damage) and I don't know that we ever learned the reason it was set. But I do worry about people maybe going "not only is it enough for me to prevent my family and my friends from reading certain things, I want to prevent as many other people as possible from reading them, too" and while with the rise of e-books you can't really do away with those by burning the library they're in...still.

Also, libraries are just important to me. I talked about what a big role the Hudson Library and Historical Society played in  my childhood, and seeing people want to try to damage them gets my hackles up. 

Anyway. I hope that it turns out to be bored teens who can be turned around, and not someone doing it as some kind of twisted "activism."