"Herd Mentality" Private Eye March 25 column
Globally, people are vying for the vaccine and, here we are, so privileged, and not realizing just how lucky we are to have access to it. All the haters still be like "Nah, it's a conspiracy." Meanwhile, France, Germany and others are spiking with more deadly, more contagious variants, scrambling for AstraZeneca, and locking down again.
@laugh_ytaffy
Via Instagram
But why are Cox and the Legislature lifting the mask mandate too soon? It wouldn't be because of the business dealings involving the legislators, would it?
Wendy Reed
Via Facebook
Thanks for the Support
This past year has been a year unlike any other. I have watched in horror as friends and their loved ones have become stricken with COVID-19, and some have died. I have watched my bookstore sales plummet and have struggled to continue on, and to keep our six-person staff employed. Thankfully, no one working at the bookshop has caught the virus, and we've been doing whatever it takes to survive.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall provided low interest loans to Salt Lake City businesses to help us in our need. Thanks, Mayor. The much-maligned American government stepped in and provided PPP loans and other help to citizens and businesses, and they continue to do so.
On July 24, 2020, we began a Save Ken Sanders Rare Books GoFundMe campaign. I'm happy and grateful to report that at eight months in, more than 2,400 book lovers and friends of the bookstore have donated almost $140,000 of our $250,000 goal!
But we are not out of the woods yet, and our future is still challenging. From the front door of my bookshop, I can count five cranes for building (or destroying) surrounding properties everywhere I look. Immediately to our north, a 10-stories up, three-stories down structure is under construction, and across the street, plans are to build a 31-story monstrosity that will completely seal off our view of the Wasatch Mountains.
The bookstore property, The Green Ant next door, and all the businesses on Broadway west to Edison Street will be torn down sometime in the next 12-24 months. Eventually moving 100,000-plus books, remodeling, and fixturing a new bookshop isn't going to be easy, or cheap.
The support from my community and this GoFundMe has given me the drive to reinvent myself and my shop one more time. At age 69, this is no longer as easy as it used to be.
But we are up for it, and we need your continued support. Please help spread our GoFundMe campaign to your family, friends and folks who you might know that would consider making a donation. It will help an independent bookstore in downtown Salt Lake City stay in the heart of the city where I began my journey in books some 50 years ago.
I would be grateful for your ongoing support and good wishes.
Ken Sanders
Ken Sanders Rare Books
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