By 
The Bookstore, by petite corneille
Last days. Going out of business. Everything 20% off.
In the current economic climate, it isn’t hard to find a sign like this on stores all over the region. It’s certainly hard to miss companies like Circuit City going out of business, but big-box stores leaving is just as impersonal and disconnected as their “sales” staff was when you walked in the door. I can also try to avoid the obvious – and sappy – trap of saying how “sad” it is that a local business is leaving the DC area.
There is only one problem: it is sad. A bookstore is a amazing thing. It is a repository of knowledge, and living proof that our First Amendment is a powerful and empowering (and often frightening) statement of rights. Local bookstores are the embodiment of our desire to constantly better ourselves. And so we should miss them when they leave us.