Hello!
I’m Wil Gregersen, and I’m a librarian at Warwick Public Library. I serve the people of Warwick—helping them find answers for their problems and ways to achieve their goals—and I’m running for governor of Rhode Island to get our state to serve the people of Rhode Island better and to do a better job of fixing Rhode Island’s problems.
My path to becoming a librarian was a long one. When I was in my 20s, I was in the seminary studying and thinking about becoming a pastor. I wanted to help and serve, but pastor wasn’t the right role for me. Then, when I was almost 40, a librarian asked me if I had ever considered joining the profession. I hadn’t, but she opened my eyes. And in no time at all, I decided to go to library school.
And when I became a librarian, it felt so good to finally be serving a community. And in my almost 20 years of being a librarian I’ve had the privilege to serve three—first Cumberland, then Barrington, and finally Warwick.
Being a librarian has also helped me make sense of the world. I’ve always been curious about how the world works. I want to know what makes it tick and how it got this way, and as a librarian, I’ve learned how to dig deep for facts and answers that help explain the complicated systems that affect our lives, including our state government and why it struggles to get things done.
As a librarian, I value public service and expertise. I know what it means to listen and help because that’s what librarians do. That’s why you can walk into any public library in Rhode Island, talk to any librarian, and get help with any problem you’re having. The librarian will listen, ask questions so they understand what you’re looking for, and work with you to find answers to your questions and ways you can get the help you need.
And even better, when you talk to a librarian, you’re not only being heard, but you’re getting solid answers, too, because librarians are trained to recognize expertise. The world is filled with opinions, half-baked ideas, and bad advice, but librarians know how to push through all that noise to find experts who know what they’re talking about and who are offering facts and reliable information.
Librarians don’t need to know the answers. They need to know how to find them. And in the same way, governors don't need to have all the solutions to our problems. They need smart and experienced people they can work with to find solutions. That’s why a businessman, a U.S. senator, a treasurer, and a mayor could be governor and why the successes and failures of their administrations rest on the quality of the help those governors were getting.
It’s so important to bring in experts who can help our state government make informed decisions. Too often our elected officials rely on homegrown solutions to fix our problems when they should be asking specialists to help them find more effective answers. And they should be talking to multiple specialists because the best answers are usually where experts agree.
Finding where experts agree is how librarians work. It’s how they come up with reliable answers, and finding reliable solutions for Rhode Island is what I want to bring to state government and the Office of the Governor.
So, maybe it’s time to give a librarian a try because, if we want to fix our problems, we need experts who give us good advice, and if we want a state government that works for the people, we need a Statehouse that makes public service its first and primary goal.
I love Rhode Island, and I want to help us be okay. It might be foolish to want to serve when the challenges are so great, but service is a fundamental part of who I am. So, please think about what good state government means to you, and if you like my ideas about it, I’d be grateful for your support.