Finder not showing user library folder

When I open Finder on my iMac, then click on my user name in the sidebar, I am not seeing the Library folder for my user name. I need to modify some of the application support folders for specific applications, but I cannot find them using Finder. These folders are specific to my user name and are not located within the Macintosh HD/Library folder for the entire computer.
They should be in the path Macintosh HD/Users/[my username]/Library/Application Support/[application name].
But for some reason, the "Library" folder doesn't even show up in Finder when I click on Macintosh HD/Users/[my username]. It's visible when I open one of the applications and use preferences to access folders in the application support folder for that application, but not when trying to get to the same location using Finder -- which I need to do in order to copy and paste some of the files.
Any ideas on why my user-specific Library folder isn't being shown in Finder?

J.Richardson: I'm sorry, but what you described is not intuitive at all (to me, at least). Mac OS is not bad at all, but unless Apple gets off their high horse and maybe provides some *intuitive* controls for fine-grain system administration, people will continue to have valid points to cite Windows (version whatever) as having legitimate advantages over Mac. Recent example that they FINALLY changed; not being able to resize windows from any border.
Humboldtrick: Thanks for the terminal command! I was also incredibly frustrated by this change.
Thomas A Reed:
I have noticed the train wreck when dealing with (for instance) a SQLite management program - trying to view the contents of a database created in the temp space XCode's "iPhone Simulator" uses - can't browse into the correct directory, nor does the search tool look within the directory, NOR can you simply type a path in. Only other way I would've been able to access files created there would be to use terminal to copy them to a directory not within the "Library", every single time I wanted to view the results of a change! Since the process lost efficiency, and gained annoyance for no benefit to me, that is a train wreck. Also, your "chflags nohidden ~/Library" syntax only works if the user has terminal sitting at the correct directory; there was no reason at all to have griped about what Humboldtrick provided.

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