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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

City, Crime

The Crude Illegitimacy of Vandalism

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There’s a story today that a large, illuminated American flag display in Whitewater was vandalized. The worst crimes are, surely, crimes of violence against people. Yet among property crimes, not involving harm to a person, there’s a particularly crude aspect to vandalism. It’s a purely destructive property crime.

The large display that was damaged this week was years old, had been in numerous parades, and on display throughout the year. It was a non-partisan symbol of support for this country, for our resilience after attack, and for America’s ongoing promise for hundreds of millions.

One has myriad reasons to believe (as I do) in America, for what’s possible on this continent, and through our peaceful relations with friendly nations beyond these shores.

And yet, and yet, even if one doubted these things, it would still be wrong to destroy others’ property, wrong under the law, and wrong even if there were no criminal law at all.

There’s a sad irony in this, too.

The society that has fostered and rightly protected free and peaceful expression in print and online, through newspapers, magazines, books, television, radio, mobile phones, websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and text messages, etc., still has among its number a few who reject these many legitimate means of expression for crude vandalism.

We are right to be disappointed in, frustrated by, and resolute against these crimes.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.9.12

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Good morning.

Tuesday brings a high of sixty-one, with showers likely in the late afternoon.

On this day in 1967, Bolivian soldiers killed Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara:

 

On this day in 1861, the Wisconsin 1st Infantry readied to leave for Louisville:

1861 – (Civil War) 1st Wisconsin Infantry Musters In
The 1st Wisconsin Infantry mustered in on October 9, 1861. It left Wisconsin for Louisville, Kentucky, and moved gradually through Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia during the war. It would participate in the battles of Perryville and Chickamauga and the Siege of Atlanta. It would lose 300 men during its service. Six officers and 151 enlisted men were killed in combat and one officer and 142 enlisted men died from disease.

Google’s daily puzzle asks about a fictional brand of cigarettes: “What is the brand of government issued cigarettes and gin distributed to the Party members in the George Orwell novel “1984”?”

Green Energy Holdings, Open Government, Waste Digesters, Wisconsin

Waste Digesters and the Ledge Guardians

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Nearly one-hundred fifty miles from Whitewater, in Maribel, Wisconsin and surrounding communities, hundreds of residents are organized and committed against a large, commercial waste digester in their area.

They’ve an impressive website on behalf of their dedicated efforts: Ledge Guardians, www.ledgeguardians.com.

There are sound arguments against waste digesters, against how they really work, what they bring into a community, what they spew out into a community, against their empty claims of economic benefit, how the contents of them are described dishonestly, and how those out-of-town interests pushing them never live nearby (but expect others to do so).

A specific proposal for Whitewater, one from which Whitewater’s Community Development Authority rightly turend away, was among the worst projects ever advanced for our city.

One wishes the Ledge Guardians ongoing support to keep their community safe, clean, prosperous, open, and honest.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.8.12

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s Columbus Day will be breezy, with a high of fifty-seven.

This evening, Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM, and the Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

In honor of Columbus Day, the History Channel offers 10 Things You May Not Know About Christopher Columbus. Number 9 is particularly unexpected:

9. Even in death, Columbus continued to cross the Atlantic.

Following his death in 1506, Columbus was buried in Valladolid, Spain, and then moved to Seville. At the request of his daughter-in-law, the bodies of Columbus and his son Diego were shipped across the Atlantic to Hispaniola and interred in a Santo Domingo cathedral. When the French captured the island in 1795, the Spanish dug up remains thought to be those of the explorer and moved them to Cuba before returning them to Seville after the Spanish-American War in 1898. However, a box with human remains and the explorer’s name was discovered inside the Santo Domingo cathedral in 1877. Did the Spaniards exhume the wrong body? DNA testing in 2006 found evidence that at least some of the remains in Seville are those of Columbus. The Dominican Republic has refused to let the other remains be tested. It could be possible that, aptly, pieces of Columbus are both in the New World and the Old World.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.7.12

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Good morning.

Sunday will be a day of decreasing clouds, a high of forty-nine, and northwest winds from 5 to 10 MPH.

On this day in 1774, Wisconsinites all became a bit more French:

1774 – Wisconsin Becomes Part of Quebec

On this date Britain passed the Quebec Act, making Wisconsin part of the province of Quebec. Enacted by George III, the act restored the French form of civil law to the region. The Thirteen Colonies considered the Quebec Act as one of the “Intolerable Acts,” as it nullified Western claims of the coast colonies by extending the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River on the south and to the Mississippi River on the west. [Source: Avalon Project at the Yale Law School]



Puzzle-lovers will enjoy the Smithsonian’s Great American History Puzzle:

George Washington’s spies used invisible ink during the Revolution. Abraham Lincoln’s young cryptanalysts cracked the Confederacy’s “Vicksburg Square” cipher during the Civil War. The United States entered World War I after Britain decoded an encrypted message from the Germans inviting Mexico to wage war on America—the so-called “Zimmermann Telegram.” In World War II, the Marines’ Navajo “code-talkers” were crucial to victories in the Pacific theater.

Because puzzle-solvers and code breakers have long been heroes of American history, we present the Smithsonian Great American History Puzzle. The puzzle is a month-long contest conceived by the puzzle master and “Jeopardy!” champion Ken Jennings. The first person to correctly follow all the clues, avoid all the red herrings and uncover all the secrets will win the grand prize: a free trip to Washington, D.C. and a “Secrets of the Smithsonian” tour (created by Smithsonian Journeys and valued at $10,000) behind the scenes of the world’s largest museum and research complex.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.6.12

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny and windy, with a high of sixty-three.

On this day in 1866, America saw the first robbery of a moving train:

On this day in 1866, the Reno gang carries out the first robbery of a moving train in the U.S., making off with over $10,000 from an Ohio & Mississippi train in Jackson County, Indiana. Prior to this innovation in crime, holdups had taken place only on trains sitting at stations or freight yards….

As for the Reno gang, which consisted of the four Reno brothers and their associates, their reign came to an end in 1868 when they all were finally captured after committing a series of train robberies and other criminal offenses. In December of that year, a mob stormed the Indiana jail where the bandits were being held and meted out vigilante justice, hanging brothers Frank, Simeon and William Reno (their brother John had been caught earlier and was already serving time in a different prison) and fellow gang member Charlie Anderson.

In Wisconsin history, in 1917 Sen. La Follette delivered a Senate-floor defense of free speech:

1917 – Robert La Follette Supports Free Speech in Wartime
On this date Senator Robert La Follette gave what may have been the most famous speech of his Senate career when he responded to charges of treason with a three hour defense of free speech in wartime. La Follette had votedagainst a declaration of war as well as several initiatives seen as essential to the war effort by those that supported U.S. involvement in the first World War. His resistance was met with a petition to the Committee on Privileges and Elections that called for La Follette’s expulsion from the Senate. The charges were investigated, but La Follette was cleared of any wrong doing by the committee on January 16, 1919. [Source: United States Senate]

Google’s daily puzzle asks about English monarchical intrigue: “The first king to rule the House of Lancaster chose a wife who became unpopular with the people. For what crime was she convicted?”

City, Press

The Local Press as a Bad Habit

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If local officials (whether elected or appointed) want to be successful, they’ll have to set higher standards for themselves than our local press sets for them.

Successful leaders have been, are, and will always be those who set a better standard for themselves. There’s no partisan ideology in this – the same applies to those of left, right, and center.

I grew up enjoying newspapers, and look fondly on some even now.

We’ve two local dailies nearby, although none from within the city. It’s undeniable, to my eyes, that those papers have covered government officials poorly. For me that means that they’ve not really reported on local politics at all, but instead have fawned over elected politicians and appointed managers. It’s no surprise to any long-time reader that I feel this way.

And yet, and yet – the problem isn’t how I feel, but the damage that sycophantic coverage does to officials, themselves: mediocre coverage creates mediocre leaders, and mediocre leaders produce mediocre work. It encourages them to do less and try less, to settle for shoddy arguments and flimsy claims. Worse, it plays to the vanities of weak-minded officials: they eagerly lap the syrupy concoctions that toadying reporters too gladly serve.

A newspaper story should have some better use than as a page in an official’s scrapbook.

As a rule, local press analysis is poor, the scourcing that newspapers claim is their advantage is non-existent or laughably inadequate, and their quality of composition is wanting.

Coverage of major political initiatives, of policies supposedly worth vast sums, receives no careful review and assessment, but only the most cursory and unthinking acceptance.

It’s not true that this is the best newspapers can do.

Thousands of residents throughout our city, and millions of Americans across this continent, easily meet a higher standard each day than the flimsy coverage our politics receives in the traditional, local press. Americans are among the hardest-working and most competitive peoples in all the world. We are at the forefront of humanity’s accomplishments in science, technology, industry, and art.

Those accomplishments are not the works of a few, but the achievements of over three-hundred million of us, cooperating in countless transactions each day.

Why would any elected or appointed official set aside America’s high standards for the low standards of a local press?

Everyone is free to choose for himself or herself, but not all choices are equally beneficial. Looking outward to the best practices across America (and beyond) is our only sensible, productive, and prosperous approach.

No one in should settle for anything less.