FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

CDA, City, Common Council, Council Leadership, Daily Bread, Local Government, Newspapers, Press

Daily Bread for 10.2.23: City Staff Members Speak on Behalf of City Manager

by  • 

 Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:53 and sunset 6:33 PM for 11h 39m 56s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 87.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1780, John André, a British Army officer, is hanged as a spy by the Continental Army.  

  Embedded above is a part (@ 2:22:00) of the 9.19.23 Whitewater Common Council meeting. The video begins with remarks from five leading city hall employees about Whitewater’s city manager. These employees can speak for themselves, as they do in a story from Whitewaterwise (the only professional journalism in Whitewater) entitled, City staff members speak in support of Weidl; council members continue to consider management goals.

From that reporting, one reads that 

On Tuesday [9.19.23], staff members who came forward in support of Weidl’s management style included Whitewater Police Chief Dan Meyer, Whitewater Fire and EMS Chief Kelly Freeman, Whitewater Human Resources Director Sara Marquardt, Whitewater City Clerk Karri Anderberg, and Whitewater Administrative Assistant for Economic Development Bonnie Miller.

Addressing members of the city council, Meyer said: “I’d just like to give my support for John’s management plan and explain a little bit about the respect that I have for his management style in general.” 

Addressing Gerber, he said: “To your point, Jill, the way his management is going, from my perspective, John’s been a breath of fresh air in terms of providing direct and actionable information for me. When I call or text John with confidential updates that we’re working on, he responds immediately — I’m not talking like five minutes, I’m talking like now. When I need an answer for a personnel or budget issue, I get a response immediately, which, in turn, allows me to do my job.”

Offering an example of his working relationship with Weidl, and citing demographic changes within the community as among challenges facing the police department, Meyer said: “The first day I met John, I explained to him how this has impacted us with the communication challenges, cultural differences, lack of trust in government, non-familial living situations.”

Meyer said Weidl was “engaged,” describing him as a manager who “showed up to dig into this complicated issue,”  adding that Weidl asked him to complete a Request for Quote (RFQ) for an immigration attorney to help create a bilingual immigration guide.

“So that stretched my comfort level with something I had no experience doing; it made me grow,” Meyer said.

He added: “Ultimately, I’m not always going to like the answers that I get from John, but (I) understand that (it’s) not always about getting what you want. At the end of the day, I’ve got a ton of respect for his approach to the job, and I think the city is better off with him here.” 

Freeman cited the history and the referendum which led to the formation and funding of the city’s fire department.

“I just wanted to echo what Chief Meyer had to say in regards to working with the city manager,” Freeman said.

Citing a desire to create perspective, he told council members that in 2014 or 2015, the city had a fire department and rescue squad which was housed in the same place, but, he said, it did not “operate in unison.”

…..

Addressing the council, Anderberg described herself as a “new employee” of only four months.

“My journey here marks a stark departure from a previous experience in another municipality where the highest official’s demeanor was far from what we expect in public service. In that environment, accusing, yelling, and public spectacles were at an alarming high and very common. It was a very toxic situation and unhealthy work environment,” she said.

She added that in the time that she has been employed in Whitewater, the city has undergone, by her assessment a “remarkable transformation.

“Our dedicated staff are receiving training and support like never before. We’re embracing new technologies that promise to propel our city into a brighter future. Departments that once were plagued by ineffective leadership have been experiencing a complete turnaround in just the four months I’ve been here.”

Anderberg said her department was undergoing a modernization, during which staff members were uploading all of the city’s forms to its website, giving residents online access. Additionally, she said, a new agenda management system was synchronizing agendas “across our committees and common council.”

….

At the podium, Miller said that she has been working with the city’s CDA (Community Development Authority) since 2018, when she began administrative duties in a part-time capacity.

At the time, she said, “I was not new to economic development; I worked as a legal assistant for 22 years for attorney Mitch Simon, who served as legal counsel for the CDA.”

At city hall, she continued, “I have experienced several changes in leadership over the five years I’ve been here, having reported to two CDA directors, who were both here for a short time. During the many months without a CDA director, I reported to city manager Cameron Clapper. If I had to characterize those first five years on the whole, I would say, for me, they were without definitive direction and lacked effective leadership.”

After Clapper left to pursue another job, she said, she reported to an interim CDA director and then Weidl, first in his interim capacity and then as city manager.

Of Weidl, she said, “It was like someone finally started the engine and stepped on the gas. In my experience, John brings an energy to the city hall that spills over to everyone in the building. He set a high standard, and expects us all to be making the best use of our workday. He is direct, but respectful, sets goals and objectives, and has created an environment where I personally feel safe to spread my wings and accept new challenges.”

Miller said that under Weidl’s management, she finds she has the necessary tools to perform her work, and, she said, she is afforded opportunities to learn and grow.

….

Sara Marquardt said she was in agreement with Miller’s assessment of the city manager. 

“So I will not reiterate her feelings, but I do want to ask of this council, when we are discussing goals, when we are discussing the issues that are affecting us — no, it has not always been easy — but in order to move this city forward, we need to be free to concentrate on its objectives, cheer the positives, and stop the behaviors that continue to impede our progress.”

A key point:

All of these people, including and especially the members of the Whitewater Common Council, are members of the government. Scrutiny does not begin from seven council members toward city staff.  No, and no again.

Scrutiny should — and must — begin from any of 14,889 residents toward the Whitewater Common Council, itself.  The words and actions of these several people are the first points of assessment of reasonableness, competency, and professionalism in local government. 

 

Catspaw, CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Council Leadership, Daily Bread, Disinformation, Foul Pursuits, Hubris, Local Government, Low Standards, Nepotism, Regulatory Capture, Self-Dealing, Special Interests, Sycophancy, Tantrums, Toadies, Unfit

Daily Bread for 10.1.23: The Shamelessness of the Special-Interest Men

by  • 

 Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:52AM and sunset 6:35 PM for 11h 42m 48s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 93.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 331 BC, Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.

  In a small town like Whitewater, where the Whitewater Common Council and the Community Development Authority are beset or controlled by special interests (under the thumb of principals & operatives, and behaving as catspaws), it’s worth considering the shamelessness of the special-interest men who afflict this city. 

To be shameless — without embarrassment in self-promotion, self-dealing, lying, or ignorance — works to the advantage of these men.  

Here’s why. 

First, when they demand something selfish, something that’s an apparent conflict of interest, the very audacity of their demands stuns normal & well-adjusted people. It’s that stunned moment that is to the benefit of the special-interest men: in the surprise and hesitation of ordinary people, the avaricious, gluttonous, and proud move forward. They seize advantage of others’ moments of reflection to take and take again.

Second, these types know that if an audacious demand stuns at first instance, the repetition of that demand works a greater power when forced over and over. To insist once surprises normal people, but to insist over and over works a second power by wearing away resistance.

Special-interest men will keep demanding, and their catspaws, dupes, suckers, and stooges will keep demanding on their behalf. A bloated & bloviating dupe, who can’t make a coherent argument at any given moment, can at least make the same incoherent argument repeatedly and hope to wear others down. 

This is notably useful for special-interest leaders of Whitewater: they don’t need knowledgeable mouthpieces on the Whitewater Common Council or Community Development Association, as even a low-quality operative or stooge can repeat the same underhanded and poorly-expressed demands again, again, and again. 

Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise: The kind of men or women willing to be toadies for others aren’t likely to have any worthy talents of their own. If they had worthy talents of their own, needless to say, then they wouldn’t be toadies in the first place. 

Of toadies, here’s one etymology of that word: 

In 17th-century Europe, a toadeater was a showman’s assistant whose job was to make the boss look good. The toadeater would eat (or pretend to eat) what were supposed to be poisonous toads. The charlatan in charge would then “save” the toad-afflicted assistant by expelling the poison. It’s little wonder that such assistants became symbolic of extreme subservience, and that toadeater became a word for any obsequious underling. By the early 1800s, it had been shortened and altered to toady, our current term for a servile self-seeker. By the mid-1800s, toady was also being used as a verb meaning “to engage in sycophancy.”

Catspaw, CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Council Leadership, Daily Bread, Disinformation, Foul Pursuits, Hubris, Local Government, Low Standards, Nepotism, Newspapers, Press, Regulatory Capture, Self-Dealing, Special Interests, Sycophancy, Tantrums, Unfit

Daily Bread for 9.30.23: Fierce or Bust

by  • 

 Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:51AM and sunset 6:31 PM for 11h 45m 41s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world’s first nuclear-powered vessel.

In a small town like Whitewater, where the Whitewater Common Council and the Community Development Authority are beset or controlled by special interests (under the thumb of principals & operatives, and behaving as catspaws), residents need good & honest reporting on local developments.

While FREE WHITEWATER is a website of commentary and not journalism, this libertarian blogger can tell the difference between solid journalism (of which this city has had almost none until Whitewaterwise) and failed and fraudulent efforts (of which this city has had many). 

Seth Stern writes In defense of aggressive small-town newspapers:

The prevalence of “news deserts” has apparently led some to think it’s normal for neighborhood news outlets to function as lapdogs rather than watchdogs. A Marion [in Kansas] grocery store owner told the Times that the local paper “should of course be positive about everything that is going on in Marion, and not stir things up and look at the negative side of things.” 

Fluff pieces may be good for business (at least in the short term), but we wouldn’t need a First Amendment if the press’s role were to applaud the status quo. 

The ordeal [conflict in Marion] also belies the notion that small towns don’t need journalism because “everyone knows each other” and holds their friends accountable. Marion County has almost twelve thousand people. Small-town politicians and elites may all know each other, but there are still plenty of people outside the bubble. The press’s job is to bring them in. And even towns far smaller than Marion—where everyone actually might know each other—are by no means always exemplars of good government. 

The truth is that the powerful complain about aggressive media coverage everywhere, not just in small towns. Find me a government of any size that doesn’t think the press is too hard on it. The difference is that small-town officials often have far greater ability to meaningfully retaliate against negative coverage rather than just complaining about it. That can mean filing frivolous SLAPP suits or pulling contracts for legal notices. 

These efforts are especially likely to succeed in small towns because the more desperate news outlets become for money, the more susceptible they become to intimidation and self-censorship. 

This last year has seen a furious, persistent effort by a few men on the Whitewater CDA and the Whitewater Common Council to preserve special interest control over both those public bodies. 

An intensification of scrutiny has never been more necessary for this city. 

More than 70% of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population flees as future uncertain for those who remain:

Daily Bread, Social Media

Daily Bread for 9.29.23: Redeeming Social Media

by  • 

 Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 71. Sunrise is 6:50 AM and sunset 6:39 PM for 11h 48m 34s of daytime. The moon is full with 100% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1789, the United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.

Yair Rosenberg offers suggestions on How to Redeem Social Media (‘The next generation of platforms doesn’t have to make the same mistakes as the previous one’):

The slow collapse of Twitter has inspired a host of would-be successors. Millions of people are trying out new social-media platforms such as Meta’s Threads in a textbook triumph of enthusiasm over experience. I’m sure that creating free content for a social-media platform run by an unaccountable billionaire will turn out differently this time, we tell ourselves, as though we were all born yesterday.

….

Establish rules of the road.

For years, Facebook permitted Holocaust denial—until it didn’t. For months, Twitter throttled an array of claims about COVID-19—some false, some merely controversial—until it didn’t. Both platforms banned Donald Trump, then reversed course. Meanwhile, Chinese officials who insinuate that COVID-19 began in the United States and work to obfuscate their regime’s horrific repression of Uyghur Muslims mostly go unpunished. The problem is not that social-media companies such as Twitter or Facebook moderate their content. It’s that their process is opaque and seemingly capricious, and the precise basis for decisions is rarely disclosed to the public. Rather than cultivate a healthy online community, this sort of arbitrary administration breeds distrust.

What’s needed instead is a transparent set of detailed criteria governing suspensions, bans, and other punishments that is clearly explained, regularly updated, and consistently applied. Social-media platforms have typically kept the specifics of these determinations private, because they want to avoid opening themselves up to controversy. But making moderation a black box has invited a different form of controversy. Because users could never tell exactly why certain content was taken down or suppressed, the platforms became easy targets for suspicion, paranoia, and accusations of bias. It’s true that no set of public-moderation principles will satisfy all comers. But that’s a feature, not a bug. Users will be able to choose where to spend their time based on whether a platform aligns with their ideals, and platforms will no longer be plagued by users who are constantly aggrieved by their treatment.

(Emphasis added.)

Clarity of rule-making and enforcement benefits platforms and users. 

Man Skydives Straight Onto an Inflatable Unicorn:

Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.28.23: Legislation to Protect Wisconsin’s Election Workers

by  • 

 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 71. Sunrise is 6:49 AM and sunset 6:40 PM for 11h 51m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1066, William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.

Anya van Wagtendonk reports Legislation to protect election workers moves forward at Wisconsin Capitol (‘The proposal would make it a felony to assault an election worker’):

Under the bipartisan proposals, attacks on election workers would become a felony; election workers would have access to whistleblower protections; and voters would receive text message updates about the status of their absentee ballots.

The proposal about protecting election workers comes after civil servants faced increased harassment and threats after the 2020 presidential election, when many people falsely accused workers – especially in swing states like Wisconsin – of participating in voter fraud and stealing the race from former President Donald Trump.

“Election workers are the backbone of successful elections and deserve to operate without fear for their personal safety or job security,” said André Jacque, R-DePere, who co-authored the bill, at a public hearing of the Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections and Consumer Protection on Tuesday.

It would also make it a Class I felony to intentionally harm an election worker. Currently, most forms of battery are Class A misdemeanors, but this bill would provide special protections for election workers.

Some version of this bill is long overdue. 

See 2023 Wisconsin Senate Bill 291:

23-3073_1Download

Bear devours picnic inches away from onlookers in Mexico:

America, Daily Bread, History, Literature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.27.23: Pioneer Spirit and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Family

by  • 

 Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will see intermittent showers with a high of 69. Sunrise is 6:48 AM and sunset 6:42 PM for 11h 54m 20s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 88.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1962, Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Jennifer Van Haaften, Assistant Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, discusses how the lives of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s pioneer family was portrayed in her novels and presents a more complex image of what it was like to live on the prairie during the late nineteenth century:

Watch the moment NASA capsule lands on Earth:

City, Daily Bread, Rain, Weather

Daily Bread for 9.26.23: Rain

by  • 

 Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 71. Sunrise is 6:47 AM and sunset 6:44 PM for 11h 57m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 88.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1983, Soviet Air Force officer Stanislav Petrov identifies a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.

It’s raining. That’s the post, all of it — the beauty of a rainy day.  Let it pour.

Catspaw, CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Daily Bread, Entitlement, Foul Pursuits, Hubris, Local Government, Low Standards, Sycophancy, That Which Paved the Way, Toxic Positivity, Unfit

Daily Bread for 9.25.23: The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town

by  • 

 Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:46 AM and sunset 6:46 PM for 12h 00m 06s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 78.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6:30 PM and returns to open session at 7 PM.

On this day in 1804, the Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for allowing the expedition to move further upriver.

In a small town, and perhaps elsewhere, there are four tiers within a special-interest hierarchy: principals, operatives, catspaws, and residents. Only the first three serve, reliably, the special interest; the fourth is a large group of unaffiliated people that the special interests must persuade or dissuade repeatedly.

Principals. These are men who have control over property or assets. Private property is the foundation of a free society. Some small number of private men, however, through entitlement or greed, come to believe that they have a right to direct public goods as they, not the public, wish. Those are the principals about whom I am speaking, men who care more about their own businesses than a society of free markets (in capital, labor, and private goods) and equal access to public institutions.  These are the entitled.

As owners, this first group has a direct financial interest in the success of a venture. (A special interest might be ideological rather than financial, but that’s less likely in a small town. For the most part, it’s a businessman who is at the center of small-town financial interests.) This interest may start with one man who, owing to the limits of a town marketplace, quickly develops a sizable advantage over a commodity or service.

When they show up to argue for their own economic benefit, they pretend to be speaking in a different role (‘wearing a different hat’). There is no worse joke: a man who claims to speak while wearing different hats speaks with the same head and tongue regardless of his feeble claims otherwise.

Human nature sometimes being dark, and men being proud, avaricious, and emotionally needy, the man begins to believe he has a right (and feels he has a need) to maintain his advantage perpetually. So he looks for ways to secure that advantage beyond legitimate marketplace competition. 

He turns to the government: he looks (and believes) that he can (and should) use the government to secure an everlasting advantage as an incumbent business by advancing his interests and retarding his competitors. He wants councils, boards, and commissions to advance his views.

In the beginning, he may act alone this way, but as he grows bigger he will enlist family members and shove them onto boards, commissions, foundations, etc. Other good candidates will be pushed aside or ignored, on the false claim that only that one businessman or one family could possibly have the expertise to serve. (Ludicrous, of course: places do better without nepotism in public affairs.)

These relatives will reflect the will of the businessman to advance his financial position.

Some relatives will be messengers and enforcers of the special-interest line. They’ll call up and harangue others endlessly about what they want, and what must be done, droning on while others feel like hostages on the line to a small-town businessman’s ego. (Note well: a proper man or woman does not entertain the greedy or the addled. A conversation is controlled from both ends. Men and women of the city: all these years, you should have hung up the phone. There’s a difference between politeness and self-degradation.)

Operatives. These men or women are the scheming agents of the special-interest owners. They aren’t principals, but agents, and they gravitate toward special-interest men to do their bidding. They communicate with the men at the top, and spread that message out through the community. On their own, they have nothing to say and produce little that’s uniquely theirs; they receive attention only because they represent someone else. Part communications types, part lickspittles, all repulsive.

These are the legal prostitutes of a community, with a twist: they serve at the pleasure of the special-interest men, but it’s the community they f-ck. 

Catspaws. Catspaws are people who are used to carrying out the selfish and unpleasant tasks of principals or operatives. They’re dupes, suckers, stooges, etc. Sometimes they believe they’re doing the right thing. Most of the time, they’re needy losers (often in public office) who just want to fit in. Behind their backs, the operatives and agents laugh about how easy it is to manipulate these catspaws; to their faces, the operatives pretend they care, really care!, about these dupes, suckers, and stooges.

Ordinary residents. Ordinary residents, as all of us are (for who could want more?), remain a problem for special interests. The principals, operatives, and catspaws will try to trick residents into believing that all is well through boosterism, toxic positivity, or excuse-making, but that seldom works for long. People come to spot excuse-makers and liars when they see them.

If special interests can’t get the assent of residents for their plans, then they’ll hope no one notices their own schemes. If they can find enthusiasm, they’ll hope for malaise.

This libertarian blogger has written that ordinary residents are at the bottom of the special-interest hierarchy (that is, how special interests see things) but in fact, ordinary residents are at the top in any normal, well-adjusted community. What the special-interest man wants is incompatible and opposing to what an American man or woman deserves within a community.

 

Daily Bread, Nature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.24.23: National Parks of Wisconsin

by  • 

 Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with nighttime showers and a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:45 AM and sunset 6:48 PM for 12h 02m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 69.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument.  

Seventy-one years later, Roosevelt’s choice hosts a foreign delegation:

National Parks of Wisconsin:

Storm Ophelia floods the US mid-Atlantic:

Animals, Birds, Daily Bread, Weird Tales, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.23.23: Wild Flamingos Spotted at Port Washington Beach

by  • 

 Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:44 AM and sunset 6:49 PM for 12h 05m 52s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 58.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1846, astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams, and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.

These are unusual times. Danielle Kaeding reports Pink flamingos spotted at Port Washington beach (‘DNR biologist says it’s the first known sighting of a wild American Flamingo in Wisconsin’):

Five pink flamingos were drawing crowds of curious onlookers on the beach in Port Washington today.

Ryan Brady is a conservation biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. He said American Flamingos have been spotted across a dozen states like Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania over the last month.

Brady said it’s the first known record of sighting a wild American Flamingo in Wisconsin.

….

How Haggis Made It Big In Japan:

CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Daily Bread, Entitlement, Foul Pursuits, Hubris, Local Government, Low Standards, Regulatory Capture, Self-Dealing, Sycophancy, Tantrums, That Which Paved the Way, Unfit

Daily Bread for 9.22.23: A Dog-Bite Story (That’s Not Only About Dogs)

by  • 

 Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:42 AM and sunset 6:51 PM for 12h 08m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 47.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released by Abraham Lincoln.

Sometimes a dog story is more than a dog story. The tale begins, however, with a genuine dog in New York. Andy Newman reports A Quaint French Bookstore’s Violent Dog Problem Turns Deadly:

The quaint little shop on the Upper East Side is New York City’s only store dedicated to French children’s books. But lately, the shop, La Librairie des Enfants, has earned a more sinister distinction: It has been the sometime home of Syko, a 98-pound white German shepherd with a penchant for eviscerating smaller dogs.

On Friday, Akiba Tripp was walking her seven-pound toy poodle, Baby, past the store when the owner opened the door and Syko lurched out, sank his teeth into Baby and broke her spine, Ms. Tripp said. Baby was euthanized that evening.

The attack followed two others in May in which Syko and his siblings injured three other dogs, their owners said. In recent months, the proprietor’s German shepherds — five of them, including Syko’s parents — had spent time in the basement and the main area of the store.

They terrorized people and dogs alike, according to several victims along with online reviews of the shop, which has an adjoining cafe.

Syko’s reign of terror has now apparently ended. His owner, Lynda Hudson, said that on Saturday, Syko and her other four German shepherds moved permanently to her new house in Westchester County and would no longer come to the store.

Consider the irresponsibility of dog-owner Lynda Hudson: she knew for months that her poorly-trained dog had been attacking other dogs and people. She claims now to have tried to restrain the dog, etc., yet she was ineffective in controlling her canine when other people are able to restrain, retrain, or re-home their own dogs. While it’s true that Syko the dog attacked people and other animals, an incompetent owner was the root cause of these attacks.

Those who hold the leash bear responsibility for their dogs’ misbehavior. 

People, unlike dogs, bear a greater responsibility for their own actions. See Whitewater Needs Neither a King Nor a Mind Reader, Scenes from a Council Meeting (Responsibility), and Scenes from a Council Meeting (Representations).

And yet, and yet, even in the case of people, those who have an influence over others have an obligation to produce a mature demeanor, personal discipline, hard work, thorough reading, etc.

That’s why this story about a dog is about more than a dog.

Why it is that no one in Whitewater can ensure that Whitewater’s Common Council leads with discipline and diligence? 

Black Sea fleet HQ engulfed by smoke after Ukrainian missile strike: