I’ve long held that Whitewater’s Major Public Institutions Produce a Net Loss (And Why It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way). This contention is true for several reasons, all leading to this result: “Whitewater’s major public institutions – her city government, school district, and local university – produce this unexpected result: although members of the government are…
City
City, Local Government, Politics
Three Tiers of Public Communication
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Local government – and here I am thinking primarily of a small town’s local government – has three tiers of communication: saying nothing, saying something, saying the right thing. (In the third tier, right refers to a full and fair means of communication, and not right as merely agreeable and pleasing.) Saying nothing. Common enough…
City, Economy, Local Government, University
How a Campus Masks Local Mistakes
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Many small towns, looking for something to attract visitors and newcomers, probably dream about the possibility of a college campus. Whitewater has a public university campus, and the majority of the city’s residents are students at that school. Thousands of students in the city assure a steady stream of retail traffic we would not otherwise…
City, Politics, Trump
‘Enough is enough’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Los Angeles Times editorial board plainly states the truth about these times: These are not normal times. The man in the White House is reckless and unmanageable, a danger to the Constitution, a threat to our democratic institutions. Last week some of his worst qualities were on display: his moral vacuity and his disregard…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, August 22nd, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park: The Zookeeper’s Wife
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This Tuesday, August 22nd at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of The Zookeeper’s Wife @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017), based on a true story, is set in 1939, when during the Nazi conquest of Poland the couple who run the Warsaw Zoo turn the ground’s hiding places into…
City
Welcome to Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater, a small town, sees occasional turnover from among her public officials, as would any town. Over these years, I’ve seen any number of officials arrive (meaning that any number of others have departed). This is a beautiful town; I’d welcome all the world here. No doubt, when someone arrives, he or she receives all…
City, Film
Film: Wednesday, August 16th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park: The Salesman
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This Wednesday, August 16th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of The Salesman @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. The film is the last movie in a summer series of foreign films. The Salesman (2016) is dramatic thriller recounting how, “[w]hile both participating in a production of “Death of a Salesman,” a…
City, Politics, Trump
Molly Ball on ‘The Trump Show’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Covering Trump’s recent appearance in West Virginia, Molly Ball writes that “HUNTINGTON, W.V.—Every day brings new drama, but the Trump Show’s themes remain the same. He’s come to tell his people that everyone else is wrong and they are right…. They have come here, more or less, to be lied to: Trump, in his speech,…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, August 8th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park: Live by Night
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This Tuesday, August 8th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Live by Night @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Live by Night (2017) is a crime drama about a group of “Boston-bred gangsters who set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the…
City, Politics, Trump
When Lions Meow
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
No one is obligated to think about politics, let alone write about politics. (Indeed, in a more libertarian world, for example, the state would be smaller, and there would be fewer political matters of which to speak and write.) In Whitewater and cities nearby, however, there are more than a few who have public, political…
City, Economics, Economy, Education, Immigration, Trump
Anti-Immigration Measures, Wrong Yet Again
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Embed from Getty Images An anti-immigration position is for economics something like a flat-earth position would be for natural science: one may hold it only through either ignorance or disorder. (The ignorance would have to be profound, as even the weakest grasp of economics would incline a rational person to acknowledge the benefits of a…
City, Culture, Politics, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Limits of Cultural Shelter
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In difficult times, some will retreat to apolitical, cultural matters. An apolitical approach is not one that I would take, but for others perhaps it seems the best that one can do. Indeed, in Whitewater, I’ve advocated that approach for those who would not take an overt stand on the principal political question of our…
City, Law, Liberty, New Whitewater, Trump
On Transgender Americans
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One could write about the recent Twitter statement from Trump that “[a]fter consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military,” but there’s a broader question than military service. To be sure, I believe…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, July 25th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park: 20th Century Women
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This Tuesday, July 25th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of 20th Century Women @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. 20th Century Women (2016) is a comedy-drama set in 1979 about a teenage boy, his mother, and two other women who help raise him in Southern California. Mike Mills directs the…