Good morning.
![](https://freewhitewater.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-View-From.jpeg)
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 28. Sunrise is 7:05 and sunset is 5:12, for 10 hours, 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 41.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Common Council meets at 6:30 PM, later in the evening goes into closed session, thereafter to reconvene in open session. The agenda is embedded below:
On this day in 1789, George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the Electoral College.
Yesterday’s post, Dressing for the Weather, was about the way in which one responded to controversies in Whitewater, principally over the use of data and studies:
Whitewater has had its share of controversies. There are five differences between those of the past and now: (1) the pace between accusations is quicker, (2) there are more of them offered at the same time, (3) they are often made without accuracy and sound reasoning, (4) they are made in a time that deprecates any expertise, and (5) behind-the-scenes conflicts of interest are ignored.
The sarcastic implication of the expression a little knowledge is a dangerous thing applies to much of what one hears and reads from would-be critics of policy.
In the Aughts and Teens (2000-2019, and even a few years beyond), much of Whitewater heard from its local government involved dodgy data and weak analysis. This was notably true of the Community Development Authority during those times (with only a few exceptions) when the CDA was run like a club in a third-rate southern town.
The consequence of this is that (1) Whitewater heard a lot of bad claims, (2) residents were expected to accept bad claims at face value, and (3) residents became inured to the notion that the city would be perpetually under the sway of a few self-promoters (and their softer-talking enablers). There was and is always one such enabler, on the CDA or Council, whose job it was and is to try to make the unreasonable sound reasonable. Men are what they say and do, and what they defend and rationalize.
And now, and now, a higher standard of analysis comes along from the city government. Not always perfect, but notably higher than what past municipal administrations or a past CDA produced.
The problem residents face now is that opponents of today’s better work, themselves, argue mostly with the fallacies and low-grade thinking of the past.
And so, and so, one will have to craft an index or catalog of some sort, readily on display, to track the many false claims of special interests and their various frontmen and enablers. The Bauhaus school contended (broadly) that form follows function, and so form of expression will have to follow the worthy function of accurate and reasoned discussion.
There’s no burden in this, but rather only opportunity. There’s merit in a pointed critique of old errors.
One is reminded of the expression: Hard work is good work.
A sharp-looking cedar waxing from Oklahoma:
(Cedar waxwings are found beyond Oklahoma, including in Wisconsin. The description “Only seen in Oklahoma during the winter” simply means that these birds are commonly found in that state during that season. They’ve a wider range in other places during the full year.)