Good morning, Whitewater
There are two public meetings in the City of Whitewater, today. First, at 3:00 p.m., there is a scheduled meeting of the Trippe/Cravath Lakes Improvement Committee at the Municipal Building. The agenda for the meeting is available online. (Agenda will open in another window.)
Later, at 6:30 p.m., there is a Common Council meeting. The agenda for that meeting is also available online. (Agenda will open in another, somewhat cloudy and contentious window.)
The National Weather Service predicts that today will bring increasing clouds with a high — like yesterday — of 31 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts that the next three days will be “cold and dry.”
Yesterday’s better prediction: NWS — it snowed. Everyone at the FA should quick after yesterday’s prediction.
In our schools today, at 6:30 p.m., there is a scheduled PTA meeting at Lakeview School. There is also a Band Concert, at the same time, at Lincoln School.
Parents of Lakeview — I am sure that you like the name of your school, and I respect your preference. Do you not see, though, that you might choose a new name to honor someone? I would offer Paine, Hayek, Friedman, Goldwater, or Rand. Ayn Rand Elementary — surely you see that it just gently trips over the tongue?
In Wisconsin History today, from the Wisconsin Historical Society, a sad part of our past comes to a close, at least for some — “McCarthy Censured by Senate” in 1954: “On December 2, 1954, the United States Senate voted to censure Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Declaring his behavior “contrary to senatorial traditions,” the 1954 Senate resolution officially condemned McCarthy’s reign of anti-communist terror.”
Here’s the resolution of censure that restored some measure of America’s fair-minded tradition, rejecting McCarthy’s methods:
Transcript of Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954)
Resolved, That the Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, failed to cooperate with the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration in clearing up matters referred to that subcommittee which concerned his conduct as a Senator and affected the honor of the Senate and, instead, repeatedly abused the subcommittee and its members who were trying to carry out assigned duties, thereby obstructing the constitutional processes of the Senate, and that this conduct of the Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, is contrary to senatorial traditions and is hereby condemned.
Sec 2. The Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, in writing to the chairman of the Select Committee to Study Censure Charges (Mr. Watkins) after the Select Committee had issued its report and before the report was presented to the Senate charging three members of the Select Committee with “deliberate deception” and “fraud” for failure to disqualify themselves; in stating to the press on November 4, 1954, that the special Senate session that was to begin November 8, 1954, was a “lynch-party”; in repeatedly describing this special Senate session as a “lynch bee” in a nationwide television and radio show on November 7, 1954; in stating to the public press on November 13, 1954, that the chairman of the Select Committee (Mr. Watkins) was guilty of “the most unusual, most cowardly things I’ve ever heard of” and stating further: “I expected he would be afraid to answer the questions, but didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to make a public statement”; and in characterizing the said committee as the “unwitting handmaiden,” “involuntary agent” and “attorneys-in-fact” of the Communist Party and in charging that the said committee in writing its report “imitated Communist methods — that it distorted, misrepresented, and omitted in its effort to manufacture a plausible rationalization” in support of its recommendations to the Senate, which characterizations and charges were contained in a statement released to the press and inserted in the Congressional Record of November 10, 1954, acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity; and such conduct is hereby condemned.