Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will see a wintry mix with a high of 32. Sunrise is 6:40 AM and sunset 5:36 PM for 10h 55m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 7.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board is scheduled to meet at 5:30 PM. (canceled).
On this day in 1980, in a Miracle on Ice during the Winter Olympics, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.
Whitewater has a public school board, that public school board has board members, those board members are popularly elected, and so those board members have to campaign for the offices they seek. There were twelve candidates on the ballot, and six will go forward to a general election for three board seats.
Whitewater’s February 21st primary now concluded, a question: Will candidates in Whitewater ever speak candidly? They have about six weeks to do so.
There’s no surprise about those who are moving forward (Hicks, Linse, Coburn, Kromholz, Huempfner, Mills). These were the predictable primary victors in a crowded field. Unofficial results are available online from Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock counties.
Honest to goodness, this election isn’t about whether there is a mix of men and women, who’s most photogenic, or whether the candidates eat balanced breakfasts that start their days off right.
No and no again.
There are different ideological positions between these candidates, substantive differences that cannot be papered over with banal campaign flyers about wanting every child to read and do well in mathematics. One presumes all the candidates want that. If they don’t, then they’re unworthy of running. Few school board candidates run on a platform of keeping children ignorant and unwashed. (In Alabama, perhaps, but not in the rest of the country.)
For those who want change, what change do they want, spelled out plainly? If they have a plan to boost scores, for example, how will they do so? (Note well: saying that one will try really hard, etc., is not a plan. It’s a lazy evasion.)
For those who support the district’s current direction, why do they support that direction? How do they describe that direction?
One imagines that everyone on the board, and everyone running for the board, knows how to read and write. If they don’t, then they don’t belong on the board — they belong back in our schools. Explaining to the community where they stand in detail isn’t hard, but it’s more than a vague campaign flyer. It’s paper, pen, then ink on paper.
Americans are an educated people, and America is a world leader in science, technology, and the humanities. Whitewater is a college town (no matter how many in this town deprecate a college education). Board members in Whitewater should be able to express and explain themselves as well as the best at our high school and college. A good high school education easily equips a person to do so.
All these candidates want to win. Of course they do. Winning by speaking only banalities while whispering of other plans once in office isn’t a sign of sophistication. It’s evidence of inadequacy and duplicity.
They should say what they mean, plainly and directly.
Picture’s worth a thousand words! Says it all.