Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 26. Sunrise is 6:40 and sunset is 5:37 for 10 hours 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 40 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM and the Police & Fire Commission meets at 6 PM. The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1945, during the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
The Whitewater Unified School District’s board meets tonight at 6 PM. In the agenda item for public comment at tonight’s meeting, there are 224 words introducing that item:
Citizens may speak under Public Comments, but no School Board action will be taken. Issues raised may become a part of a future agenda. Participants are allotted a three-minute speaking period. A Citizen Comment Request should be filled out prior to speaking. In accordance to Board Policy 187, personal criticism and/or derogatory remarks directed at School Board members or employees of the district will not be tolerated. Should there be a number of citizens planning to speak, the President will announce the total time for citizen comments and divide the time between speakers equally with no more than three minutes allotted to each participant. The Board will not be able to respond to individual questions at the meeting. Complaints against an employee should be sent to the Superintendent or Board in writing with your signature.
Please keep in mind that students often attend or view board meetings. Speakers’ remarks should therefore be suitable for an audience that includes Kindergarten through 12th grade students. The Board President or officers of the Board may interrupt, warn or terminate speakers’ statements that are unrelated to the business of the School District or inappropriate for K-12 students or disruptive to an orderly, productive meeting. The time estimates noted for agenda items are for informational purposes only and may not be reflective of actual discussion during the meeting.
This is a small and smug effort to insulate board members and the superintendent from the legitimate public comments of parents and residents in the district. That’s all they are. It’s an obvious effort to dissuade through a chilling effect: can’t say this, can’t say that…
For some residents, these multiple cautions and warnings are likely insulting. By contrast, this libertarian blogger finds them funny, in the way that ridiculous claims are. They’re so nuttily defensive that they’ll never not be funny. Only Jonathan Swift could have crafted a parody so close to this genuine effort of something so self-defensive.
This is nearly the Whitewater School Board’s secular liturgy, recited in one form or another from board presidents and school boards whether left or right.
Whenever I read the words of this agenda item, I imagine them being sung, and the image never fails to delight in the way that ludicrous scenes often do.
NASA’s Artemis 2 rocket will require a rollback, impacting March launch window: