Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 26. Sunrise is 7:05 and sunset is 7:02 for 11 hours 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board will meet virtually at 6 PM.
On this day in 1995, Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified and took effect in 1865.
On the agenda of the Whitewater School Board meeting tonight, the board’s prefatory remarks before public comment have been modified. This libertarian blogger has been critical of the board’s prior, stifling statement before public comment. It’s to the good that the board has revised the statement.
(I’ve been critical of those who have encouraged the public to look away from school board actions, encouragement most notably from a former school board member who also served as school board president, Community Development Authority member, and chairman of that body. See Yesteryear’s Familiar Tune.)
Why would it matter? It shouldn’t be hard to see why.
Because a small group that speaks only to itself produces poor work. Years (more than five) of an increasingly closed approach — most notably during the last five — have left the community with less participation than it would otherwise have had. (It did little good during the prior five years to hold unplugged sessions where the then-superintendent said little and left all the plugging to her subordinates.)
One approach is to say forget the past, and focus on the present. (A few booster residents could flack it as a slogan: Focus on the Now!™) Well, if only that were possible — a community conditioned to expect less gives less in return.
The success of a new farmer depends not only on a proposed seed stock but the condition of the soil into which he’ll plant it. Past destructive use of herbicide should not, indeed cannot, be overlooked. Soil remediation requires that harmful chemicals, still lingering destructively, be acknowledged and removed.
Good crops won’t flourish in unremediated soil.
That’s why it matters.
Fireball streaks across skies of several European cities: