Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:23 AM and sunset 8:35 PM for 15h 12m 06s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 87.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1933, the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League 4–2.
There’s a view of small-life that depicts rural residents as thoughtfully laconic. That’s true for some, but it’s seldom the case in Whitewater for officials and those active in political issues. Many of the men and women who gravitate to politics in Whitewater are overwrought and under-thought. They come into meetings cranked up over an issue and leave the meetings cranked up over that issue.
There’s a lot of maneuver, with short bursts of activity, but less sustained effort over the long term. While some moments are important, requiring immediate attention, there are fewer of those moments than excitable people imagine. It’s attrition, not maneuver, that decides most disputes.
What Ails, What Heals. So one does well to ponder what matters most. That would be the point of a post like What Ails, What Heals. It’s a simple list, from this libertarian blogger’s view, of what would help (or what now hinders) Whitewater. Anyone could make a list of his or her own, but watching how excitable some residents are it seems unlikely that many take the time to do so. (The long view seems a rare perspective in Whitewater.)
From that post, what ails: boosterism, toxic positivity, regulatory capture, populism, closed government, news deserts, and violence.
From that post, what heals: free markets, charity, tragic optimism, open government, impartial government, a professional press, and individual rights.
General and Particular. A list like What Ails, What Heals is by design general, not particular. The categories there, of concern or hope, could encompass different, specific topics (of government, of the community, or both).
Public and Private. There are concerns about both public and private life in Whitewater, as there are opportunities for both public and private life. This, however, should be true in a well-ordered free society: private life should be the greater, and public life the lesser, part of community activity and emphasis. Government (city, school district, and public university) should be limited, responsible, and humble. A free society, grounded in private ownership of property, remains free when private action is the largest portion of all activity.
A troubled community, including a troubled small town, is one in which government holds the stage while private life stands in the wings. A troubled community, including a small troubled town, is also one in which a few private individuals manipulate public life to their special advantage.
Worth noting, too, is the problem of true diversity and dynamism in a small town. While private life should predominate within a healthy community, private life in fit-form depends on vibrancy and activity. For a community to thrive, to flourish, it must be active.
In a community requiring extraordinary care, a critique must be devoted principally to what ails over what heals (to staunch the worst injuries in the community), to the general over the specific (as precepts themselves will be unclear), and to public over private action (as government action will have grown excessive or distorted). In a healthy society, more time can be devoted to what heals over what ails, the specific over the general, and private over public action.
Some attention must be given across categories, but a person’s primary attention should be focused as if a triage.
From a conceptual list of maladies and treatments a person can make his or her way to specifics, and through a list one can establish priorities that respect the boundaries between public and private, acknowledging the importance of the later over the former.
Riders Stranded Upside Down on Roller Coaster at Forest County Festival in Wisconsin: