Good morning,
It’s a blue moon tonight. I have no idea if that rarity will produce rarities for Whitewater, Wisconsin. If one unusual event begets another, expect some of the following: a Whitewater city manager who sets aside false humility and résumé-building marquee projects, a Whitewater police chief who sets aside public relations for true community policing, a common council member who sets aside the rationalization of conflicts of interest, and a political class that doesn’t confuse looking good with being good.
I am quite sure that 2009 has been a horrible year for Whitewater, and America. If we are an exceptional town, then we’re an exceptional town of self-important politicians and town squires who have, yet again, put their own images ahead of better lives for their constituents and neighbors. We are a place of deep poverty, mostly ignored by those who would rather trumpet, well, anything except the truth.
And yet, I am convinced that these difficult times offer more for reform in Whitewater than ever before. Not, I’m quite sure, because any number of arrogant new men will see how wrong they’ve been. On the contrary, I very much expect them to lie, rationalize, hide, and self-promote even more in the new year. They won’t get better; they’ll get worse.
It is, instead, because the opportunity unfolds to exercise one’s rights under the law vigorously, and litigate at their denial, that I believe the new year offers so much promise. There’s a point when one simply exercises one’s rights, ignoring what others think. There has never been a better time for that approach.
It is sad and troubling that life in Whitewater is hard for so many, and that their pains are made worse by the arrogance of third-tier municipal officials and their deluded apologists. I have not lost a focus on this fundamental truth of our common condition; no other remarks matter half so much.
I will, though, offer these personal remarks for my readers: since Advent, and growing through the season, I don’t believe I have ever felt better. I am so very much convinced and confirmed in the exercise of individual liberty, the power of markets, and the opportunities from a smaller government and more vigorous civil (that is, private) society.
More than that: one should take the message of these principles and the exercise of individual rights to within an inch of a bureaucrat’s nose, so to speak.
In that there is hope, opportunity, and a bit of adventure (as a ‘happy warrior,’ in the way of Al Smith), too.