Good morning, readers from across Wisconsin.
This Sunday, March 16th, the Wisconsin State Journal‘s veteran reporter, Dee Hall, published a story describing my recent experiences as a blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin. It’s on the front page of the State Journal, and is entitled, “Whitewater Police Pursue Anonymous Blogger, Critic.”
http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/277169
The story details how City of Whitewater municipal officials acted against lawful, constitutionally-protected, anonymous political and social commentary. More startling, though, is the officials’ conviction that they were right to do so, and that there is no assurance that their efforts are not continuing even now.
It is an effort, Hall writes, that included our police chief’s “use of city employees to try to unmask Adams — exposed in a series of posts on his blog earlier this month — that is part Keystone Cops and part challenge to Adams’ constitutional rights.”
I am undeterred — I am an optimist and true believer in the American tradition of individual liberty, including the exercise of free speech.
(I will post a point-by-point reply to the City of Whitewater’s efforts against free speech in a post later today, entitled, “To the Municipal Opponents of Free Speech.”)
Here’s a picture of the print edition of the Wisconsin State Journal:
As local readers know, I recently published my true account of how a blogger became the target of public officials’ months-long witch-hunt, to learn his identity using public resources, on public time. (For earlier parts of this series, please click this link: Witch-Hunting a Blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin.)
I am that blogger. My name is John Adams, and I am the pseudonymous author of FREE WHITEWATER, a local website with commentary on life in Whitewater, Wisconsin. My website is published almost every day at www.freewhitewater.com.
Although my story may seem incredible, I obtained the public records to confirm these events under the provisions of Wisconsin’s Public Records Law, Wis. Stats. 19.31 — 19.39. I sought these public records after fair-minded residents warned me that public officials might be working, with considerable zeal, during public time, in public facilities, on hunting through the community to determine my identity.
The Wisconsin State Journal has now published an account of my experiences.
Who am I, by the way? That depends on whom you ask. These public officials describe me one way; I would describe myself in another. I blog about municipal affairs, and other topics, as a libertarian, and my website has sometimes been critical of certain police practices and actions, and government planning. Most of all, I have hoped for a better leadership for our police force for our city, and I know that one day we will have just that.
The real message of my site, though, is an uplifting one: the greatness of the American promise of individual liberty and the liberating power of free markets. I have been fortunate to grow up libertarian, am religious, have celebrated the joy of a citizen’s life, offered photos of beautiful spots in my town, cheered public accomplishments, offered classic American animation, and even what’s great about HP calculators!
In the end, I’m just a common man, like so many others — citizen, resident, property-owner, husband, and parent. Bloggers are from all walks of life, across the political spectrum, and are, I think, just modern-day pamphleteers.