Here are replies to several email messages that I have received recently. I will answer some of these questions and points (in each case, I have already replied privately to the person writing, but will post excerpts of my replies and elaborations here). Here are paraphrases of questions (or comments) that I’ve received recently, in black, and my replies, in blue.
Q: If the concept of affection for the city means anything to me…
A: Of course it does. As I mentioned in an email reply, I do have a heart. I don’t seem soft and sensitive to some people? (That’s surprising. I would have thought that readers would suppose that I am especially found of cute and cuddly things: Care Bears, tiny troll dolls, and anything with a Hello, Kitty logo. If I didn’t go out for lunch so often, I am sure that a Hello, Kitty lunch-box would be just the thing. For 2008, I’d like to get a wall calendar near my desk with pictures of Yorkshire terrier puppies. On my back lawn, even the squirrels frolicking in joy are especially cute, and have little bows on their heads.)
I love Whitewater, and I have a series on things that I find beautiful in Whitewater, predictably called, “Beautiful Whitewater.” I love Whitewater enough to criticize it, too, on my own terms, and without trimming my remarks to satisfy a few hyper-sensitive city officials, or pander for readers.
FREE WHITEWATER is a work of independent commentary, and does not presume to be a community bulletin board, or local newspaper. This town needs those things, but others can provide them. This blog just one medium out of many.
Q: Why do I write in a way that makes it seem that I think that most people in town are ‘idiots?’
A: I don’t see people as idiots, and I don’t commonly use the expression, or similar ones. I think most people are pretty clever, actually. It’s just a conceit to believe otherwise. I look around, and I see a world filled with amazing devices, discoveries, and creations. It took an enormous number of clever people to make all of these things happen, and to enjoy them, too. Most people are sharp and industrious. If someone’s wrong about something, in my eyes, it’s not because he’s not clever; it’s likely for some other reason of attitude or conviction. Most people can do most things really well, and if they don’t, it’s not for lack of ability. In my Tips for Meetings post, I remarked, in Tip No. 1, that I think most people are sharp.
Q: What’s so free about writing that people should have to live in town to serve on boards, or to hold city management jobs, etc?
A: As I wrote in an email reply to this question, the issue of workers in the city was actually a tough call for me. If regular-line workers would like to live somewhere else, that’s their concern. (There’s a lot of expense in having to move, and for an ordinary person trying to make ends meet, it should not be a requirement.) I find it more difficult, though, to say the same of those who take prominent, paid positions. That’s why I asked this question in a post on a City Council meeting:
When will everyone with a management job at the municipal building actually follow the principle set last night, and live within city limits? The taxes that pay their salaries come from Whitewater, and it betrays a lack of commitment to this community for them to live outside the city. If citizen-volunteers should live within the city — and I believe that they should — then those who are paid at public expense from the taxes of the privately industrious should live in Whitewater also.
I see a difference between ordinary workers (live where you want) and those on public boards (live in the city) and those in high-paying jobs (live in the city).
Q: Why do you make fun of the Register?
A: I have never, ever, doubted the usefulness of the Register to our community. It has great use and value, both for food preservation, and for small, household pets.
I dislike the Register because it’s a bad, shabby paper. My critiques of the Register may be found here, here, here, here, and here.
Q: Isn’t ‘town elite,’ ‘town faction,’ etc. a caricature, or cartoonish phrase?
A: Yes, but I am not the one who created the most commonly used expression, ‘townie.’ That’s not an expression that I have used, ever, on this blog, but it is commonly used all over town. This community commonly refers to some of its own members that way. Why? It’s not an irrational reference; people who use ‘townie’ commonly understand what it means, and it can converse with each other without asking for an enumeration of each person thereby described. We are able to use descriptions of colors like ‘blue,’ or ‘green’ with each other in a similar way. (I have used ‘town elite,’ ‘town faction,’ and ‘town clique,’ interchangeably.)
Here is something that I once posted about the town faction: “broad particulars that ultimately unite them: white, clannish, suspicious of others, ignorant of economics and business-standard practices, ill-disposed toward minorities, and determined that their views should prevail here perpetually.”
I understand that ‘townie’ may sometimes be used affectionately, so it is different from how I use my expressions. ‘Town elite,’ ‘town faction,’ and ‘town clique’ are not, for me, terms of endearment. The problem does not lie with race. (I’m white, too, and most people of each race are no better or worse than others are). It lies with all the rest: “clannish, suspicious of others, ignorant of economics and business-standard practices, ill-disposed toward minorities, and determined that their views should prevail here perpetually.”
Q: Did you go to college?
A: Yes, and to anticipate a follow-up question, I am a graduate, too.
Q: Who is your favorite poet?
A: That’s an unexpected question. How do you know that I even like poetry? I’ve read no poetry recently, but if I had to choose a favorite, I’d say Poe, although he wouldn’t be a popular choice with many. Poe was more than a poet; he wrote some great, fantastic stories, too. My father always liked Whittier, and although he would not be my preferred poet, Whittier’s anti-slavery position was admirable, and a reason for me to respect Whittier, and my father’s sentimental preference, too.
Q: Do you like America?
A: Yes, I love America. It’s a place of great freedom, and fantastic energy. No people has done so much for itself as we have, with a society that embraces free markets and liberty (to borrow two of the three principles of the Cato Institute).
Q: Why cartoons on Friday (or, from someone else, why cartoons at all)?
A: Because we love a place for all sorts of reasons, both profound and mild. America has an amazing history of animation, and artists and directors of our past, with far less than we have now, accomplished great things. (Other countries have strong traditions too, including, most notably, Japan.)
For those who say I’m too critical (and let me be the first to say that’s an absurd charge, and that each and every one of those people is full of daiben anyway), I say: although much of this blog is critical commentary, it’s more than that. I have Cartoons and Comics, and a Beautiful Whitewater feature, that I enjoy most of all.