Here a sampling of some questions and comments from recent email messages, to which I have responded privately, but will summarize and answer here.
For those faraway who once asked me how many cows are in Whitewater
I’m tardy in answering that question, as you have reminded me. In fact, I took a cow-searching drive through Whitewater in December, and recorded remarks along the way for subsequent transcription and posting.
There’s a regulatory angle in it all, too.
I promise to put it up tomorrow.
Why have I posted about televised meetings, and why do I now have a film reel/video icon on the right side of my website?
Because televised meetings are a great benefit to the city, offering the most accurate account of what actually happens at one of our public meetings.
Unfortunately, our public access cable team cannot be everywhere at once. Fortunately, they don’t have to be: Wisconsin law allows ordinary citizens to record public meetings, and requires accommodation of ordinary citizen recording.
In 2010, beginning in a few months, I wouldn’t wonder, we will see the exercise of these rights in Whitewater. Just as important, our small town will see the defense of these rights at law.
Legal justifications for decisions in this town are often thin and flimsy. An American town deserves better, and we will only get something better if someone exercises his rights, and defends that exercise at law. One always prefers an easier route, but it is better to prepare for a harder one.
The days of poorly publicized meetings, with little more than a few vague lines as minutes, will end for this town. Some of our public meetings have never seen the light of a movie lens, so to speak. For everything I have ever written, there’s a dozen times as much to be done.
In all of it, there’s the great adventure of being an American citizen.
I’ll post much more about this as the time gets closer.
Why no Facebook page?
Facebook seems like too much to me; I like having my own website, set up the way I like, and a second Facebook page would be too fancy for FREE WHITEWATER.
This website does have a Twitter account, and I like the simple, succinct format of Twitter. I learn a lot from others’ tweets, and enjoy following them.
Here’s a question that just came in today, to which I quickly replied: I was wondering what is your opinion of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding campaign funding?
Here was my brief reply:
I think it’s a great victory for free speech. I will post on it this week, and I will write about how local – not federal – enforcement of campaign finance laws is often biased and used to penalize dissenters, to the benefit of incumbents.
The fewer restrictions on speech, the better.
Will catblogging be back, why did it go away, have I stopped liking cats, etc.?
I like cats a great deal. I won’t say I love them, because if I did, I know one particular reader who would quickly ask, “Well, if you love them, why don’t you marry one?”
It may seem surprising, but for some people, a line like that still seems new. There are a lot of surprises in correspondence; I enjoy the unexpected range of opinion very much.
I enjoy reading what others write more than writing, myself — much appreciated, and many thanks.