I received the following press release that I am happy to post —

Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk®  Saturday, September 19, 2009 at Library Park in Lake Geneva, WI – June 12, 2009

The 3rd annual Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® for Walworth County will be held on Saturday, September 19, 2009 at Library Park in Lake Geneva. The 3-mile walk promises fun for all ages while raising money to help individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Teams of friends, co-workers, neighbors, family members and corporations are forming now.

Join the fun and register your team today to receive an invitation to the team kick-off event. Register online at www.alz.org/sewi.

For information call 414-479-8800. The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health.

The Alzheimer’s Association provides information, education, and support to people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, their families, and healthcare professionals throughout an 11-county region of Southeastern Wisconsin.

For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the toll-free, 24-hour Helpline at 800-272-3900.

I received an email recently from a defender of free expression and longtime reader of FREE WHITEWATER,  The Mysterious Miss X.  Very much my pleasure to hear from her again, and so very pleased that she’s doing so well.  

Here’s what Miss X had to say, with my reply thereafter: 

Hi John Adams, 

It’s been a while since I stopped by to say hello.  I thought you might find this interesting: 

http://consumerist.com/5007260/man-arrested-for-complaining-too-much 

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/15982195/detail.html 

You may be wise to not publish it and thus avoid giving Whitewater officials any ideas!   

I see a growing number of these types of reports.  Thought I’d send you this one. 

Adams: My pleasure, entirely.  The Consumerist reports that a

Pennsylvania man was arrested for making too many complaints on behalf of his neighborhood to get the local government to enforce noise and air quality laws against a concrete manufacturer across the street from him…Marshall Pappert was appointed the neighborhood pointman to try to prod the local government to action, sending scores of letters and leaving phone messages. It was three messages left with borough Manager Lori Collins that brought the backlash. In them he called for her to resign and accused her of breaking promises to collect and test dust samples from neighborhood homes. She found this harassing and called the cops. Pappert is appealing his conviction. It’s a sad day when someone gets arrested just for asking the government to do its job.

Only a few people in a town ever aspire to local politics, city management, or code enforcement.  They’re not particularly glamorous tasks (unlike, say, being an astronaut, snowboarder, or professional fisherman).  

No one is ever forced into one of those municipal roles; one decides on a career like that voluntarily.  After being in the job a while, a mistaken municipal official decides, “I don’t deserve this criticism” and then decides “I have to put a stop to it.”  

It’s the “I have to put a stop to it” that takes the official from representative of a local American community to thin-skinned, self-important bureaucrat suitable only for a banana republic.  (But not the Banana Republic, a retailer of “men’s and women’s mid-scale casual and tailored apparel” that would expect better customer service than thin-skinned, self important bureuarcats can provide.) 

In these cases, from the perspective of a reasonable person, it’s hard to figure why someone would decide to defy the rights and liberties of America for petty self-interest or convenience, but it happens all too often (as Miss X observes). 

Tom Weber of Price County photographed his cat standing up to a bear. The cat held its ground, and the bear moved off.

Regardless of the bear’s intentions, there’s a lot of moxie in that cat.

Photo Slideshow: Bear and Cat Standoff

Sent via BlackBerry

I’ve often commented on the local press covering Whitewater, and how print newspapers are facing a bleak future. What, though, of editorial cartoons, once so much a part of a daily newspaper’s editorial page?

Editor & Publisher asks if the cartoon might vanish…

Editor & Publisher: Will the Editorial Cartoonist Vanish?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel keeps track of federal stimulus money sent to Wisconsin. The Journal Sentinel also links to the Wisconsin Office of Recovery and Reinvestment.

How your federal dollars are being spent…

Wisconsin Stimulus Money Tracker

Sent via BlackBerry

Fear-mongering from the mainstream media, culprit number one – Time magazine.

Time Magazine’s Long History of Scaring the Hell Out of You

I’ll not blame Americans for their skepticism of an unstimulating federal stimulus.

Reason has the story at 45 Percent of Americans Want to Cancel the Rest of the Stimulus

In the post immediately below, a dash cam calls into question an official justification for the use of a taser on a seventy-two year old woman.

Note, though, that the cam might also exonerate other officers, in other situations, where they were falsely accused of misconduct.

Whitewater gains when her public officials are open, and video record as much as possible of meetings and official actions.