FREE WHITEWATER

Human Nature, Law

The True Measure of Institutional Greatness

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Most communities – even small ones — have a few larger institutions, and Whitewater is no exception.

The measure of those institutions is not how they protect their leaders’ reputations, but how they support and nurture the many individuals, separate and distinct, of which they are formed. This is true even when those individuals meet with misfortune.

Corrupt or selfish institutions will cast aside a few, supposedly for a greater community good. Every institution confronts this temptation, and deficient ones succumb to it: Do the financial and reputational needs of leaders, expressed manipulatively as a concern for all, justify the sacrifice of a few ordinary individuals?

Most church scandals, and workplace or educational cases of abuse, begin with this impulse. It’s a kind of utilitarianism – an act utilitarianism – that attempts to justify whatever is done in the name of an imagined aggregate community benefit. Act utilitarians have no normative rules: anything can go into the hopper, so long as there’s a claimed net gain.

That’s immoral, of course: there’s a reason that we wouldn’t sacrifice people to make it rain even if those sacrifices would work.

It’s the individual, not the institutional, that matters.

The late William Safire, a truly great man, felt the legitimate subjects of criticism were those in authority, those who held elected & appointed office or positions in the press. He often said that one should be most critical at the height of an official’s power, which he expressed as criticizing officials ‘when they were up.’ It would never have occurred to him to malign an ordinary person for an imagined social gain.

He would never have accepted an act utilitarian’s calculus.

And yet – and yet — every community has a few people who are, at bottom, act utilitarians.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.11.12

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Good morning.

It’s a breezy day ahead for Whitewater, with a high of sixty-one.

On this day in 1968, America launched the first Apollo manned mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham.

Google’s daily puzzle asks about a toy’s inventor: “In his day, a 14th Century rector was famous for discovering the healing quality of the waters at Schorne Well. Today he’s remembered for inspiring a children’s toy. What toy?”

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.10.12

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s Wednesday looks to be sunny, with a high of forty-eight.

There will be a meeting about the emerald ash borer at 7 PM this evening at the Blackhawk Manor Apartments’ Community Room, 1155 W. Blackhawk Drive, Whitewater, WI 53190.

On this day in 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew pled guilty to one count of tax evasion, and resigned from office:

Spiro T. Agnew resigned as Vice President of the United States today under an agreement with the Department of Justice to admit evasion of Federal income taxes and avoid imprisonment.

The stunning development, ending a Federal grand jury investigation of Mr. Agnew in Baltimore and probably terminating his political career, shocked his closest associates and precipitated an immediate search by President Nixon for a successor.

“I hereby resign the office of Vice President of the United States, effective immediately,” Mr. Agnew declared in a formal statement delivered at 2:05 P.M. to Secretary of State Kissinger, as provided in the Succession Act of 1792.

On this day in Wisconsin history, in 1982 the Brewers won the AL penant:

1982 – Brewers Win the Pennant

On this date the Brewers won the American League Pennant, securing their spot in the 79th World Series against the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals. The Brewers bounced back from a poor start in the series to become the first team ever to win the League Championship Series after being down 0-2 in the five day series. [Source: Milwaukee Brewers]

Google’s daily puzzle asks a question about geography: “What city would you visit to tour the only royal palace found in the United States?”

City, Crime

The Crude Illegitimacy of Vandalism

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There’s a story today that a large, illuminated American flag display in Whitewater was vandalized. The worst crimes are, surely, crimes of violence against people. Yet among property crimes, not involving harm to a person, there’s a particularly crude aspect to vandalism. It’s a purely destructive property crime.

The large display that was damaged this week was years old, had been in numerous parades, and on display throughout the year. It was a non-partisan symbol of support for this country, for our resilience after attack, and for America’s ongoing promise for hundreds of millions.

One has myriad reasons to believe (as I do) in America, for what’s possible on this continent, and through our peaceful relations with friendly nations beyond these shores.

And yet, and yet, even if one doubted these things, it would still be wrong to destroy others’ property, wrong under the law, and wrong even if there were no criminal law at all.

There’s a sad irony in this, too.

The society that has fostered and rightly protected free and peaceful expression in print and online, through newspapers, magazines, books, television, radio, mobile phones, websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and text messages, etc., still has among its number a few who reject these many legitimate means of expression for crude vandalism.

We are right to be disappointed in, frustrated by, and resolute against these crimes.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.9.12

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Good morning.

Tuesday brings a high of sixty-one, with showers likely in the late afternoon.

On this day in 1967, Bolivian soldiers killed Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara:

 

On this day in 1861, the Wisconsin 1st Infantry readied to leave for Louisville:

1861 – (Civil War) 1st Wisconsin Infantry Musters In
The 1st Wisconsin Infantry mustered in on October 9, 1861. It left Wisconsin for Louisville, Kentucky, and moved gradually through Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia during the war. It would participate in the battles of Perryville and Chickamauga and the Siege of Atlanta. It would lose 300 men during its service. Six officers and 151 enlisted men were killed in combat and one officer and 142 enlisted men died from disease.

Google’s daily puzzle asks about a fictional brand of cigarettes: “What is the brand of government issued cigarettes and gin distributed to the Party members in the George Orwell novel “1984”?”

Green Energy Holdings, Open Government, Waste Digesters, Wisconsin

Waste Digesters and the Ledge Guardians

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Nearly one-hundred fifty miles from Whitewater, in Maribel, Wisconsin and surrounding communities, hundreds of residents are organized and committed against a large, commercial waste digester in their area.

They’ve an impressive website on behalf of their dedicated efforts: Ledge Guardians, www.ledgeguardians.com.

There are sound arguments against waste digesters, against how they really work, what they bring into a community, what they spew out into a community, against their empty claims of economic benefit, how the contents of them are described dishonestly, and how those out-of-town interests pushing them never live nearby (but expect others to do so).

A specific proposal for Whitewater, one from which Whitewater’s Community Development Authority rightly turend away, was among the worst projects ever advanced for our city.

One wishes the Ledge Guardians ongoing support to keep their community safe, clean, prosperous, open, and honest.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.8.12

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s Columbus Day will be breezy, with a high of fifty-seven.

This evening, Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM, and the Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

In honor of Columbus Day, the History Channel offers 10 Things You May Not Know About Christopher Columbus. Number 9 is particularly unexpected:

9. Even in death, Columbus continued to cross the Atlantic.

Following his death in 1506, Columbus was buried in Valladolid, Spain, and then moved to Seville. At the request of his daughter-in-law, the bodies of Columbus and his son Diego were shipped across the Atlantic to Hispaniola and interred in a Santo Domingo cathedral. When the French captured the island in 1795, the Spanish dug up remains thought to be those of the explorer and moved them to Cuba before returning them to Seville after the Spanish-American War in 1898. However, a box with human remains and the explorer’s name was discovered inside the Santo Domingo cathedral in 1877. Did the Spaniards exhume the wrong body? DNA testing in 2006 found evidence that at least some of the remains in Seville are those of Columbus. The Dominican Republic has refused to let the other remains be tested. It could be possible that, aptly, pieces of Columbus are both in the New World and the Old World.