FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread, Politics, Populists, Tantrums

Daily Bread for 7.19.23: For (Too) Many, Yes, It Is ‘Gut-Level’ Hatred

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:34 AM and sunset 8:28 PM for 14h 54m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1977, the world’s first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET).

Thomas B. Edsall writes ‘Gut-level Hatred’ Is Consuming Our Political Life:

Divisions between Democrats and Republicans have expanded far beyond the traditional fault lines based on race, education, gender, the urban-rural divide and economic ideology.

Polarization now encompasses sharp disagreements over the significance of patriotism and nationalism as well as a fundamental split between those seeking to restore perceived past glories and those who embrace the future.

Marc Hetherington, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina, described the situation this way in an email to me:

Because political beliefs now reflect deeply held worldviews about how the world ought to be — challenging traditional ways of doing things on the one hand and putting a brake on that change on the other — partisans look across the aisle at each other and absolutely do not understand how their opponents can possibly understand the world as they do.

The reason we have the levels of polarization we have today, Hetherington continued,

is because of the gains non-dominant groups have made over the last 60 years. The Democrats no longer apologize for challenging traditional hierarchies and established pathways. They revel in it. Republicans see a world changing around them uncomfortably fast and they want it to slow down, maybe even take a step backward. But if you are a person of color, a woman who values gender equality, or an LGBT person, would you want to go back to 1963? I doubt it. It’s just something we are going to have to live with until a new set of issues rises to replace this set.

Yes, so it seems. It’s not true that every critic is angry, or that every critique is motivated by hatred. It is true, however, that populists who engage in dominance and submission rituals or throw fits at public meetings are overwrought and under-thought. They don’t have a concept, let alone a practice, of the maxim that the hotter the temperature, the colder the person.  

This intensity has grown as populism has grown; it will not recede until populism recedes. 

Drone Captures Mount Fagradalsfjall Volcanic Eruption:

This stunning drone footage shows the extent of the lava flow from the Mount Fagradalsfjall volcanic eruption in Iceland, which began last week just 25 miles southeast of the capital city of Reykjavík. Icelandic authorities have warned people to stay away from the area.

Confidence Schemes, Daily Bread, Sen. Ron Johnson

Daily Bread for 7.18.23: It’s All in the Fine Print

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:33 AM and sunset 8:29 PM for 14h 55m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at  6:30 PM. 

On this day in 1968, Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.

Six years is a long time, and once a candidate is re-elected to another six years, what was unseemly before the election becomes ‘you should have read the fine print, pal.’ So it is with Sen. Ron Johnson. Lawrence Andrea and Daniel Bice report Ron Johnson pockets $400,000 from donors for old campaign loans despite saying he wouldn’t do so:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is paying himself back hundreds of thousands of dollars for loans he made to his prior Senate campaigns, despite claiming he wouldn’t seek to recoup the money from donors.

The multi-millionaire Oshkosh Republican received $400,000 from his campaign account in early May, according to his latest filing with the Federal Elections Commission. The payments were made in two installments of $150,000 each and two more of $60,000 and $40,000, all on May 3, for loans from his successful 2010 and 2016 elections.

The repayments are legal.

….

But Johnson, a former plastics executive, previously said that he wouldn’t seek to repay the $8.4 million in outstanding loans he claimed his campaign owes him for loans in his 2010 and 2016 campaigns.

“I don’t have any expectation to get paid back,” Johnson told Insider Inc. on May 17 when asked about a comment on his financial disclosure form that noted “all funds to prior campaigns have been deemed loans and suitable for repayment.”

In fact, Johnson had begun to recoup some of those loans two weeks before he made the remarks to the Insider, according to the latest FEC report released this past Saturday.

Expectations change, right? What’s an expectation, anyway, except a belief that something will happen or be the case? Whose belief was this, by the way: Johnson’s or yours? 

If Johnson meant truly that he would not use campaign money to pay back his own loans, he could have said no, he would not. He said he did not have any expectation, a reply that connotes doing what he wanted to do while hoping others would look away. 

Those who thought otherwise should have read Johnson’s fine print. 

Proof the world is a sphere, rather than flat: 

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Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.17.23: Partisanship Overpowers Fact-Checking

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:32 AM and sunset 8:29 PM for 14h 57m 24s of daytime. The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1955, Walt Disney dedicates and opens Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Joshua Benton writes When it comes to misinformation, partisanship overpowers fact-checking, over and over again (‘Why do people fail to update their beliefs in light of clear evidence to the contrary? Our research provides an answer: partisanship is a powerful factor that can lead people away from accuracy’):

Yes, a lot of misinformation spread on Facebook; yes, a lot of people got a lot of their political news from dubious sources. But we know now that people’s brains don’t have an on/off switch that gets flipped by a well-made factcheck. People’s beliefs are driven by a huge number of psychological and social factors, far beyond whether they follow PolitiFact on Instagram. Knowledge alone doesn’t knock out beliefs held for deeper reasons — and sometimes, it entrenches them more deeply.1

You can see those extra layers of nuance in a lot of the academic research in the field. Like in this paper, which came out in preprint recently. It argues exactly what it says on the tin: “Partisans Are More Likely to Entrench Their Beliefs in Misinformation When Political Outgroup Members Fact-Check Claims.” Its authors are Diego A. Reinero (Princeton postdoc), Elizabeth A. Harris (Penn postdoc), Steve Rathje (NYU postdoc), Annie Duke (Penn visiting scholar), and Jay Van Bavel (NYU prof).

Here’s the abstract:

The spread of misinformation has become a global issue with potentially dire consequences. There has been debate over whether misinformation corrections (or “fact-checks”) sometimes “backfire,” causing people to become more entrenched in misinformation.

While recent studies suggest that an overall “backfire effect” is uncommon, we found that fact-checks were more likely to backfire when they came from a political outgroup member across three experiments (N = 1,217).

We found that corrections reduced belief in misinformation; however, the effect of partisan congruence on belief was 5× more powerful than the effect of corrections. Moreover, corrections from political outgroup members were 52% more likely to backfire — leaving people with more entrenched beliefs in misinformation.

In sum, corrections are effective on average, but have small effects compared to partisan identity congruence, and sometimes backfire — especially if they come from a political outgroup member. This suggests that partisan identity may drive irrational belief updating.

In Whitewater (as in places across America) in years before the pandemic and in years since, it’s proved difficult to move people from false claims. During the pandemic in Whitewater, it would have been a herculean task to move one side or another from its pandemic position. Mere recitation of statistics was ineffectual (and believing otherwise was obtuse). 

These are challenging times requiring a slog. 

Monday reflections from Meow the Cat: 

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Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.16.23: Where the Conspiratorial Leads

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:31 AM and sunset 8:30 PM for 14h 59m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 1.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, the Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

  All peoples in all eras have been afflicted now & again with conspiracy theories. Different times, however, are of different severities. We now seem to suffer more of this foul condition than our forefathers. At the least, our malady is serious. Populist candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for example, now lies to our people when he suggests that covid was designed to spare Jews, Chinese people:

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. advanced a dangerous conspiracy theory this week that the coronavirus could have been a bioweapon “deliberately targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people while disproportionately attacking White and Black people, according to a video of the remarks published Saturday by the New York Post. “There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. Covid-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said during a dinner on New York’s Upper East Side on Tuesday evening. “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

His remarks at the gathering — a dinner party attended by members of the media and Kennedy’s campaign manager at Tony’s Di Napoli on East 63rd Street — amplify racist and antisemitic tropes, including theories that blame Jews for the spread of the coronavirus to expand influence and financial gain, according to research by the Anti-Defamation League.

‘There is an argument’ is the language of a guarded crackpot, just askin’ questions along the way to his dark insinuation. In fact, the only dispute about Kennendy’s remarks is whether he says ‘an‘ argument or ‘no‘ argument about COVID-19 as an ethnic bio-weapon. The first is wrong, the second is simply a firmer commitment to the wrong.

Years of tolerating milder versions of bad reasoning and bad arguments weaken the intellect, making it susceptible to utter mendacity.   

Yair Rosenberg, consistently informative and compelling, explains how conspiracy theories so often begin in one place but arrive at anti-Semitism:

Anti-Semitism is arguably the world’s oldest and most durable conspiracy theory. It presents Jews as the string-pulling puppet masters behind the world’s political, economic, and social problems. For those seeking simple solutions to life’s complexities, this outlook offers a ready-made explanation—and enemy. Anyone seeking a single source for society’s travails may start with run-of-the mill conspiracy theories but will soon end up parroting anti-Jewish ideas. As I’ve written before, “Conspiracy theorists begin by rejecting mainstream explanations for social and political events in favor of supposedly suppressed knowledge and hidden hands. These individuals may not start out as anti-Semites. But anti-Semitism has a multi-thousand-year head start on their crooked conception of the world, and has produced centuries of material casting the Jews as its chief culprit. Once a person has convinced themselves that an invisible hand is manipulating the masses, they are just a couple of Google searches away from discovering that it belongs to an invisible Jew.”

Otter steals surfboards:

Daily Bread, Food, History

Daily Bread for 7.15.23: A 500-Year-Old Sausage Maker

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:30 AM and sunset 8:31 PM for 15h 00m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 4.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1916, in Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

A 500-Year-Old Sausage Maker:

How much weight would you lift on other planets:

Artificial Intelligence, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.14.23: An A.I. Primer

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon thundershowers with a high of 86. Sunrise is 5:29 AM and sunset 8:31 PM for 15h 02m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 8.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1789, revolutionary insurgents Storm the Bastille in Paris.

There’s so much confusion about artificial intelligence, that even a layperson’s article from May in the Washington Post is suitably corrective. Pranshu Verma and Rachel Lerman offer A curious person’s guide to artificial intelligence (‘Everything you wanted to know about the AI boom but were too afraid to ask’): 

Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term for a vast array of technology. There is no single definition, and even researchers disagree. Generally, AI is a field of computer science that focuses on creating and training machines to perform intelligent tasks, “something that, if a person was doing it, we would call it intelligence,” said Larry Birnbaum, a professor of computer science at Northwestern University.

For decades, AI has largely been used for analysis, allowing people to spot patterns and make predictions by assessing huge sets of data.

But advancements in the field have led to a boom in generative AI, a form of artificial intelligence that can make things. The technology can create words, sounds, images and video, sometimes at a level of sophistication that mimics human creativity. It backs chatbots like ChatGPT and image generators like DALL-E.

Although this technology can’t “think” like humans do, it can sometimes create work of a similar quality. AI-powered image generators have made photos that tricked art judges into thinking they were human-made, and voice generating software has preserved voices of people suffering from degenerative diseases such as ALS.

There are opportunities here, both big and small.

For example, ChatGPT wrote a haiku for me about the delay in reaching a settlement over the Whitewater Aquatic Center: 

Pooling dreams deferred,

School district’s funding stalemate,

Town’s splash waits, longing.

Imperfect, yet serviceable. This whole artificial intelligence thing may work out after all.  

How to Give Ukraine’s Army of Bakers and Plumbers a Fighting Chance:

City, Film

Film: Wednesday, July 19th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Hallelujah: A Journey, A Song

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Wednesday, July 19th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Hallelujah: A Journey, A Song @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Documentary/Biography/Music

Rated PG-13

1 hour, 58 minutes (2022)

This month’s art film is a documentary highlighting the life and times of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen as viewed through the  making of his internationally renowned hymn, “Hallelujah.”

One can find more information about Hallelujah: A Journey, A Song at the Internet Movie Database.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: How Do Cats Cool Themselves Off?

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Hannah Keyser writes How Do Cats Cool Themselves Off? (‘Here’s a hint: It’s not by sweating through their paws’):

Conduction allows cats to cool themselves off or warm themselves up via contact with objects of a different temperature. This is why you can often find your cat seeking out cool kitchen or bathroom tiles on a hot day. But this works for a dog or a person, too. What about when that’s just not enough?

It’s a misconception that cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off. As summer wears on you might see moist paw prints, but as veterinarian Kimberly May told The Washington Post, “any secretions there or from their nose, mouth, or tongue are not for sweating; they’re for protection and moisture and are insufficient to cool the blood.”

Instead, cats recreate the sweating process—which works to cool humans via evaporation—by grooming themselves regularly. The saliva from their tongues acts like sweat that cools their body when it evaporates—which is why you can also help cool your cat down by using a damp washcloth to lightly wet their fur. In extreme weather, cats will also pant, but unlike dogs who pant regularly to keep themselves cool, a panting cat is a sign of more dangerous over-heating or other serious disease.

City, Daily Bread, Education, School District

Daily Bread for 7.13.23: The Pool, Tonight

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:28 AM and sunset 8:32 PM for 15h 03m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 16.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

There will be a Joint Meeting with the City of Whitewater Common Council and Whitewater Unified School District tonight at 6 PM to discuss funding for the Whitewater Aquatic Center.  

On this day in 1812, the American Army of the Northwest briefly occupies the Upper Canadian settlement at what is now Windsor, Ontario.

On the City of Whitewater’s Facebook page, there is a press release about tonight’s meeting of the Whitewater Common Council and the Whitewater School District Board over funding of the Whitewater Aquatic Center. My own views are plain, and twice-previously stated: 

The rational course is a settlement that assures ongoing operation at minimal cost while further discussions on medium and long-term solutions are crafted. A reduction in political temperature — down to, let’s say, negative 30 Fahrenheit — would serve this community well.

A settlement, as soon as possible, is the right course. For now, before tonight’s meeting, a bit more about what that view implies: the Whitewater school board should reach an accommodation with the city before a new school year begins. A prolonged dispute only distracts the district from its substantive academic mission. Refusal to settle or efforts to delay settlement will enmire this district in controversy it does not need. The rational course is an amicable settlement before classes start.

The press release from the City of Whitewater follows:

YOUR VOICE MATTERS: HELP SECURE THE FUTURE OF WHITEWATER’S AQUATIC AND FITNESS CENTER (WAFC)

Dear Community,
 
I am reaching out to all the stakeholders of the City Whitewater and the membership of the Whitewater Aquatic and Fitness Center (WAFC), as you play a vital role in shaping the future of our vibrant community. I invite you to participate in a crucial conversation that will determine the destiny of our City and the WAFC.
 
On Thursday, July 13, 2023, at 6:00 p.m., the City of Whitewater and the Whitewater Unified School District (WUSD) will hold a joint meeting to discuss a meticulously developed proposal by the City’s Whitewater Aquatic and Fitness Center (WAFC) subcommittee.
 
This meeting is not just another City council gathering; it’s an opportunity for you to engage in a dialogue that directly impacts the health, wellness, and community spirit of Whitewater, as well as the long-term sustainability of the WAFC. We strongly encourage your participation, whether in person at the City of Whitewater Municipal Building or virtually via Zoom. Your voice matters, and we need your input in this important discussion.
 
The proposal, outlined in the meeting agenda linked below, presents a comprehensive six-year budget plan and operating framework for the WAFC. This plan includes contributions from both the City of Whitewater and WUSD, along with shared oversight, ensuring the financial stability and continued operation of the WAFC. Notably, the City proposes to freeze the school district’s operational contributions at 2023 levels for 2024, while increasing its own annual contribution by $70,000. This demonstrates our commitment to preserving the integrity of the current hours and operations of this important facility. The WAFC is not just a facility; it is a symbol of our community’s dedication to promoting regional health, wellness, and collaboration. Its continued operation and path to growth are crucial to the fabric of our City.
 
The proposal is the result of a proactive effort, incorporating elements from both the City’s and the WUSD’s most recent proposals. It lays out explicit financial contributions from both parties, providing clarity and transparency that will aid future financial planning. Additionally, it calls for the formation of a shared leadership committee, comprising representatives from the WUSD, City Council, and community members. This committee aims to foster inclusivity and ensure diverse perspectives in decision-making. It reflects our commitment to a democratic and participatory approach to managing the WAFC.
 
We firmly believe that this proposal offers a practical, sustainable, and equitable solution to the challenges facing the WAFC. However, its success is not guaranteed. It relies on the support and active participation of our community. We urge you to familiarize yourself with the proposal, join the discussion, and ultimately lend your support to this initiative.
 
During the meeting, there will be a designated time for citizen comments, giving you the opportunity to voice your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. This is your chance to make a difference, contribute to the dialogue, and shape the future of our City. In addition to participating in the meeting, I encourage you to reach out to your school board representatives and City Council alderpersons.
 
? School Board Representatives: https://www.wwusd.org/page/school-board
 
Please express your support and desire for the success of the WAFC. Your voice can make a difference. Any correspondence I receive will be added to the public record, further emphasizing the importance of your input.
 
The future of the WAFC, and by extension our City, is in our hands. Let us come together, engage in constructive dialogue, and make decisions that will ensure the continued growth and prosperity of Whitewater. We look forward to your participation in this important conversation and hearing your valuable insights.
Thank you for your time, attention, and commitment to our community. Together, we can build a Whitewater that future generations will be proud to call home.
 
Sincerely,
John Weidl
City Manager, City of Whitewater
? Join the Webinar:
Passcode: 086240
Phone: +1 312 626 6799 (US – Chicago)
Webinar ID: 867 2920 0029
Passcode: 086240
 
Please note that although every effort will be made to facilitate virtual participation, unforeseen technical difficulties may arise, in which case the meeting may proceed with a quorum. In such a situation, if you wish to make a comment, you can call the number: 262-473-0108.

City, Daily Bread, Education, School District

Daily Bread for 7.12.23: The Early Childhood Inclusion Presentation of 7.10.23

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will see thundershowers with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:28 AM and sunset 8:33 PM for 15h 04m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 24.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1812, the American Army of the Northwest briefly occupies the Upper Canadian settlement at what is now Windsor, Ontario.

July Update WUSD Early Childhood Inclusion Service Delivery ModelDownload

Link: Early Childhood Inclusion.pdf

On Sunday, FREE WHITEWATER listed school-related posts since March, on Monday a sketch on the basics of a good education, and on Tuesday a review of a middle-school science curriculum presentation at the 7.10.23 school board regular session. Today’s post addresses the Early Childhood Inclusion presentation (embedded above). 

About thirty-six minutes into the meeting, for about an hour, the district’s Director of Pupil Services and several district employees spoke to the community about the district’s Early Childhood inclusion program. (Early childhood programs are for children not yet attending full-day classes.)

A few remarks are in order. 

It matters, and it will always be necessary, that there is an update to the school board about this programming. That’s a necessary, yet insufficient, measure of a program’s success in a district responsible and responsive to the community. To the community means all the community (not simply the board, or parents, but all residents): it’s a public school district. There would not have been so much consternation last year about the district’s early childhood program — and honest to goodness there was! — if the community had been better informed. 

The board, a few administrators (the district leadership team), and those who watch and record these meetings are a tiny fraction of the audience this district needs. Communication isn’t accomplished simply because seven board members are in the know. If residents don’t hear about a topic fully, then they’ve been sold short. When they later learn that they’ve been sold short, they will show up at board meetings and start yelling. How much Maalox does the district office want to keep in stock? An ounce of prevention, a pound of cure…

One other point, that this district for over a decade has not understood: it’s not enough that an administrator finds a teacher wonderful, or beloved. It’s meaningful but not decisive. What’s decisive is whether students are performing well. Love may take a student along the way to success, but a teacher’s love must be measured by the results that the teacher produces. To be useful to the public, those results must be measurable.

(Old Whitewater had the bad habit of using praise as a substitute for genuine accomplishment. Respect for one’s education means looking for, and expecting of others, measurable results. This is no more than following the good example of one’s teachers, professors, and mentors. It’s not harsh to write as much; it is, in fact, an expression of love and honor all its own.) 

Two Reasons Why the US Is Avoiding Recession:

City, Daily Bread, Education, School District

Daily Bread for 7.11.23: The Middle-School Science Curriculum Presentation of 7.10.23

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:27 AM and sunset 8:33 PM for 15h 06m 15s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 33.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1914, Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball.

Science AdoptionDownload

Link: Science-Adoption.pdf

Sunday’s post listed school-related posts at FREE WHITEWATER since March, and Monday’s post offered a sketch on the basics of a good education. Today offers a review of a middle-school science curriculum presentation at the 7.10.23 school board regular session (embedded above). 

About five minutes into the meeting, for thirty-one minutes, the district’s Director of Teaching & Learning and three science teachers presented to the board on a new middle-school curriculum. Their discussion (including questions from the board) will lead to a vote on the proposal at a subsequent meeting. 

A few remarks are in order. 

Whitewater now has a Director of Teaching and Learning, and that’s a proper title: what does the district teach, and how are students learning? The proposal under review seeks to adopt a new curriculum with a more active, participatory student approach to middle-school science.

As it stands now, fewer than half of our middle-school students are proficient or advanced in science. When measured under an age-appropriate curriculum and teaching methods, fewer than half is too few. Almost all students — and all people, truly — are capable of proficiency. There are barriers to learning for some (illness, severe disability, deprivation) but most students will learn well if taught well.

What does Whitewater need? She needs a good curriculum, good teaching, measurement of that teaching’s effectiveness, and community awareness of what’s being taught. (This last need is lacking, and no means of communication under the district’s control is adequate to get a message out widely. District or city officials who think their own means of communication are effective are mistaken. They miss more people than they reach. This is, however, a topic for another day.)

There are costs involved in changing a curriculum and approach, but the costs of remaining enmired where we are now are incomparably higher.  

British philosopher Thomas Dolby understood the adventure and romance of science: 

The 80s have always been an under-appreciated decade…

City, Daily Bread, Education, Law, Responsibility, School District

Daily Bread for 7.10.23: The Basics of a Good Education

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:26 AM and sunset 8:34 PM for 15h 7m 32s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 44.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 9 AM, and the board meets again going into closed session shortly after 5 PM, to resume open session at 5:30 PM for a workshop, and streaming its regular open session at 7 PM.

  On this day in 1832, Fort Koshkonong Construction Begins: 

On this date General Henry Atkinson and his troops built Fort Koshkonong after being forced backwards from the bog area of the “trembling lands” in their pursuit of Black Hawk. The fort, later known as Fort Atkinson, was described by Atkinson as “a stockade work flanked by four block houses for the security of our supplies and the accommodation of the sick.” It was also on this date that Atkinson discharged a large number of Volunteers from his army in order to decrease stress on a dwindling food supply and to make his force less cumbersome. One of the dismissed volunteers was future president, Abraham Lincoln, whose horse was stolen in Cold Spring, Wisconsin, and was forced to return to New Salem, Illinois by foot and canoe. [Sources: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride and Along the Black Hawk Trail by William F. Stark]

Yesterday’s post listed school-related posts at FREE WHITEWATER since March. Today offers a simple statement on the basics of a good education. There are in the Whitewater School District myriad and incessant discussions, but not every discussion matters as much as others. As it turns out, for many years, this district has used most of its public meeting time for second or third-order matters.

A person who can read and write, as most people can, should be able to list a few fundamentals that should be part of every meeting in a public district. Those fundamentals deserve the greatest amount of attention. The over-complication of educational policy and action, or the attention to small matters, betrays an inability or unwillingness to address fundamental concerns.

Far from advancing education, these errors discourage lifelong learning. There’s nothing impressive in those who cannot explain a topic succinctly and plainly, or those who cannot see the forest for the trees.

And so, and so, from one among many in Whitewater who has learned to read and write, a simple list follows.

The district should provide a substantive education in academics, art, and athletics, in conditions of individual liberty, fair treatment, and open and responsible government.

Every item in this list is significant; there is no item in this list that is not, in a public school district, a community matter.

How a Burmese Street Vendor Serves Over 500 People at the Queens Night Market: