Discerning Whitewater

It was nice to see, last night, Whitewater citizens had had enough of the overreaching Whitewater City Council.

Yesterday, when I posted The Fiefdom – 9Sept20, I had no idea that a special meeting had been called for last night. Busy with work, kids, etc…

The short of it … the vote to force kids not to play corn hole and drink beer in their front yards had nowhere near the votes to pass.

My opinion … this was not just about this particular ordinance and the manner in which it was pushed. The last several months, our City Council has gotten into bed with Brittany Packnett Cunningham and her Defund the Police effort. Also, they passed the mask ordinance that runs til the end of the year. This was the first meeting I attended. This, to me, was more about shutting down the overreach than it was about kids partying.

My observations:

• First and foremost, the items for which I have been posting, and many of the thoughts I have had that have not been posted, were said by angry constituents last night. It was nice to know that we are not alone.
• I can appreciate that the council members did not want to be yelled at by their constituents, but their unwillingness to even want to hear the complaints was horrid. To even say, with the condescending tone, “Don’t be repetitive” before the comments even started…
• The format for these online meetings does not give the residents/taxpayers the appropriate forum to express their concerns. This comment was made a number of times.
• The city and the university were pointing fingers at each other like children. It really is no one’s fault.
• IMHO, the bureaucrats (my buddy Wally and Clapper) appear to be very much FOR the overreach. If I am wrong, they can let me know and I will pass it along.
• Citizens pointed out how ridiculous it was for the city government to PICK AND CHOOSE WINNERS AND LOSERS. Welcome to socialism. The exemptions for the Discover Whitewater race and the farmer’s market were too transparently biased.
• One citizen even pointed out the bias towards the students in terms of racism, gender bias, etc. This comment could not have been more true.
• I appreciate that Jim Allen was, for the most part, as close to a “voice of reason” as this board had last night. I chuckled to myself as he discussed how kids don’t follow the news, then he went on to promote the #FAKENEWS story out of Sturgis. “Some people watch TOO MUCH news” I thought to myself. Wash your hands and turn off CNN, Allen.
• I found it interesting that there was such concern for the economics and the money that comes from the students. I find this unfortunate. Here are these kids, borrowing millions of dollars (total into UWW)…. money that imho shouldn’t be borrowed… money they will struggle with later in life to pay back… money that the taxpayers will be paying back in large part… I hope to teach my kids better… but I digress….
• Also, with the $$$, where was this concern when the Whitewater became the only city in a large radius to have this silly mask ordinance? The insistence of Binnie that the masks actually MAKE money for the businesses is sad for our locals. In just a couple weeks or so, the rest of the state will not have to wear masks, but Whitewater, with all of it’s nanny statism … we will still be wearing masks while in town.
• The COVID-19 numbers presented by Binnie were questioned, as they should have been. Their worth is questionable.
• The fear projected by Binnie and Cook (UWW interim chancellor) was notable to many. It is important to note that projecting fear is a form of manipulation… a way of people to get what they want.
• Again … all of this for a virus that many kids don’t even know when they have caught.

I actually did not stay on past making my own comments. I had my fantasy football draft at the same time 🙂 and wanted to spend some time with the kiddos. Thus I don’t know whether the motion was tabled in order to try again to pass something next week or so on…

Link to meeting:

And with that … I guess we will see how this continues…

peace,

-mike