Here’s the twentieth annual FREE WHITEWATER list of the scariest, combined again this year with the most reassuring, things in Whitewater.
(The 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 editions are available for comparison.)
The list runs in reverse order, from mildly scary to truly frightening and mildly reassuring to truly reassuring.
SCARIEST:
5. Bears. Not bears so much as the failure of communities to deal with bear attacks. In so many places, in America and beyond, people are under attack from foraging, roaming, encroaching ursine marauders. They want human food, and when they can’t find it they’ll settle for humans as food. I’ve warned this city in the past about killer chimps (Chimpanzees: Cuddly Primates or Vicious Killers? Vicious Killers!) and coyotes (In Whitewater, People Won’t Feed Coyotes — Coyotes Will Feed on People). Now, bad goes to worse. See Bears continue their home invasions across America and Bears methodically continue their conquest of Japan.
We should be honest with ourselves: Grizzly wasn’t a 1976 B-movie horror film — it was a forward-looking documentary.
A reminder: bears, no matter how powerful, are not, in fact, bulletproof.
4. BECI. The BECI power line project is a threat to every community it would cross. See Opposing the Routing of the BECI 765-kV Transmission Line and a BECI category at FREE WHITEWATER.
Our city is right to oppose the project. This community and others should fight diligently and zealously against the line.
3. A Proposal to Reduce Polling Places in the City. This was one of the worst ideas from local government in many years. A government that seeks to eliminate a carefully and sensibly selected polling place, after much consideration only two years earlier, is a government disappointing to the voters to whom it is obligated. The arguments initially offered in defense of this proposal were objectionable and exaggerated. See Preliminary Remarks Against the Proposed Discontinuation of the UW–Whitewater Polling Place in Odd-Numbered Years and Council Discussion of the Proposed Discontinuation of the UW–Whitewater Polling Place in Odd-Numbered Years. When the proposal was addressed a month later (as ‘consolidation’), it was thankfully rejected after further discussion. See City of Whitewater’s September Polling Place Memo Changes the Question (from ‘Consolidation’ to Relocation).
How odd, and strange, that a member of the Whitewater Common Council, so very proud of his suggestion to hold occasional meetings in the community, sought to reduce the number of polling places for the community. This proposal first came up as a future agenda item on 4.20.26, when that council member began his suggestion by pleading, “don’t shoot the messenger…” That council member made no effort to say for whom he was a mere messenger. One would have hoped that a middle-aged man would speak on his own behalf, or at least disclose for whom he was a conduit. It has been, after all, a few generations since America relied on message carriers, although they were once quite common —
2. Challenges to Residents’ Freedom from Interference. A just society both accords peaceful individuals freedom from government or private interference and also ensures equal access to the public square. At a recent meeting, one saw calumnies from a member of the government wrongly balanced against the rights of peaceful free assembly. See A Norwegian Expression That’s Actually Japanese and The Public Square Is for All (Including Whitewater Pride).
It is true, and commendable, that beforehand some members of the government worked diligently and thoroughly researched the requirements of the law. It is also true, however, that this discussion on 10.20.26 was sadly and memorably misguided. Residents do not owe conversations to those committed to their very denigration and disparagement. Residents should not owe repeated justifications for free assembly to the government, or to those factions by which some in office are either enthralled or intimidated.
It is right for the government to proclaim, as some of its members soon may, a general tolerance. Those proclamations are welcome and supportively received. There remains, however, this underlying truth: most important is what government does and what it refrains from doing.
1. Bad-Faith Arguments. What does one see again and again in this city except the bad-faith claims and rationalizations of special- interest men who offer weak justifications for their positions? This ilk fits our era nicely: they’ve much in common with the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and 1100 South Ocean Boulevard. These gentlemen came up at a time when justifying their views intellectually was unnecessary because they achieved their status through social coercion. Their arguments, often obvious misstatements and cherry-picking, amount to no better than DYKWIA? See The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town and The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town (Adjacent Support).
MOST REASSURING:
5. Look and Feel. By themselves, I’d not typically contend that look and feel are more than consequences of other fundamental achievements. This municipal government, however, is seemingly tireless in improving the look and feel of the city, both through simple aesthetics and in community activities. From films by the lake and moonlit events by the same to better streets and even colorful utility boxes, someone at city hall (itself a sadly bland building) works hard to make the city look better, and so feel better, than she has in years. Our lakes, too, are improved in ways many residents doubted they could be. These cumulative improvements are not accidents — they are the products of planning and implementation.
4. Analyses and Reports. Now, this libertarian blogger is not the city’s finance director, or even one of the experienced consultants who sometimes present analyses to the community. Nor am I, as perhaps the city’s finance director is, toiling away in the depths of our city hall with an abacus and chalk slate. (For myself, I still have the slide rule imported from then-West Germany that my father gave me when I was in school. Beautiful and functional.)
It is more than enough to know — from one’s own perspective and different field — that this city’s finance team, and those invited others who appear before the lectern, analyze and present well. They do. In so doing, they encourage others to do more, to meet a higher standard than they otherwise would. One hopes that they keep going, while the rest of us do our level best to keep up.
3. A New Ethics Ordinance. Whitewater slowly awakens from decades of cronyism and special-interest manipulations. Standards must apply to all. A member of the old Community Development Authority once said that he and his cronies had ‘our tradition.’ Yes, indeed: a tradition that reminds one of a paraphrase of St. Augustine: the supposed virtues of those times were merely shiny vices. There’s more to say in favor of a new ordinance, but this most of all: the prosperity of this community for her residents depends on fairly and equally applied ethical standards. Whitewater has always been beautiful naturally and architecturally. There is an even greater beauty in becoming a modern, meritocratic American town.
2. More Development. Now, despite every monkey wrench yesteryear’s men have thrown in the path of progress, economic development in this city continues at a solid pace. This city cannot prosper as an insect in amber. (Then again, even insects in amber do not survive as insects in amber as they’re already dead.) American towns — part of the most productive and advanced society in human history — cannot stand still. Those who merely tread water eventually grow too weak to remain above the waves. We are, so to speak, happily citizens in a nation of swimmers. Development brings opportunity and opportunity itself brings still more opportunity.
1. More Normal. Some of our residents feel these reassuring improvements are unsettling. First and foremost, these changes would have been less unsettling had they been made many years — even decades — earlier. A delayed remedy is no less necessary for the delay. On the contrary, it’s ever more necessary with each passing year. These significant, positive, reassuring developments bring what normal feels like. Uncomfortable for some at first, but critical for the health of the whole community (a place not of sixteen but of sixteen thousand).
Again, as last year — although a tragic optimist, I’m yet an optimist. What has been good in Whitewater over the last year has been very good. We would do well to keep this course.
Best wishes for a Happy Halloween.
