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WHERE FLOWERS GROW
Cindy Flower. She’s an alderperson, or a city council member, if you will, in Lake Geneva. She sits on important committees and has had a real vocal say when it comes to either counselor or committee decisions. She’s also a piece of work. This female engineer totally credentialed to offer her opinion on a variety of issues, from building design to finish work and safety, usually only bothers to talk endlessly about anything brought to her attention. She’s doing that right now in her work with piers and harbors. She has nothing to say but celebrates the fact that nobody can talk while she’s talking and…she never shuts up.
Where did this apparition come from? Her husband works directly for the city administrator of Lake Geneva. That city administrator who’s ‘missing in action’ performance in making any number of critical decisions, is noted and quietly described as his ‘inability to cope with the virus.’ How convenient this virus has become to those who either do not want to perform or cannot perform. The poem from the first World War becomes relevant, given the ‘flower’ moniker this alderperson sports as a last name: “In Flanders Field the cannon boom and fitful flashes light the gloom; while up above, like eagles, fly the fierce destroyers of the sky.”
The Lake Geneva Emergency Proclamation is now extended to January 11, 2021. The emergency proclamation has been repeatedly extended since the pandemic began, so as it was due to expire, a motion was made to continue it once again as the effect of the virus infection reaches new heights. The surprise came when the motion was made to amend the proclamation to include the city convert to one hundred percent virtual. Alderperson Flower, who is also an employee of the State of Wisconsin, wanted the City of Lake Geneva to mimic the state’s health and safety precautions. This would mean city employees would work remotely and all city officials would only meet virtually. Most council members looked a bit shocked at the presentation and seconding of this drastic motion (seconded by John Halverson), The remaining majority of alderpersons agreed that the virus is increasing at an alarming rate, but they showed no interest at all in going along with such a drastic motion.
Health and safety need to be taken seriously but the vital importance of accessibility by the public cannot be overlooked. The motion and Flower went down, with only she and Halvorson voting in favor of it. There is a rationality that must be applied to navigating the ‘difficult roiled waters’ this virus has caused everyone to be cast upon and try to survive in, but the rationality must include a capability for everyone to continue to live, function, love, care, and associate with others on a regular basis, or there is no point in surviving anything. The City of Lake Geneva needs the sensitivity brought to it by the current leadership of Lake Geneva. That leader is also a woman, but a woman of many fewer words, spoken to much greater effect. There is no question that life itself, for humans living in the USA has been ‘dialed back’ a bit. A good bit. But there is only so far the social structure can be modulated or toyed with before that social structure spins out of control and becomes something much more deadly than this pandemic. Walworth County has 242 active cases of the Covid-19, eight patients are hospitalized and 49 have died since this all began back in January. Meanwhile, the City of Lake Geneva alone has at least a hundred businesses hanging on by a thread or a fingernail, along with all the employees of these struggling businesses. There’s a very delicate and difficult balance that must be maintained to avoid the expression “dying isn’t much of a way of making a living.” Business is all about ‘making a living,’ and that phrase has “living” as an essential part of it for a very good reason.
