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THE SMALL LITTLE GREAT POWER

The Second Meeting of the Whole (MOW) has been canceled.  The Meeting of the Whole is that meeting, generally held once every month where the public can attend, take the podium for five minutes, and expound, question, or complain about whatever’s relevant to them.  The council members sit and listen during MOW get-togethers.  City councils have tried to get rid of this kind of meeting for years.  At normal city council meetings, only items placed on the agenda by the city council members may be discussed.

Canceling the Meeting of the Whole is a move to shut the public out and muffle its voice. There is no other reason to cancel the meeting that comes to mind.  Alderperson Hedlund is the president of the council, and it was at his direction that this meeting was canceled.  The Geneva Shore Report staff assumes, without evidence, that this meeting was canceled because it was set to go down the day before the election on the next day.

The Meeting of the Whole (MOW) must, once again, be treated as a respected period of time wherein the public can bring up items of interest to the council’s attention.  Past meetings have resulted in major changes to the landscape, finances, and regulations in Lake Geneva.  This valuable tool needs to be placed front and center in importance, once again.  The Meeting of the Whole is all about expression.   How does the public shape the landscape of a countryside so rattled with misinformation, disinformation, and downright lies?  Expression.

That small little vote you give at the polls, picking leadership in all manner of leadership roles, positions, and people.  Who is going to lead and what beliefs do they hold to that might affect the nature and expression of their own ‘voting’ on projects, the money, and ever so much more?

The Meeting of the Whole is there to provide citizens with another venue wherein it can express itself verbally.  Now that video production is such a huge part of all of our lives, that expression can also go a lot farther than across a room delivered to only a few people.  Voting seems so insignificant when weighed against the normally huge numbers put up on everyone’s television sets and the Internet when national elections are held.

It took 81,000,000 votes, or so, for the last president to be elected.  One little vote out of so many does not seem a lot.  But together, what power!  One of the most bombastically expressive leaders in the nation’s history was brought to his knees before everyone.  Biden didn’t just win the popular vote, he ran away with it, following on the heels of such vote-getters like Reagan, Kennedy, and even Richard Nixon.  Vastly huge piles of money to into the mess of collection points to run a national presidential election, but it’s the grassroots that many times elects the person to the office.

‘Small’ elections, like those about to be held in Lake Geneva (the primary, with Charlene Klein, Todd Krause, and Dennis Loeser, will be held next Tuesday, February 15, can be influenced by an amazingly small number of votes.  In the last election for mayor of Lake Geneva, the margin of votes was only 17.  That’s not many votes when one considers that some extended families have more voters than that.

Charlene ran an old-fashioned yard sign and door-knocking kind of race.  Now, as mayor, and having considerably more name recognition she may not have to do as much door-knocking as she did previously.  As has been supported in this newspaper, she’s also done a pretty effective job during a very difficult time.  The virus had just struck as she was taking office.  The Hillmoor property was just going to court, as well, and there was a lot of underground rumbling about moving the municipal pier, shutting off South Lake Shore Drive at Big Foot Beach, and closing Wrigley Drive permanently.  Charlene Klein deserves another two years.