Surprising Stuff

The Crazy White Boy band.
Try touching a white supremacist-seeming rock group (referring to itself as ‘hick-hop’) when one is scheduled to come to a neighborhood bar or arena and perform. Today, the very most fundamental tenants of the First Amendment are under attack for being too liberal in allowing all manner of speech or writing that others find objectionable. How does a news outlet proceed, in light of attempting to defend free speech in almost its full naked entirety, find a way to assist other rational people in the community to limit certain kinds of speech that might raise the level of violent discussion to physical violence or do irreparable damage to the very fabric of the local culture that freedom is supposed to arise it from?

The information, that the Crazy White Boy were coming was given to the GSR staff three weeks ago. The bar workers were first approached to verify that the group was coming. When that was confirmed, Mr. Weis, the elected leader of Town of Linn, where the bar is located, was approached. Mr. Bushy, Chief of Police was also approached. The three members of the hick-hop group were reached and interviewed. The manager and owner of the group were also interviewed. All twenty-five songs available on the Internet were downloaded and then the lyrics reviewed word by word by editorial staff. The conclusion of almost everyone consulted, and the data studied, seemed to indicate that, although the group gave every evidence of being linked to white supremacist ilk and bent, it could not be considered totally so.

What was to be done? Mr. Weis felt that he could not proceed on behalf of the Town of Linn, although he was personally uncomfortable having the group play, and was concerned that the expected 1500 attendees predicted might be just as awful as almost everyone anticipated. Chief Bushy could not proceed. The group had the legal right to perform, no matter what the lyrics of their works. The leaders of the LGBTQ community came forward, as well, and, aside from preparing and making protest signs and enlisting protestors, were also powerless. No article was written supporting or opposing the group’s performing in the GSR, but a Letter to the Editor was received, powerfully and dramatically written by local activist Dick Malmin. The staff decided to run the full-page letter, in hopes that the community itself would read it and then rise up to influence the future business success of the bar. Six days after publication of the issue with Mr. Malmin’s letter in it, the Crazy White Boys Band canceled and moved on to a possibly more suitable audience in Kansasville, Wisconsin.   So that is the story of the Crazy White Boy Band and how their attempt to perform in this area was thwarted by a communities decision to act, using the media, when other potentially powerful, but legally stymied entities, could not act.

The mystery of the missing audit was on the agenda at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
Presentation of 2018 City of Lake Geneva Audit and Management Letter, almost didn’t happen due to the presenter and audit not present at the meeting, however, he did show up before the meeting adjourned, maybe on purpose maybe not. His raggedly taped box of financials was opened in front of everyone, and packets were handed out to the council members. The presenter summarized each page quickly and ended with a conclusion that the audit went “well.” He said that it was a “good budget year” with a general fund increase of $345,000.00.

The council had a chance to ask questions, but with such a short time to read the material, there was no real rationality to the exercise. A question was asked about this rushed presentation of nothing but Alderman Skates stated that this is how it has always been done (even though he has not always been around).  John Halverson asked why the audit was delayed. The audit guy replied that the delay was related to the OPEB liability and the waiting of an actuary study. Cindy Flower asked since the audit wasn’t available if just accepting a receipt of it would allow the audit to be available for comment at the next council meeting, especially if there were questions from the public.

Mayor Hartz responded by saying that was a great question and asked Dan Draper. Draper stated that the city was just receiving it, (not answering the question). Cindy Flower asked, “so it is available after this and if anyone has any questions they could contact us and we could get it back on the agenda?” A shaky yes was the answer.

With that, authorizing the receipt of the 2018 City of Lake Geneva Annual Financial Report and management Letter was quickly approved

Cartoon of the Week
by
Terry O’Neill