Both Sides of the Fence

A Tosa resident since 1991, Christine walks the dog, cooks but avoids housework, writes and reads, and enjoys the company of friends and strangers. Her job takes her around the state, learning about people's health. A Quaker (no, they don't wear blue hats or sell oatmeal or motor oil), she has been known to stand on both sides of the political and philosophic fence at the same time, which is very uncomfortable when you think about it. She writes about pretty much whatever stops in to visit her busy mind at the moment. One reader described her as "incredibly opinionated but not judgmental." That sounds like a good thing to strive for!

Tosa Council considers rules to prevent pigs from flying

Wauwatosa, Common Council

Go to school, keep a clean nose. . .those used to be the rules in these parts. If you followed them, you could be fairly certain of being able to have a decent, ordinary life.

But about a year ago, the rulebook got thrown out. It was probably thrown out before that, but we were too busy buying houses and sending our kids to school to notice.

If you ask any of the people you know who used to be doing fine and now aren't so sure, they'll tell you the same thing: it's hard to know what to do. God could hand you a resume carved on stone tablets, and when you hauled them to the job interview you'd find 20 or 200 other people with the same credentials, also hand-carved by the same deity.

One response to uncertainty is to try to shore things up with new rules, even if they have nothing to do with the real problems at hand.  I've been trying to figure out why, in the midst of hard times and hard decisions,  the Wauwatosa Council is contemplating requiring state-issued identification for voters.

Making much ado about nothing makes you feel like you have control over things, and it's much easier than making much ado about something.

Even if you think voter identification is a good idea, it probably would not be at the top of your "honey do" list of things that need fixing around the Wauwatosa "house." You'd probably go for the things that are broken first.

Even the Wauwatosa Republican website that tells people to get out in support of Alder Jay's resolution at Tuesday's legislative committee meeting offers tepid argumentation. Jason Kohut admits that he didn't see anything wrong when he was a poll watcher, but warns that poll watchers might cheat--probably not in Tosa, he hastens to add but, um, you know: it might happen. Somewhere. Like. . . Milwaukee (shivver!). And we need to be vigilant now. Just in case. . .

Passing rules to prevent imagined problems sometimes just makes people feel good, feel safe, feel accomplished. I guess it's something you can point to when it's time for re-election. But while we're scanning the skies for pigs, we're missing the ones breaking out of the pens on the ground.

(That is not a reference to people. I'm thinking problems with payrolls, potholes, deteriorating property. . . .)

I guess I could have just said "me too" to Tom's blog. But this is ever so much more fun.

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