From: "Kaldjian, Paul J." <KALDJIAN@uwec.edu> Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 10:17:12 -0600 Subject: EC County Jail and LT editorial Message-ID: <E7DFB9C7847A6242BCF1CEDE9AC1D1E3525EA3A13F@CHERRYCOKE.uwec.edu>
For those that have not had the chance to see the editorial in the Leader-
Telegram, one can read it at http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-opinions.a
sp?id=BFTQFKVEB09
In the next email, I am providing the letter that I sent to City Council Me
mbers and the local press over the weekend.
My response to the editorial, submitted this morning:
-------------
It puzzles me, Mr. Giffey, why the purportedly late public awareness and in
volvement over the jail expansion so annoys you that you berate and blame u
s (Editorial, 2 March 2008). Of course it is annoying when people come lat
e, to dinner, to class, to adulthood, to enlightenment, to civic engagement
but we welcome the tardy, we listen to why they are late (reasons are ofte
n legitimate), and we celebrate their participation. We don't rebuke them
unless we don't care to have them. Coming to an issue late is part of the
public process, without which we have things like dictatorships.
As a teacher who cares about my students' learning, such a heavy-handed app
roach would be counterproductive. And arrogant, to believe that all fault
in slow learning lies with the student. Our County Board is a confusing an
d archaic layer of government with whom the public finds it difficult to re
late. Count it an accomplishment that more in the public now recognize tha
t we even have a county board, much less one with the ability to seriously
affect our community.
Instead of lamenting the timing of the public's increased involvement, you
might consider the merits of their arguments and concerns. You might explo
re such things as the meaning of the renewed public involvement, the impli
cations of the just-released Eau Claire County Local Justice System Assessm
ent , the dilemmas increased public concern creates for the City Council, o
r whether such a large, 29-member county board properly serves Eau Claire.
Finally, your wedding metaphor doesn't work. Doesn't the presiding officia
l, in the end, actually invite last minute show-stoppers? People in Eau Cl
aire are speaking now so we do not have to forever hold our peace. Or lame
nt the exercise of unchallenged government.
Respectfully,
Paul Kaldjian
1528 Fenwick Ave.
---------------
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Dr. Paul Kaldjian
Associate Professor of Geography
Dept. of Geography and Anthropology
University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire
Eau Claire, WI 54702
From: Dostalek, Ryan Mathew
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 7:56 AM
To: Kaldjian, Paul J.
Subject: EC County Jail
Professor Kaldjian,
I'm the news editor at The Spectator and I received your e-mail regarding t
he jail report recently released. As you are aware, the expansion of the cu
rrent jail or construction of a new one is of great interest to the student
s. This report would further intensify this interest. However, I am unable
to access the link. My browser comes up with an error message. I was wonder
ing if you would be able to either send me the link again, unless you had a
hard copy of the report itself and we could work some way of me getting a
hold of it.
Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Ryan Dostalek
News Editor
The Spectator
Office: (715) 836-4416
Cell: (608) 886-0416