Control

"All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it."
- Moby Dick, Herman Melville

The current debates that we have seen in all local governments that our un-news site normally funnels into posts by our local Kissimmee City Commission and their decisions, show the decaying orbit government now finds itself in. Over the past thirty years, government has increasingly expanded its ambition and its control over the residents and the land that they have been tasked to govern. This experiment in increasing the responsibilities of government has proven to be an embarrassing failure over the long term and we are now seeing citizens demand government reduce its role, and expenses, or risk the wrath by voters at every opportunity. This has made vengeful government figures angry and we are now seeing signs that government intends to seek revenge on those who it believes have caused it to lose the control it once had. There will be no better example of this than at Tuesday night's commission meeting when the "White Whale" know as Mrs. Piggy will be rode into the deep by a commission bent on seeking revenge against all those who have defied its percieved omnipotent level of control. This while the ship of our local community sinks to the same depths as wreckage because its captain(s) have left the helm in pursuit of their own agendas that have less to do with the common good and more with the exercise of power.

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee."
- Moby Dick, Herman Melville

The WayneWho staff would like its readers to understand that this is not a post about the fate of Pot-bellied pigs in our community. This is a post about the loss of focus and purpose all local governments have enjoyed during the past many years, like our community was a Whopper that government could choose to have any way it wishes. Now that voters have stated their clear intentions to limit the selections of toppings to reduce the cost of governmental feasting, governments are being asked to deal with real issues instead of topics of distraction. However, Tuesday's Pot-bellied pig ordinance is a distraction issue. Limiting a single class of domestic pets to only one animal is one based on revenge and not practical government. Mrs. Piggy is not the evil that will cause the destruction of our community, but she is the detraction that will allow other issues that could lead to the destruction of our city slip by with no discourse.

There are other issues on the agenda for the City Commission on Tuesday night that should receive much more discussion than they will. Zoning changes for property along the Vine Street corridor that will be approved and set the tone for the possible redevelopment of the city's core. There will be no discussion on how continuing to increase the commercial and possible residential inventories on a strip that is already receiving a failing grade of 'D' when it comes to its transportation level of service will impact our community. As the amount of available commercial space increases does it make sense to build more? Does it also make sense to build more in an area that is difficult for people to reach because the proper transportation infrastructure has not been built, and is only a design concept meant to appease the public instead of being a true solution? All of these discussions that will be trumped by the importance of controlling the rampant spread of Pot-bellied pigs.

Kissimmee is not the only government to suffer by the distraction of topical issues. A school board that is trying to enter the housing business in the middle of a housing crisis, a county government working on a expo-center when they cannot break even on the small convention space they have already built, school uniforms, rearranging office space through out county government, city manager evaluations, and the list goes on. While we understand that governing is not always about the big issues, at some point the big issues need to be addressed without manufacturing other small issues to stall for time. The time for good government is now.

Call us Ishmael, or WayneWho if you like.