Official
ShorewoodVillage.com
Trustee Ellen Eckman was volunteered -- no,
pleaded -- to be allowed to create a handbook for new trustees. Here is a
link
to stories about Eckman's efforts.
Meanwhile, here is our official
Handbook for Enlightened Shorewood government officials:
18 essential bookmarks
Extra credit:
The Federalist Papers
Suggest a link
- Declaration of Independence
(Library of Congress)
- Constitution of the United States
(Library of Congress - Thomas)
-
Wisconsin Constitution
(Wisconsin Revisor of Statutes Bureau)
- Wisconsin Statutes
(Wisconsin Revisor of Statutes Bureau)
- Shorewood ordinances
- Wisconsin Public Records Act
(Wisconsin Legislature Infobase)
- Wisconsin Public Meetings Act
(Wisconsin Legislature Infobase)
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The Republic,
by Plato
Socrates - POLEMARCHUS - GLAUCON - ADEIMANTUS
Polemarchus said to me: I perceive, Socrates, that you and our companion
are already on your way to the city.
You
are not far wrong, I said.
But do you see, he rejoined, how many we are?
Of course.
And are you stronger than all these? for if not, you will have to remain
where you are.
May there not be the alternative, I said, that we may persuade you to let
us go?
But can you persuade us, if we refuse to listen to you? he said.
Certainly not, replied Glaucon.
Then we are not going to listen; of that you may be assured.
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Rhetoric,
by Aristotle
he
duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without
arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot
take
in at a glance a complicated argument, or follow a long chain of reasoning.
The subjects of our deliberation are such as seem to present us with
alternative possibilities: about things that could not have been, and cannot
now or in the future be, other than they are, nobody who takes them to be of
this nature wastes his time in deliberation.
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Politics,
by Aristotle. Translated by Benlamin Jowett
IN all arts and
sciences which embrace the whole of any subject, and do not come into being
in a fragmentary way, it is the province of a single art or science to
consider all that appertains to a single subject. For example, the art of
gymnastic considers not only the suitableness of different modes of training
to different bodies (2), but what sort is absolutely the best (1); (for the
absolutely best must suit
that
which is by nature best and best furnished with the means of life), and also
what common form of training is adapted to the great majority of men (4).
And if a man does not desire the best habit of body, or the greatest skill
in gymnastics, which might be attained by him, still the trainer or the
teacher of gymnastic should be able to impart any lower degree of either
(3). The same principle equally holds in medicine and shipbuilding, and the
making of clothes, and in the arts generally.
Hence it is obvious
that government too is the subject of a single science, which has to
consider what government is best and of what sort it must be, to be most in
accordance with our aspirations, if there were no external impediment, and
also what kind of government is adapted to particular states. For the best
is often unattainable, and therefore the true legislator and statesman ought
to be acquainted, not only with (1) that which is best in the abstract, but
also with (2) that which is best relatively to circumstances. We should be
able further to say how a state may be constituted under any given
conditions (3); both how it is originally formed and, when formed, how it
may be longest preserved; the supposed state being so far from having the
best constitution that it is unprovided even with the conditions necessary
for the best; neither is it the best under the circumstances, but of an
inferior type.
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- Civil
Disobedience,
by Henry David Thoreau
I heartily accept the motto,
"That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted
up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to
this,
which also I believe--"That government is best which governs not at all"; and
when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the will
have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually,
and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been
brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to
prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing
army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is
only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally
liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness
the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the
standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have
consented to this measure.
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Leviathan,
by Thomas Hobbes
CONCERNING the
thoughts of man, I will consider them first singly, and afterwards in train
or dependence upon one another. Singly, they are every one a representation
or appearance of some quality, or other accident of a body without us, which
is commonly called an object. Which object worketh on the eyes, ears,
and
other parts of man's body, and by diversity of working produceth diversity
of appearances.
The original of them
all is that which we call sense, (for there is no conception in a man's mind
which hath not at first, totally or by parts, been begotten upon the organs
of sense). The rest are derived from that original.
To know the natural
cause of sense is not very necessary to the business now in hand; and I have
elsewhere written of the same at large. Nevertheless, to fill each part of
my present method, I will briefly deliver the same in this place.
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Man
the Reformer, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
I wish to offer to your consideration some thoughts on the particular and
general relations of man as a reformer. I shall assume that the aim of each
young man in this association is the very highest that belongs to a rational
mind. Let it be granted, that our life, as we lead it, is common and mean;
that some of those offices and functions for which we were mainly created
are
grown so rare in society, that the memory of them is only kept alive in old
books and in dim traditions; that prophets and poets, that beautiful and
perfect men, we are not now, no, nor have even seen such; that some sources
of human instruction are almost unnamed and unknown among us; that the
community in which we live will hardly bear to be told that every man should
be open to ecstasy or a divine illumination, and his daily walk elevated by
intercourse with the spiritual world. Grant all this, as we must, yet I
suppose none of my auditors will deny that we ought to seek to establish
ourselves in such disciplines and courses as will deserve that guidance and
clearer communication with the spiritual nature. And further, I will not
dissemble my hope, that each person whom I address has felt his own call to
cast aside all evil customs, timidities, and limitations, and to be in his
place a free and helpful man, a reformer, a benefactor, not content to slip
along through the world like a footman or a spy, escaping by his nimbleness
and apologies as many knocks as he can, but a brave and upright man, who
must find or cut a straight road to everything excellent in the earth, and
not only go honorably himself, but make it easier for all who follow him, to
go in honor and with benefit.
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Sedition
Act
The imminence of war
between the U.S. and France(1798) coupled with the thousands of French
refugees in the U.S. created a wide spread hysteria in the U.S. It was in
this climate that the First Amendment would meet its first major challenge,
the Sedition Act. The Sedition Act, put into effect not even a decade after
the First Amendment was ratified was in opposition to everything that the
First Amendment represented. In 1791 the First Amendment, drafted primarily
by James Madison, was ratified: "Congress shall make no law...abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press...' "In effect, sedition ceased to be a
crime under the broad prohibitions of the First Amendment, though breaches
of the peace which destroyed or endangered life, limb or property, were
still punishable by law..." With the passing of the Sedition Act "an
immediate uproar ensued. One side contended that "a conspiracy against the
Constitution, the government, the peace and safety of this country is formed
and is full operation. It embraces members of all classes; the
Representatives of the people on this floor, the wild and visionary theorist
in the bloody philosophy of the day, the learned and the ignorant. Such
arguments were met with impassioned pleas for freedom of speech and press,
led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison."( The First Freedom Today, R.
Downs, ALA,Chicago, 1984 Pg.5 )
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Social
contract
Social contract
theory is the view that morality is founded solely on uniform social
agreements that serve the best interests of those who make the agreement.
Historically social contract theory is an outgrowth of natural law theory,
specifically the theories of Grotius and Pufendorf. However, we find hints
at social contract reasoning in earlier works, most notably in Book 2 of
Plato's dialog The Republic. Two distinct portions of that Book
contain social contractarian themes, the first of which is offered by a
skeptical character in the dialog named Glaucon. According to Glaucon, we
all recognize that it is good for us individually to be unjust, although it
is bad for us individually to suffer. We also recognize that if we do act
unjustly, we will suffer injuries from other people. To avoid suffering
injury, then, make contracts with each other by which we give up injustice
and practice justice. To demonstrate his point about our preference to be
unjust, Glaucon presents a myth about a shepherd named Gyges who finds a
ring that makes him invisible when he wears it. Understanding the special
advantage gained by having such a ring, Gyges uses its powers to seduce the
Queen and Kill the King. Glaucon then argues that if there were two such
rings, worn by a just person and an unjust person respectively, they would
both commit the same kind of unjust deeds. Plato himself rejects this
skeptical view about justice; however, the hero of the dialog - the
character Socrates - presents a different contractarian account of the
origin of justice in society. According to Socrates, societies are formed
for the purpose of fulfilling our human needs. We have many needs and thus
many kinds people and activities are required to fulfill all those needs. We
then form partnerships by which we exchange goods and services. The mutual
fulfilling of the various tasks is the basis of justice in society.
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John
Peter Zenger
One of the most important events in American journalism history occurred in
New York in 1735. This, of course, was the libel trail of John Peter Zenger,
printer of the New York Weekly Journal.
John Peter Zenger arrived in New York from Germany in 1710 and served an
apprenticeship to William Bradford, printer of the New York Gazette. In 1733
New York Colonial Governor
William
Cosby stirred up a great controversy by prosecuting the interim Governor,
Rip Van Dam, and removing Chief Justice Lewis Morris from the courts. After
Governor Cosby adopted arbitrary measures against these men, and opposition
group arose to fight him politically. These wealthy and powerful men
established an opposition newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal, and hired
John Peter Zenger as the printer and editor. The Weekly Journal printed
numerous articles critical of Governor Cosby until Cosby could take it no
longer. In November, 1734, Cosby had Zenger arrested and put in jail
incommunicado for ten months.
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On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill
THE SUBJECT of this Essay is not the so-called
Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of
Philosophical Necessity; but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits
of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the
individual. A question seldom stated, and hardly ever discussed, in general
terms, but which
profoundly influences the practical controversies of the
age by its latent presence, and is likely soon to make itself recognised as
the vital question of the future. It is so far from being new, that, in a
certain sense, it has divided mankind, almost from the remotest ages; but in
the stage of progress into which the more civilized portions of the species
have now entered, it presents itself under new conditions, and requires a
different and more fundamental treatment.
The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the
most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are
earliest familiar, particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England. But in
old times this contest was between subjects, or some classes of subjects,
and the Government. By liberty, was meant protection against the tyranny of
the political rulers.
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On
Certainty, by Ludwig Wittgenstein
If
you do know that here is one hand, we'll grant you
all the rest.
When one says that such and such a proposition can't be proved, of course that
does not mean that it can't be derived from other propositions; any proposition
can be derived from other ones. But they may be no more certain than it is
itself.
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'Regulate governance' surfaces as purpose
E-mail from Rod Dow to Shorewood Herald reveals goal of
Eckman-Langenkamp ad hoc committee
By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
ShorewoodVillage.com
SHOREWOOD, Wis. (May 20, 2004) -- Wonder why Trustee Eckman has
blown off the incomplete and error filled
handbook project and is now lobbying
instead for
reconfiguration of
committee seats?
According to an e-mail
message released by Eckman, the goal of the ad hoc committee was only
secondarily to provide a handbook for new trustees. The agenda of the
ad hoc committee was really, first and foremost, to "make recommendations
regarding the ordinances that regulate the internal governance of the
Village Board" according to an e-mail from former Village President Rodney
Dow to Shorewood Herald writer Bridget Dorrycott (now Fryman).
See the message here
Fryman said she never
wrote a story about the issue, and took Dow's message as "information."
But the contents of
Dow's message, and the reply from Eckman, reveal the behind-the-scenes
action Dow is taking to twist and spin information so as to damn Village
President Kohlenberg and glorify Dow's political clones, Eckman and that former
Langenkamp woman, so as to increase Dow's personal influence over Village
affairs, a characteristic that has, to many, resulted in Shorewood
becoming the laughingstock of the North Shore.
Furthermore, with this
lobbying going on from the Law offices of Foley & Lardner, the Village
Board should terminate that firm and exclude Foley from future Village
business as the partners clearly have a political agenda inconsistent with
the canons of professional ethics.
Eckman politicizes panels, ignores
failure of handbook
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By GEOFF
DAVIDIAN
ShorewoodVillage.com
SHOREWOOD,
Wis. (May 15, 2004) -- On Monday night, two committees will take up
their time on the same agenda item:
"Beginning discussion on Tr. [Ellen] Eckman's request to divide
the Judiciary, Personnel and Licensing and Budget and Finance committee
duties among the Village Board members."
The rationale for this is allegedly that too few trustees are having to
work too hard on busy committees while others on lesser committees may be
available to take up the slack. The assignments were just made
within the past month by Village President Mark Kohlenberg, so why is
Eckman kvetching?
The
committees discussing this item have a lot in common: they are the very
same two committees that Eckman wants reconfigured -- Judiciary, Personnel
& Licensing, chaired by Trustee Michael Phinney, and Budget & Finance,
chaired by Trustee Kellie Lang. The committees meet on the same evenings;
the committees meet back to back before the 7:30 p.m. meeting of the full
Village Board; and the same trustees are on both committees -- Phinney,
Lang and Guy Johnson. But wait, there's one more similarity: Eckman is not on either of the
committees about whose workload she is concerned.
I know, I know, you're asking yourself, "Why is this busybody sticking
her nose into committees she
has nothing to do with and which the Village President has already
settled, which is his job?"
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