27) Politics is a disease
Kn@ppster
by Thomas L. Knapp
"Deep in the ordinance book (there are almost as many pages in the
ordinance book as there are people in the city) was an old ordinance
requiring trash containers to be kept out of sight of the street. All
of a sudden, the board wanted it enforced. We took a survey of one of
the longer streets in town, and found that of 22 properties, precisely
two were in compliance -- one of them belonging to an alderwoman, the
other a vacant house. One of the properties which was not in
compliance was a lot owned by ... the city of Greendale. ... I
attended the board meeting as an interested citizen, and pointed out
that when an ordinance has a 95% non-compliance rate, the problem is
probably with the ordinance, not with the citizens. The reply was
precisely what I expected -- the board's patented 'we're the
government, we'll do whatever we want' smirk." (11/16/05)
<http://knappster.blogspot.com/2005/11/politics-is-disease.html>