Up in Smoke

[XLFD]

Last night, I spent nearly a couple of hours writing about all the things that happened earlier that night regarding the choosing of three citizens to supplement an ad hoc committee designed to research the various impacts, facts, hacks, and tacks the City needed to consider before the state decides how to do the same and codify it to implement the recently passed Proposal One, which made recreational marijuana legal under certain conditions in Michigan.  The City had already opted out at the end of 2018, deciding to wait until the State put its ducks in a row; they planned to make their own policy within 60 days after that eventuality.  Under the new mayor's lead this year, a special committee was to be created in order to facilitate getting a proper policy.

And when I was satisfied with my finished article, I lastly added a file photo and clicked the "Add Discussion" rectangle at the bottom to publish it for readers of the Ludington Torch so that they could get some idea of what happened, the views of the winners and the losers and other various observations likely to be overlooked by the City of Ludington Daily News' (COLDNews) observer, Noah Hausmann.  I wasn't disappointed today by his treatment, that reads like the usual city-official-centered propaganda he puts out.  The full article in the newspaper is at least a little better in telling you something about the chosen ones.

But back to the moment of hitting the rectangle to publish my story, I was expecting the usual magic to take place and for the story to turn into a final product with our trademark flames in the background, but that didn't happen.  The rectangle was replaced momentarily by a circle rotating around and around, and before I could say any expletive, a white screen with a lot of blue words on appeared instead and it said, and I'm paraphrasing:  'sorry dude, you just lost everything you've been working on'.

This definitely elicited a reaction over a couple of minutes, a string of words involving terms describing copulation, defecation, urination, etc. in their one syllable forms, as the realization sunk in that all my hard and meticulous work was now only a part of my already-fading short term memory.  The self-recriminations started about why that idiot-author-wannabe didn't take the time to save the script elsewhere first, but I had been surfing all night for further info and had no problems until this simple, yet important, mouse click.  

Frustrated, I called it a night.  I resolved not to attempt recreating the article unless the COLDNews article left out everything of interest.  And it did come close.  I'm disappointed that they couldn't even mention two of the contenders, sisters Barbara Natschke and Marleigh Sprouse who also had interesting backgrounds.  In the extended newspaper article, the three winners at least get a brief bio and one quote of interest.  Frankly, I think it's great that one of the three chosen is a tarot card reader with her own webpage.  Maybe she will read the future of the committee and their report.

This morning, I got up and recognized something that could be ironic.  There is a very good possibility that these three well-qualified committee members may conduct many long hours of research and many long hours of deliberation with their fellow commissioners in creating a solid report to present to the city council later this year.  If the past is any harbinger of the future, it is likely that their report will wind up in a council packet that the rest of the council will see the weekend before the Monday night meeting it is to be considered. 

Most of the public will be lucky to have a COLDNews' article in the Saturday paper for reference, one that will be crafted from the City's perspective and summarized in a paragraph or two.  For all intents and purposes, these three citizens may see all of their diligent fact-finding and report writing get added to the agenda, just to see the council not have the time or desire to read it and follow their already-displayed biases a second time in opting out.  Effectively the three will see their own white screen pop up with blue words saying, and I may again be paraphrasing:  'Oops you won't get those hours back, sucker; thanks for helping legitimizing this vote.' 

They will be too professional to use a month's supply of expletives in a couple of minutes to express themselves-- at least until they get home.

[Willy]

Did your computer crash or did the website fail?

Regarding the Committee, I don't believe the Council has to appoint one because it's up to them to decide whether the evil weed is allowed to be sold inside the city limits. So, I hate to say this, it seems the City is actually trying to be somewhat fair about this issue. If it was up to me, not a single leaf, stem, or seed would be sold inside the City. Half the people, including myself, voted against legalizing the stuff anyway. I say throw us a bone and let other pothead communities sell the crap and keep, at least try to keep, Ludington a family town. Legalizing pot is one of the biggest mistakes this State has done and allowing pot shops to spring up all over town is totally unacceptable. I wish the CIty had given the splashpark, Ludington west end, The City Marina, the bayou cleanup and lead piping the same amount of scrutiny. 

[XLFD]

I'm fairly sure it was a momentary Ning-failure, a rare but unexpected burp in service, because I not only was able to access other sites freely during construction of the article, but also immediately thereafter.  It has happened before, so I would suggest if you have crafted a long response or adding a longer discussion, to first save the written words on 'notepad' or some other word processing software, just to be safe.  One of these days, I'll follow my advice.

I respect your opinion, but my own differs slightly in that I want medical marijuana available, at least within the county, so that those needing it for their ills have real access to it.  I also have grace enough to accept the will of the electorate, so if a petition is filed and city (or township) voters affirm that they want some RM retailers in the city (township) limits, nullifying the council's (township board's) opt out, I'm OK with that.

Mayor Steve Miller, despite our differences, has laid the groundwork for how major issues should be undertaken in our city.  You mention the Splash Pad; everything regarding the splash pad's development has taken place outside meetings open and noticed to the public.  When it has come before the full council, it has been just to validate many, many hours of deliberation and many, many informally-approved decisions.

The blueprint here should have been followed for this public-private enterprise costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a significant yearly maintenance cost to the city taxpayers.  The Splash Pad Committee should have been formed with both officials and citizens (as it was), but they should have held meetings following the OMA rules on this public improvement, with by-laws describing their powers and duties-- like Mayor Miller has done for this other ad hoc.  This is all according to city charter, and I appreciate his willingness to start having the City follow it.