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TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2018

Commission ‘failed to
think outside the box’
Letter to the Editor:
According to the April 26 Middleton
Times-Tribune and the City of Middleton minutes
for the Plan Commission meeting of April 24 re-
zoning for another four-story apartment develop-
ment was approved, this time at 6814, 6818, 6824
University Avenue. Again, approval occurred
despite neighborhood opposition to the building
and city-wide opposition about the direction the
city is taking toward development. I am disap-
pointed again in the Plan Commission’s failure
to think outside the box and find common ground
between citizens and developers. It is frustrating
that citizens show up for meetings, investigate
their positions, and are basically ignored. This
is the second time in just a few months that a
development too large for the land is approved
(recall Stagecoach Trail on Century Avenue).
Zoning is an important instrument for citizens
to protect what for many is their largest invest-
ment, their home. If we citizens are not savvy
enough to invest in property far from an arterial,
the investment in our Middleton homes will not
hold value. One rezoning option that was on
defined by impervious surface ratio, maximum
floor ratio, and dwellings per acre was revoked
by the Common Council. It was called Planned
Development District-Infill. We citizens have
one less option to protect our neighborhoods.
I appreciate that developers need to make a
profit. I appreciate that Plan Commission mem-
bers are volunteers who wade through piles of
documents, attend numerous meetings, and re-
ceive (I hope) considerable citizen input either in
person at public hearings or through emails and
phone calls. I also appreciate the City needs a tax
base for the high standard of services we enjoy in
Middleton. What is difficult for me to appreciate
is that it does not matter what we citizens think
or say. It turns out Middleton added thousands of
jobs and now must manage its growth on the backs
of we who live near arterials. In my opinion, the
Plan Commission should be comprised primarily
of citizens who live near these arterials and who
experience the daily increased traffic, density,
and noise associated with these developments.
Susan Riesch, Middleton
A message from Puerto Rico
Editor’s note: The following letter was pro-
vided by Randy Reimer, who is helping to or-
ganize the Hurricane Relief Concert featuring
Cris Plata with Extra Hot, on May 12 at St.
Luke’s Church in Middleton. The letter was
written to Reimer to provide an update of con-
ditions in Puerto Rico, and is reprinted with the
permission of the author, Evelyn Cruz-Guzman.
Dear family and friends:
Like you probably know we are been deal-
ing with some difficulties with the energy. The
whole island has lost power twice in a very
short period of time, apparently by mistakes
from one of the subcontracted energy com-
pany. the “motive” or excuses they uses were
so ironic that, as we us to, every time that we
lost power we get funny about it, and memes
come all over the social media, that is the way
we can deal with the whole things without
crying or get angry of it. Unfortunately, when
we lost power, we also lost water services be-
cause most of our system still of water bombs.
So, as you can see, we still having situa-
tions and consequences of the hurricane al-
most after eight months. May is a very rainy
Opinion
month down here and just on June the hurri-
cane season start all over again. Many people
have been rejected from FEMA to be eligible
for assistances and incredibly most of them, the
one who lost everything...FEMA just as offer
loans to afford the arrangements of their homes.
But Puerto Rico is not only dealing with
Maria’s disaster, we are also dealing with eco-
nomic failure; status, school closing, protest,
unemployment, health and so many other situ-
ations that our people just can’t take it no more.
That one thing that keep us on the way, keeping
the hope and faith is our Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the one who sustain our spirit and give us
comfort. Please keep praying for strength, vi-
sion and more important for a real interest of
develop a better life and a better place to live
on behalf of all. And to learn from ours mis-
takes and look forward to the things we want
for the future of this country and our families.
Thank you for your support and love and
may the Lord be with you all for always!!!
Sincerely,
Evelyn Cruz-Guzmán,
Catano, Puerto Rico

GeiGer
the books to require appropriate sized buildings

dered. “They’re all mocking tonian scholars of antiquity. “It recite to her students a series
me,” I moaned. would appear the biggest threat of what they called stories. In
But I like to think that lit- to their health was cancer,” the one, a bombastic man munches
tle bump contains the genetic professor will write, shaking on capon legs and guzzles a

Counter
seeds for some future race. For her head, “but the structure of sweet wine called Sherry Sack.
some hyper-evolved life form their civilization and their econ- In another, a swine-faced man
that will finally get things right. omy show they were far more teaches young people draped in
Maybe several millions of years worried about eliminating dan- togas how to think, and how to
from now, the descendants of delions, and with the accumu- see the world, and later is put
the wart on the back of my hand lation of a purely theoretical to death for it. In another, a
will sit in a classroom and listen thing called ‘money.’” man and his son walk through
by Matt Geiger, Editor as a professor explains to them She’ll dig through old towns a dreamlike, post-apocalyptic
the origins of their great spe- frozen in time by volcanic erup- work, coated in dead white ash.
cies. “We started out as a little tions or mucky bogs, and she In one, a young woman falls
Don
an ax, the Romanov dynasty, shouldn’t hurt, should it?”
backyard chicken farming, and Today, I ask: “What’s an ac- bump on the back of an unre- will see that billions of people in love with a dark, brooding
the little bursts of insight and ceptable amount of pain to feel markable man’s arm. Through ate so little they became sick, man, in a dark, brooding castle
the years, we mutated and and billions more people ate of stone and brick, beneath the
Quixote
lucidity that come with being in this toe/elbow/face/psyche?”
a parent. I recently saw a doctor and evolved, and by the time the hu- so much they became sick, too. wails of a violent and insane
My body wants to have a watched in agony as she looked mans went extinct in 2894, we She’ll see our churches and woman in a tower above. In
long chat about knee pain. at my chart. She listed 403 were already well on our way gasp - not at the fact that we still another, a person, or peo-
People keep talking about
Sometimes it wakes me up in problems, then looked again, to becoming the planet’s apex bowed down before the heav- ple, talk about the “Way.” An-
mindfulness and meditation,
the middle of the night, nudging seeking my age. species,” she’ll say. ens - but at the barbarism of other is a dizzying collection of
and how these things can help
me into groggy wakefulness, “Oh, you’re 38. All of this is It’s comforting, the thought some of our gods. “They cre- fever dreams, full of brutality
us better listen to our bodies.
and whispers: “Are you up? completely normal.” that a little cluster of confused ated gods to worship, the great- and vengeance, and very long
People are obsessed with hear-
Great. Let’s contemplate death “Will it get better?” I asked. skin cells on my leg or arm est beings imaginable, and they lists, and at the end, one person
ing everything their bodies
in the dark for a bit.” “Oh no!” she replied with a could be an entire species’ chose to make them petty and bleeds and suffers and redeems
have to say.
If my body and I were in reassuring smile. “It will get Adam and Eve. That’s where I evil,” she’ll say. all of existence. Maybe they’ll
Not me.
marriage counseling, I’d have a much, much worse. For the rest came from, right? Just a freckle She will find evidence of our even get their hands on some
My body is blathering on
message for my partner: “I need of your life!” on the back of some primordial atheism, our nihilism, and our Chekhov, and see deep, deep
with inanity about a variety of
some space.” I am not old. Not by a long sea creature? I haven’t read sulky, petulant manner. She within what we call a soul.
topics, and its interests don’t
As I trundle toward my 40th shot. But I am coming to terms Darwin extensively, but that’s will see no discernable differ- The lesson will culminate in
often converge with those of
birthday, visits to the doctor are with the fact that I am no longer the impression I’m under. That ence between the tribalism and a story about a man. Like all
my mind. My brain wants to
changing. I used to ask: “This young. In youth, the body and great and beautiful things can cruelty of an early American humans, he was blind to the
talk about the best way to throw
mind are a single unit. You are come from humble, disgusting, human sacrifice, or a colonial world around him. He was in
unaware of individual organs, grotesque beginnings. Begin- eradication of “other” people, almost total darkness, living a
joints and sensations. You are nings like me. or a 21st century explosion of comfortable, if boring life in
one. And you are temporarily I like the thought that my verbal hate and rage online, and the countryside of some a place
immortal and blissfully un- gradual decline is setting the she will wonder how a liberal called “La Mancha.” Sitting in
aware. stage for greater things. who spent all his time preach- his study, the man read story
As you encroach upon mid- Those future creatures, that ing love and tolerance could be after story, and one day his eyes
Published every Thursday by News Publishing Company dle age, you become aware of great Wartonian race, will find so blind to his own intolerance opened. As he rode through the
P.O. Box 286, Black Earth, WI 53515 your component parts. You remnants of our culture, and of anyone whose worldview countryside, he was the only
Phone: (608) 767-3655 • Fax: (608) 767-2222 notice none of them are in mint all the species we lived along- differed slightly from his own. one to see the giants, the drag-
condition anymore. When you side, and they will marvel at She will chuckle sadly at the ons, and beautiful maidens, and
Visit our website at: www.MiddletonTimes.com
are 18, a freckle is a freckle. our ways. From archaeological conservatives who were armed the valiant knights that strode
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Out-of-state, one year, $59; two years, $114. doom. As you age, you set out skyscrapers of Mumbai, swans in the name of freedom. gasped in awe. He was ragged
each day, like some sadsack ex- floated on still ponds in the Most Wartonians will only and thin, as was his horse, Ro-
Publishers: Daniel R. Witte, Mark D. Witte English countryside, and little shake their heads and wonder at cinante, and his portly squire
plorer, in search of new aches,
Managing Editor: Matt Geiger
pains and deformities. children played with their pet the simplicity of humans, who saw nothing of his true adven-
mgeiger@newspubinc.com One day I discovered a little tapir on the edge of a South seemed to live at the deepest tures but went along for the
Sports Editor: Rob Reischel wart on my forearm. It instantly American rainforest. Our phys- level of some dark cave, never ride anyway. For this man, for
262-719-9066 • robreischel@gmail.com changed the way I hear that iology will be easy enough to able even to glimpse the shad- a little while, the veil was lifted.
syllable.  Whenever someone piece together, bit by bit. A ows cast by the light of truth Maybe that advanced future
Advertising Sales Staff: man’s pelvis here. A mummi- and beauty. But then, toward race of beings will look back,
mentioned making “wort” to
Brian Palzkill
brew beer, or said they loved fied pet dog there. But our be- the end of the class, the teacher and be amazed at how well Don
608-235-8925 • adsales@newspubinc.com
someone “warts and all,” or haviors and the things we spend will begin a lesson on some- Quixote could see in the utter
Karin Henning said a YouTube video had our fleeting time doing will baf- thing - something seemingly darkness of our ancient world.
608-358-7958 • khenning@newspubinc.com “gone viral,” I always shud- fle even the most erudite War- trivial - the humans did. She’ll