Saturday, May 30, 2009

Iron River Twp. Town Hall Meeting

I attended the "old fashioned Town Hall Meeting"
last night at the I.R. Twp. Hall. The purpose
was to solicit support of the people for keeping
the local state prison, Camp Ottawa, open during
this period of cutbacks.

A very thorough discussion about the prison and
what that facility means to the township and the
county was presented by several people.

Officials in attendance were:

Gov. Grandholm's U.P. Rep.
State Representative - Mike Lahti
Lobbyist - Ron Basso
Supervisor - Mark Polley
Twp. Treasurer - Clements

The only Township official not introduced was
a Mr. Piwaraski,

Commander Shovald of the MSP.
Sheriff - Mark Valesano
City Mgr. Caspian - Richard Frighetto
Mayor of Iron River - Roger Zanon
Iron River City Councilman - Ray Coates
Iron River City Manager - John Archocosky
Former City Manager (Stambaugh) - Silven
Iron County Edc=A0Director - Julie Melchori
Iron County Commissioner - Rosalie King
Chamber of Commerce & EDC - Bill Leonoff
Township Attorney - Steve Polich

The Warden from Marinisco Prison Camp,
that oversees Camp Ottawa.

Notable by his absence was George Brunswick, the
district representative on the Iron County Board
of Commissioners. Four reporters from various
information media were also in attendance.

If your humble reporter has inadvertently omitted
anyone who was present, please phone Ben Smith.
The number is listed.

These (20) twenty listed above, there as a natural
business matter, comprised almost 50% of the forty-
three people I counted in attendance.

An unnamed City of Iron River official could not
confirm or deny that they were being paid for
attending. The Township Supervisor confirmed that
all Township officials attended gratis.


Ben Smith

==================================================

According to the 2000 census, Iron River Township
had 1585 people. We can safely assume that there
has not been a major change in that number. If all
43 people in attendance had been township residents
(and only about 1/2 of them were) we had a
representation of 2.7% of the total population
showing support by caring enough to attend a meeting.
That's not a very large showing and in my opinion
not very convincing of local support for the prison.

Bill Vajk

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Either NOBODY reads this and therefore does not comment, OR you do not post ANY comments that are sent to you.

Either way, I'm not impressed. This message is anonymous.

Bill Vajk said...

"In a false dichotomy (also called a false dilemma, either or, black or white, the missing middle) you are presented with two choices, when in fact there are more than two choices. If one choice is discredited, then the reader is forced to accept the other choice. But this is not an adequate argument, the choice favored must be supported by evidence."

http://info-pollution.com/false.htm

Obviously the comment left by "anonymous" ignores lots of other possibilities including the fact that this web page is not created to impress any one person, but to disseminate information as well as to present views generally expressed in the community but only among friends, not in public.

Now ordinarily I ignore the sort of lashing out that this reply by "anonymous" has provided to us. There have been other examples before, and I have mentioned a few in passing. But it is clear to me that this reply comes from someone in the Iron County oilgarchy, such as it is, and I have been toying with the idea of writing an article about groupthink when this opportunity for a clear exhibit of one aspect of "how it works" presented itself.

William H. Whyte coined the term groupthink in Fortune magazine in 1952. In the 1970's Irving Janus did extensive work on the concept with this formal definition:

"A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action."

Eventually some 8 more or less universal characteristics were described:

1. Illusion of invulnerability –Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.
2. Collective rationalization – Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.
3. Belief in inherent morality – Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.
4. Stereotyped views of out-groups – Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.
5. Direct pressure on dissenters – Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.
6. Self-censorship – Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.
7. Illusion of unanimity – The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.
8. Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.

Such a system in place in a community such as Iron County prevents natural growth and economic improvement because the oligarchy's self-interest is best served by keeping a lid on the community. Permitting economic growth would, of necessity, dilute the income of those involved in providing the community with goods and services, and might even bring in a more assertive population that would compete in elections for political positions that same oligarchy currently occupies almost unopposed.

How else can anyone explain why communities a half-hour drive to the east and the south of us are economically successful and vibrant while Iron County remains economically depressed no matter how much money is thrown at economic development efforts?

I'm sorry you're unhappy that someone in this community is willing to publish as I am doing with this and two other blogs as mechanisms. But I am grateful that you've provided this perfect launch point, and prime example, for a discussion about groupthink.

I wonder, if you bother to read my analysis of your offering, how many of those 8 charactistics listed above have applied to you as you ply your trade day after day.

If you want to help your community instead of merely serving asd another drone for the oligarchy, you'd write about the corruption and crookedness you face day in and day out.

Fat chance of that, eh?

Bill Vajk

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