"The Best Kind of People" the Worst Kind of Con?

About a dozen years ago I swore off novels. I don't recall the exact one, or even the exact reason, but I felt conned.  Non-fiction doesn't make me feel that way. Writers of biographies, memoires, etc. admit their prejudices up front, tell their story, marshall the evidence for why you should agree with them, and leave you free to do so. But they usually don't try to leverage you emotionally. Novels do.

 I am currently in a community with a tiny library, mostly consisting of cast-offs from people on vacation. In it, I found a novel called The Best Kind of People, whose dust jacket read: "Listed for the Giller Prize." Well, I thought, How bad can it be? Answer: plenty. Leading up to my swearing off  novels, I read several that presented negative ideas or characters whose overall impact on society or on was presented in a very positive way by getting us to like and sympathize with the characters emotionally. The Best Kind of People is the worst kind of con in this respect. It focuses in on the Woodburys, wealthy suburbanites with old money living in grandpa's mansion. Out of the blue George, a well-loved teacher and paterfamilias, is arrested and jailed for having had sexual contact with several female students. The story revolves around his wife Joan and daughter Sadie's coping with the predictable  community reaction and the possibility that he is guilty, which, of course, he isn't. The reader can predict that from the page one, but George is in jail until the last four pages. 

Now, we know that even serial rapists, who spend their whole lives abusing women, (Think Harvey Weinstein, Jeffery Epstein and Kevin Spacey) don't spend time in jail until they are nailed to the wall and have raped hundreds (thousands?) of women. How many rich guys with old money spend even one night in jail? For anything? Guilty or innocent? Further engendering sympathy for George, late in the book, he is attacked by another inmate and hospitalized. How am I supposed to like Sadie, an immature a high school senior--A+ student, student council president, sexually active, self-absorbed and privileged. Joan, the nurse, and George's wife from middle class family is a more sympathetic character, but she more than any other left me wondering how much overall damage novels like this do. 

When we sympathize with "poor" ole George, what happens to our attitudes on rape? Our attitudes toward rape victims? Experts continue to insist that it is the most under-reported crime on the books. Duh? What happens to our personal standards when we are conned into feeling sorry for a character like Sadie, who is for the most part, a spoiled brat?  

City Administrator Performance Review

 

As she has been in the position for a year, it’s a good enough time to assess the performance of Lisa Kotter, interim city administrator. Far and wide, especially the Dubuque County Supervisors praised Kotter’s presentation that netted the city a million $ for Cascade’s new library. I agree it was savvy and impressive. Tech and construction types I spoke with find her accurate and easy to work with.

What has her year here brought ordinary citizens?

·         Increased expense if you are going to build anything. Not long after she settled in Kotter promoted a new scheme for building permits that will increase the cost and force an inspection by someone from ECIA. Now Cascaders who formerly paid $25 for a permit, (arguably too little), must now pay as much as $250 for a building inspection, arguably too much.

·         Someone complained that she dominates city council meetings. Having been to most, I can attest to that. What she dominates them with—ideas of how the city can borrow more money and remain within the parameters of the law--I find more dangerous than the fact that she is glib, well-informed and domineering. The pool isn’t paid off; we need a new street sweeper, and we should be very cautious about additional debt.

·         In the fall of 2021, (Greg Staner was still mayor) I introduced a flood control provision, which I thought was passed as part of the Storm Water Ordinance. However, this fall Kotter issued a building permit to someone in this neighborhood who has covered more than 90% of his property with hard surfaces. When I complained and tried put the hard surfaces ordinance back on the agenda, she refused to do so, and said it would be “an administrative nightmare.”

 Ironically enough, while she can’t support an ordinance to curtail flooding in the low spots by the river, she sees no problem with administrating the Nuisance Ordinance that Council will pass on Monday night. This will allow the city to go onto anyone's property the city decides isn't taking care of it appropriately, and take legal action against the person. So citizens can be forgiven for concluding that what they have gotten from Kotter's tenure here is: 1) more expense and 2) less democracy.