Madison’s got no shortage of traditional, fun events. Now there’s one more about to be added — a boat parade on Lake Mendota.
A local group is planning a “Venetian Night” boat parade from Warner Bay to the Memorial Union at dusk on Sunday Sept. 6th. The Betty Lou will lead the procession of dozens of boats decorated with lights and who-knows-what.
Organizers hope the throngs of people on the Square for the Taste of Madison will wander down to the lakefront, anywhere from James Madison Park to the Union, to watch the lighted boats and a spectacular on-the-water fireworks display.
Spectrum Pyrotechnics, which is presenting the display, is a Wisconsin company and one of the few in the U.S. that manufactures its own fireworks rather than importing from China. A fitting partner for the boat parade’s organizers, Dane Buy Local. Details here.
Here are my thoughts about the “successful” Cash for Clunkers program.
Every penny of the $2-billion spent on this came from (or will come from) someone who actually earned it by doing something useful that others were willing to pay for. What if those productive people had been allowed to keep those earnings, rather than having them taken away in taxes and used for the program (and the additional cost of the bureaucracy to run it). Don’t you suppose they might have used the money to buy cars, remodel their homes, send their kids to college or maybe even finance a small business that would have employed people?
