A couple of days ago, we received a copy of the Popular Financial Annual Report from the Crystal Lake Park District. We get reports like this from each of the local government entities every year. They usually are on glossy paper, with pictures of folks enjoying whatever the entity provides, and generally portray an upbeat picture of how things are going. I don’t mind this; generally speaking, the positivity is justified.

This year’s report is no exception, presenting a Park District that is moving onward and upward. But in his introduction to the document, Park Board President Frederick Tiesenga whines about how five Park Board members and “vocal residents” are responsible for a tax increase.

A vote by elected officials and the participation of citizens? What nerve! And then Tiesenga adds a truly wacky rant about William the Conqueror and the Domesday Book. To draw parallels between taxation in a modern democracy and the fiscal policies of a feudal society in the 1080s, where the English nobles who ran the estates had just been replaced by force by Normans, and where the vast majority of the population had no rights at all, is just odd.

Mark G. Eckel

Crystal Lake