Water from the heavens, steadily

("Aquaread" image)

There must be some interesting new water hazards at the golf course. I was a gawker this morning (Sunday) so I drove out there. Word is, there was a train derailment out in that area too. The derailment must have been cleared up. As I drove back into town I heard a train in the distance so everything must be open. 

I didn't get a good look at the golf course because of the vegetation and trees. New rain arrived last night. Imagine if all this rain was coming in the form of snow! 

We can thank our lucky stars if there were no hazardous chemicals in the train incident. There have been some worrisome issues elsewhere in the country. That includes close to here like by Raymond MN. The pattern of incidents began in a place called "Palestine" which is not pronounced as it would be over by Israel. "As it would be." There is no formal nation called Palestine. I certainly think there should be. 

The "Palestine" in Ohio is pronounced differently than the foreign entity. "PAL-es-teen." Imagine if that kind of train derailment happened here. There go your property values. Would make it even harder to keep UMN-Morris going. Can UMN-Morris (formerly UMM) hold on through the coming year? Maintain enough viability? Of course the main thing is to ensure we keep getting state $. If the financial foundation can be maintained, does anything else matter? Oh I'm being cynical. 

Here's a question: Can we assume that UMN-Morris is in better shape with Minnesota as a blue state rather than red? It is true that Morris is in a beet-red congressional district. Almost to the extent of caricature. The landscape is dotted with churches that pay homage to Donald Trump and all those around him. Even Peter Navarro? Even him too. 

Karoline Leavitt? Isn't she something? Trump made a notorious comment about the young blond Leavitt last week that was interpreted as having lewd insinuations. Really? Would Trump really do something like that? Well, you know. And his supporters would never object to any of it, even if the Epstein report came out and had shocking revelations. But it won't come out. A headline on the Drudge Report last week announced that Trump's name has already been redacted in the report. 

Trump survives everything. He never would have been elected president without the nation's "Christians." There is a lot to answer for them. What would Jesus Christ think of Trump? You remember who Jesus Christ was, don't you? Pastors have reported getting criticism from  church members when quoting from Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount." Objecting to the words of Jesus Christ? Well it's actually happening. 

And ministers for the sake of their own professional survival are probably shying away from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' words could sometimes come across like Bernie Sanders! Unacceptable in the eyes of many. How will Christianity come out of this chapter of the American story? 

"Evangelical" Christianity gets behind Israel 100 percent. So that's a problem. I consider Israel to be a terrorist nation. I admire the Jewish people. That is a whole separate matter. Many of the Palestinians are Christians. The Jews of Israel of course reject Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior. If that's their personal choice they're quite entitled to it. But oppressing the Palestinians is unacceptable and unforgivable. 

Netanyahu looks 100 percent like a villain. And of course the U.S. should try to draw up some kind of appropriate response. But of course under our "presidential administration," if you want to call it that (as opposed to a gang of thugs), that won't happen. The opposite will happen. 

Why do I talk about it? Good question. It does no good. I have had to withdraw from friends who for some reason have gotten eyes glazed over with their devotion to Trump. They don't just disagree with me, they will make ad hominem suggestions about me. Common putdowns from the Trump people include "you're just a Trump hater" and "you have Trump derangement syndrome." 

Not sure how to even respond to such assertions. I disagree vigorously with Trump. I think the tariffs must necessarily cause inflation. I can think of nothing more dangerous than Trump wanting to assert control over the Federal Reserve. 

First he put two Supreme Court justices in his hip pocket. The reference here is to Thomas and Alito whose whole presence on the Court is now directed at giving DJT as much power as possible. And the public isn't rising up about this. 

Then we have the three appointees by DJT: Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Coney-Barrett. Merrick Garland got stiffed by Mitch McConnell. Will Trump's thugs in justice end up going after Garland the way they're now going after James Comey and Jack Smith? Supreme irony: it was Comey who gave the little speech just before the 2016 election that could well have handed the election to Trump. Now Comey may be the subject for a show trial and goodness knows what kind of punishment. Same with Jack Smith. 

We learned last week that Trump now has two Federal Reserve board members in his hip pocket. The trend inches along. 

The J-6 rioters got sprung after our publicly-supported justice system went through so much trouble to convict them. 

People are reacting out of fear to DJT now. It's hard to blame them. Trump is weaponizing the levers of justice to a staggering degree. And if a news organization tries ringing alarm bells about it, that news organization will likely be sued. And in depositions, the people who run the news organization might have to break down and admit they support Democrats. Then we'll hear people scream about "bias!" 

There is nothing wrong with bias favoring Republicans because the people in power do not consider that to be bias. It is the default position in America. Which means we're headed to a full-on autocracy, if we're not already there. And I think our local Apostolics will consider that to be just fine. 

Hang on to your hats if you see interest rates pushed down to near zero. Totally "free money" (again). In perpetuity? What do you suppose will happen to our great nation? Trump recently called our Federal Reserve chairman a "numbskull." The avalanche is growing in intensity. My own personal safety may be in danger.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com 

Summer of precipitation, other things

It's the summer of ten inches of rain in four days. That's the word out there re. the quantity in and around Morris.  So it's worse in Chokio? That's the word too. It's the summer of smoke from fires floating in from Canada. Smoke gets in our eyes, yes. Wicked "water hazards" at the golf course? A train derailment out by there too? But no hazardous material spilled, so they say. 

Crazy Days now history. It has had a resurgence, but never again to be like what the boomers (like me) remember from our childhood. "Main street" was a true people traffic place.

It's the summer of Trump and Epstein. I have tried sharing as much background as I can about how Trump is a dangerous, self-interested and dishonest person. It is so hard to continue with that thread of thought. It is futile. We have a congressperson out here in our part of Flyoverland who is like a clone of Trump. She would not second-guess any tiny thing with what DJT says or does. She's scared that next time she might actually lose to Steve Boyd. And Mr. Boyd is even more right wing than Fischbach. 

"Right wing" might be too generous a term because it suggests a clear body of ideological thought. William F. Buckley would probably accept the right wing characterization. He was a thinker's thinker. And the contemporary MAGA crowd? Well, rather the opposite. It is emotional, impulsive, reminds us of cult members. There are no revelations about DJT that would dissuade these people. They get led along by conservative media, primarily Fox News. 

Fox News makes us wish for the expedited end to "cable TV news." Cable news had a nice run and it had lots of promise at the start. Many of us were amazed at how there could be a 24/7 news channel to call up on the tube. By the same token, I was amazed to discover "Joe and Mika" in the morning as a nice extended discussion on the political goings-on. I know many people shared my enthusiasm about that show. 

All of this should have led to a better and more educated USA that could move forward in the most positive way. Ah, the best-laid plans can go awry. We have a president now who wants to go back to coal power. He wants to go back, period. He named Supreme Court justices who he knew would erase Roe vs. Wade. 

Trump likes coal

Across the board he wants to see the U.S. reverse course as if we might capture a previous era. Maybe it's just the fallacy of thinking "the old days" were better. Which of course they weren't. I grew up during the draft for the Vietnam war. Time moved like molasses. The great Lutheran Church did not allow women pastors until 1970. Girls sports in high school did not start until about the same time. I would peg that year as 1971. 

 

Here's an idea 

Does anyone have a record of the first varsity roster for Morris girls basketball, or the first five starters in a game? It would be neat to gather that group together for a recognition ceremony at MAHS. It would help us appreciate the history. The sad thing is that as time went on, Morris girls basketball and volleyball had prolonged periods of not being competitive. It was so bad, it seemed the program was not even trying to be competitive. No one even spoke in terms of these teams being a contender for anything. 

And there was a firm faction of teachers who resisted any sentiment that somehow we needed to adjust things. You would think that women's liberation would want to see our teams do really well. But if anything those folks felt threatened by talk of being competitive. 

You see, the libbers were entrenched in "academia" which in Morris had a firm base at UMM. It did fan out though. Such people would look down their noses at you, if you projected the "small school" innocence of thinking that our teams should just go out and try to win. It was "Neanderthal." 

As a newspaper person whose rounds included those blessed small schools, I got concerned. I didn't see any inherent clash between "academics" and the simple aim of trying to win games. My outlook got me put down badly in certain "snooty" circles. 

My outlook finally pushed through after much difficulty and even some broken lives. Should this have been so hard? 

 

The religious side 

What about women in ministry? Isn't this fully mainstream now? Isn't it hard to even remember pre-1970 when "women need not apply?" I mean, can you believe it? Just try enforcing the old standard today. 

Today it's nigh impossible for an ELCA church to find any kind of new minister. 

My church of First Lutheran has fallen so far, we have paired with Federated for the summer. There are some Sundays where the FLC church building is completely idle. Sacrilege? I'm sure some people of old would react that way. God's house idle on a Sunday. Its members told to go over to the Methodist church? 

Well I don't care much about theology. 

 

This exists 

I wouldn't go near a church whose members would declare that Donald Trump was "sent by God." 

DJT as a symbol of the Christian faith? Much of American Christianity has been dragged down by this false prophet. This obvious charlatan. But I go against the grain asserting thoughts like this. My contrarian proclivity maybe? Just like when I tried shaking this community out of its slumber with girls sports competition? Or competitiveness overall with our athletics? 

Look, there finally was an "awakening." Was around 1988. People got hurt along the way, some businesses got hurt. People felt they had to rise up even at the risk for their business or personal interests. My family had to change dentists. 

The "academic intelligentsia" as we once knew it, I think, is gone. I'm amazed as I think back to how they once ruled! 

Or you can think back to what it would have been like sitting down with Pastor Grindland at First Lutheran in the '60s and asking him, "do you think women should be ministers?" And he'd have to say he had reservations about it. He'd have to because it was church policy. "Well, we have to be careful not to be too radical. Let's not rock the boat." These are just imagined quotes by me. But the message would be "maybe it's not time." 

So keep the prohibition on women? Well yes. That would have to be the message. Up through 1969. Not that long ago. Of course it seems utterly absurd now. 

Donald Trump wants to live in "throwback" America. Go back to coal power. And of course crush the "Green New Deal" and all that comes with it. We had a stark choice between Trump and Harris. A stark choice also with Trump and Hillary Clinton. And we chose Hillary because she received three million more votes. But she did not become president. The electoral college is a holdover from 19th Century America which felt measures were needed to suppress black people. 

We reap what we sow. 

We could have gotten lucky and discovered that Trump was a good person after all. No such luck. If the rest of the world begins to think that the U.S. is making climate change worse, there may even be military action directed at this country.

 

Addendum: Girls sports in Morris perked up with the 1987 volleyball season. We went from 3-17 the year before to 17-10. And I was fascinated in the upbeat season to hear people actually talk like MAHS might be a factor in the playoffs. Would have been unheard-of previously.

I'm sure some people don't believe me when I try telling them how bad things were. I had a teacher friend who was not part of the undesirable crowd. She told me that an elementary phy ed teacher approached her every year before 1987 and said "how are things going for (your daughter)?" My friend further reported that when volleyball took off winning in '87, that phy ed teacher said nothing.

There was an element that did not even want to see the teams start winning. Well I suppose if one team wins, it puts pressure on the other coaches? And who needs that? Worse yet, the problem teachers/coaches had such a big chip on their shoulder.

We are blessed today by comparison. 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com 

"Newsies" was super at Minnewaska

("Showstoppers" image)

So there's nothing going on at this time of the summer? Are we just marking time leading up to the county fair? Leading up to the wrestling French fries? Well, we can set our standards higher than that. And I'm not putting down the wrestling French fries. I'll just refer you to our neighbors to the east. I'm talking about Minnewaska Area, Glenwood-Starbuck. 

Over the past few days the "Minnewaska Showstoppers" thespian group has given us the unforgettable musical performance. I gush superlatives. This was a performance of Disney's "Newsies." Glorious theatre and music. Pit orchestra included. Shakes us out of our slumbering summertime. 

I wonder if Morris might develop an organization like "Showstoppers." It's something to ponder. By the same token, might we promote formation of something like the Swift County Band, directed incidentally by our own high school band director, Wanda Dagen? They give an annual performance at the Appleton park which is quite nice. However, I have stopped going because I disapprove of how they "pass the hat" for $ contributions. At the same time they brag about "sponsors" for the event, they feel they have to pass the hat too. 

Appleton can swing an event like this but Morris can't. There is a lot that Morris cannot do. We once proved we could have a gala midsummer event, Prairie Pioneer Days, and it felt like quite the achievement when it first got going. A triumph as it were. I had my own role reporting progress for the Morris newspaper. Many years later the community just unceremoniously dropped it. No more PPD, at least the version that was meaningful. 

Has it now turned into a car dealer promo? In the fall? But look at what Minnewaska Area can do! 

The Minnewaska school

Lake Minnewaska looks so picturesque as you depart from the Waska school. I noticed that last night (Saturday) after I took in the glorious production of "Newsies." 

Superlatives don't often flow easily from me. But it was "fab." And my interest was high mainly because of a Morris connection. There was more than one actually but the one that stands out is this Odello lass. She is a pure performing prodigy. She had a top role. The audience gave a vocal acclamation for her when she and a male counterpart came out at show's end. A much-earned ovation. 

I tell friends that Ms. Odello is so talented, it gives me an inferiority complex. I guess watching such talented young people makes me feel old too! 

I overheard some people talking about how long the Minnewaska Area school has been established. So it's over 30 years now? Can we start describing the school as "old?" For every "old" school there was a time when it was shiny new and the object of pride. Think of that when remembering our old art deco auditorium that was part of our now-razed school in Morris. Hard to imagine that the site once had our school. And the football field. Completely re-purposed now. 

The Morris "Pylin" drive-in

East 7th Street was a real "hopping:" place back when the school was there, even with a drive-in restaurant, the "Pylin." East 7th Street has looked borderline blighted over the recent past. The Dairy Queen was along there in the street's "glory days." 

Man, the elementary kids in their free time would "run down the hill" to the neighborhood grocery store, "Stark's" when I was young. Get an ice cream sandwich or a comic book. And baseball cards! A nickel a pack! 

  

58-4? Really?

Morris has to be careful how it gets compared to Minnewaska. I assume the schools have comparable enrollment. And last winter our girls basketball team trailed 'Waska 58-4 at halftime of a game. I have always been the kind of person to express some dismay over that. And then a lot of people who fashion themselves as important in Morris get upset with me. So I was so often an outlier. 

That status may have caught up with me in the end, cost me my newspaper career. I wonder about that all the time. I always hated the teachers union. But really I think it was just one paranoid element of the teaching staff that got under my skin, while others were rather exemplary. So sad. 

I'm old enough to have covered high school sports in Glenwood, not Minnewaska but Glenwood. Throw in a football game or two at Starbuck too. Let's see, they had a fellow named Bailey as football coach. That was in the days of the really intense and emotional small town high school sports rivalries. Imagine the gang at the barbershop in the movie "Hoosiers." 

Most of that is gone now. We have a well-developed class system in sports now for school enrollment. Many of the real small schools no longer exist. Mostly this has been a very positive development. 

But when the teams get into post-season play now, they might have to travel a long way, even at the very start. One nice thing is that the competing teams are so far apart from each other, they don't attract the pettiness of the old small town sports rivalries. Sigh of relief. Forget the barbershop. 

Kudos 100 percent to the "Minnewaska Showstoppers." And it would appear the Minnewaska school is doing very well. Morris needs to get more fired-up about such things.

Rousing spirit for Showstoppers' "Newsies!"

Addendum: The "Newsies" story promotes the union movement and that could be a problem with our prevailing political environment. The politicians who are ruling today are of a stripe that are not receptive to unions at all. DJT has been described as a "naked capitalist." And our congressperson out here in western Minnesota is like a (female) clone of DJT. That's who we are now. Forget collectivism of any kind. Every man for himself.

  

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com 

My generation and the Beatles

The boomer generation is destined to be mesmerized by the Beatles for as long as we walk the Earth. Seems almost embarrassing - at least it does to me - that we should be so uniquely enthralled by a pop music recording group. Embarrassed? The crowds for their concerts got so out of control that the four guys could not hear themselves play anymore. It became impractical for them to even do concerts anymore. 

They transformed themselves into a "studio band" and thus the morphing with their style. 

Most pop musicians struggle to fundamentally change their style and appeal, if they even try at all. This might be advanced as the theory for why so many music acts have their "run." The plug gets pulled. Well, it's done by the record company execs. Meanies? Well they operate according to real logic in the business world. They might only be faulted for how they hesitate to market something bold and different. 

I'm immediately reminded of the movie "Eddie and the Cruisers." Remember this from the days when cable TV could pluck a movie out of obscurity and give it new life? Well, "Eddie" might be Exhibit 'A'. The lead character prepared some very innovative music for about the year 1960. Rock 'n' roll was established but the record execs didn't want it to get deep or philosophical. Eddie was grandiose in his vision. 

I might want to laugh about how the record exec spoke when he rejected the artistically sound material. 
The material was on the cusp of being groundbreaking. But let me prepare you: the people who make the business decisions with recorded music could cut you down to size brutally. So there was the record exec huffing and puffing in the studio booth: "A bunch of jerk-offs making weird sounds." 

Sadly this was not caricature. I know from the days when I presented a little of my own music creations. I had a really good connection for trying this once. It was not my father (a published composer in a realm quite the opposite of the Beatles). 

If you do some songwriting you had better be happy with the intrinsic rewards and fulfillment. You can get the door slammed on you figuratively (or maybe literally). Life goes on. 

 

Pete Best

The "dumped" drummer 

You know who Pete Best is, right? The drummer fired by the Beatles just as they were about to launch into rather ridiculous fame? Yes it was rather ridiculous. 

Put yourself in the shoes of Pete Best. Today he might be the most famous person in the category of "got fired." But hell, as a matter of fact he was the Beatles' drummer through two years when the group was formative. He was dismissed in the most unfeeling way, which of course is the way it so often happens. And then after it happens, the people who did it will say "I guess we didn't handle it very well." 

What really matters to them is that they did it. They know that. 

Pete Best missed out on the limitless riches earned by the Beatles. But in the end it appears he came out OK financially by the standards most of us live by. He actually made a "haul" (by our standards) as a result of the Beatles' "Anthology" release. And I think the public felt happy about that. 

The firing was based largely on the group's sound becoming more sophisticated and layered. This compared to what they did in Hamburg, Germany. Pete Best would seem capable on the "straight ahead rockers" that was the Beatles' stock in trade in their raw developmental time. 

Brian Epstein saw the raw nature and smoothed over various aspects. Classier wardrobe, yes. A mass audience was truly on the way. 

 

Seeds were planted 

I think George Martin had this music concept firm in his head for some time - prescient soul - and if he hadn't signed up the Beatles, he would have had nearly equal success with a different group. 

How long was the Beatles' "reign?" Well, I'd say six years, about. In the scheme of things, really a pretty short time. 

Pete Best played live with the Beatles more than Ringo did. You read about Pete and you get the impression that he's really a nice guy. I'm glad he ended up getting some real "Beatle money." Very simply, his style of drumming was not going to survive into the new phase. The group needed a more versatile drummer capable of nuance. 

The Beatles really became sophisticated with "Rubber Soul." 

John seemed to struggle with the sheer fame. I don't think he ever intended for this. Paul seemed to grasp the challenge of sheer fame better. I wish George had not gotten so carried away with the excess-hair look, even on his face. 

The "long hair" became a symbol of the times, I mean with men. And to this day, I wonder: what was it supposed to signify or accomplish? As I sit here I can think of one theory: it was a backlash to the "buzz cut" imposed on young men when they entered military service. 

What if the U.S. had never embarked on its Vietnam venture? What if we all could have been led to respect the aims of our government more? To nurture us, help us all reach our potential? Instead of having to recoil at how so much death and suffering was foisted on our young men? Look what "Agent Orange" did. Of course we have to consider the death and suffering among the Vietnamese.

Lennon like Harrison took on the excess-hair look. Perhaps the most perplexing question my generation might weigh today is this: How would Lennon have turned out if he hadn't been assassinated? Would he have shed a lot of his "counterculture" traits? Become more conventional? Be receptive to the underlying values of the Western world? 

Moved on from Yoko? 

Just as big a question: how would his music have evolved? The apex question: would the Beatles have reunited? And why would that have been so important to us? Pop music is really filled with limitless talent at all times. But my generation got attached to the Beatles like it was a religious rite. Maybe we should feel a little ashamed with that. 

Hey, Pete Best ended up outliving Lennon by how many years? Best is still alive and appears content. He was spared spending his life in an unrelenting fishbowl. 

Hey, Billy Joel is in the news this week for saying the "White Album" really isn't that good. Hey, the little boy saying the emperor has no clothes!

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com 

"Kiss cam" showed we still shun adultery

Was it worth it? Did the guy develop an erection?

 

The term "kiss cam" is certainly on the tip of everyone's tongue now. Has the celebrated incident reminded us that in these Sodom and Gomorrah times, when the "Access Hollywood" tape could not take down Donald Trump, we still draw a line with certain things? So we still draw a line with adultery? I would be most happy if that was the case. 

Many of us I'm sure have been close to adulterous relationships. I'm sure an adulterer might even come across a piece like what I'm writing. How do adulterers react when they are confronted about their behavior? Like by a co-worker? 

Oh indeed, the workplace is notorious for bringing people together in an amorous way. Women's lib caused women to flow into the workplace. Conservative values may have resisted that a bit. Remember, it wasn't until 1970 that the far-reaching Lutheran Church of America even allowed women pastors! And where would we be without them now? Truth be told, we're in pretty bad shape the way it is. I will state again that the day may come where we're thankful for gays wanting to go into ministry. 

In the heterosexual world, put men and women together in the workplace and guess what happens? 

Our taboo against adultery has appeared to remain strong. Looks like there was no forgiveness coming out of the "kiss cam" incident of the last few days. It was the classic workplace romance. In its immediate aftermath, the woman who was cheated upon rejected the philandering husband. So the man was crushed in the public eye. 

The sinning couple got caught up on the big Jumbotron screen or whatever it was. And ironically such scenes were supposed to be so charming. We'll have to see if the big venues keep allowing this sort of thing. And why shouldn't they? The people operating the roving camera cannot be expected to assume that they are going to catch something shameful and scandalous. Man it's just a male and female responding to natural love hormones. If they're married to other people, well then that's their problem, right? 

Tickets for these events will have "fine print" making clear that you might get on camera in a conspicuous way. I smiled as I remembered a scene from the old Monday Night Football when it was in its early prime. To remind: the days of Howard Cosell, "Dandy Don" and Frank Gifford. The camera would rove now and then, sometimes purely at random, not necessarily to find lovers doing their thing. 

And so here's a scene with a woman wbo your average heterosexual young male would find quite attractive. There was silence for a few seconds as her face filled the screen. And then - my Lord - she reached up and picked her nose! And Gifford commented  "she was almost perfect." Embarrassing for the ingenue, yes, but pales in comparison with what came forth in the last few days. 

I have suggested that a main problem was how the lovebirds "panicked" the instant they realized their canoodling was up on the Jumbotron or whatever it was. Their reaction made it instantly clear that they knew that what they were doing was wrong! Obviously they acted like they wanted to hide. 

Was this just "15 minutes of fame?" I've already forgotten their names. They were big money people from one of those flashy tech companies - heaven knows what they actually did or what they contributed to society. Their private lives have been thrown totally off course. But as public figures they are here today, gone tomorrow. 

This news item coincided with WNBA All-Star Weekend. I write on my companion blog "Morris of Course" about how the growth of this event could make it a late-summer "marker" for us all. So it helps get us through the dog days of summer. These are days leading up to the county fair. Here's a link to my "Morris of Course" post and I thank you for reading like always. Get well Caitlin!

https://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2025/07/wnba-all-star-game-should-enliven-late.html 

 

In my own case, I worked within a few feet of a pretty well-known adulterous relationship during my time with the Morris Sun Tribune newspaper. No one can ever forget or downplay an experience like that. 

As I was familiar with the people, I can conclude with a fair amount of certainty that it was the woman who hit on the man. She had tried this before. Not with me! One might suggest that her marriage was not very well cemented. 

If her husband knew about her proclivities, why did he stay with her? Logical question. But logic can weigh in very little with matters of romance and commitment, n'est-ce pas? Man, I sure can't understand it. I have never had a girlfriend. I doubt anyone would be interested, but that's a topic for another time (let's say never). 

The man in the relationship of which I speak was the most disgusting person I have ever been around. So why would a woman be interested in him? I sure don't know, do not pretend to understand these things. They left the newspaper before they got married. I don't know if they were induced to leave because of the "scandal." Would be conjecture. 

They had no problem announcing their marriage plans on the front page of the paper. We live in a surreal world sometimes. There's a million stories in the naked city. 

How did it all turn out? Well they got divorced. I couldn't care less what happens to them now. The woman was totally Machiavellian as a department head in the business. She really functioned as the general manager even though that was not her title, but again, a topic for another time, maybe never because who cares now? 

Workplaces have a lot of discomfort and anxiety that are mostly kept under wraps. The great commentator Ed Schultz talked about this once. His background included being quarterback for Moorhead State football! Anyway, Schultz noted one day that "people get fired from jobs all the time." And this doesn't happen like with "Mr. Spacely" from "The Jetsons." "You're fired!" Well, sometimes it might happen that way. 

In my case, I'm sure the company wanted me out. My abilities were greatly held back during all my years with the Morris newspaper. Neverthelsss I found joy in simply being close to journalism. It's the main thing I will always care about. And I had lots of precious experiences with the newspaper in spite of the shoals I always faced. 

Every year when the time comes for MAHS graduation, I imagine myself showing up with notebook and camera. No one can take those memories away from me. 

I wish there was a way to put the memory with the adulterous relationship into the dumpster. Then have it hauled off.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com 

Almost perfect night at East Side Park

The park stage

The "preservationists" for East Side Park would have liked what they saw there Thursday evening. Years have rolled by where nothing like this happened from the park stage. 

I mean an event designed for the general public. The Morris Community Church when it existed had Sunday services with music there often. I thought that was wonderful. The gentle sounds wafted over to where I was working at the old Sun Tribune building.

To remind: the old Sun Tribune was located basically across the street from the Post Office. Not at the present-day DMV building but the one to the east. Think Hottovy. I'm old enough to remember when the DMV building was Dr. Watson's office! 

The Morris Community Church had a nice presence in Morris for a long time. These were pretty committed Christians, might be called fundamentalists. Am I accurate on that? I'm not Mr. Theologian. 

Amen and hallelujah to see the stage get used, and for the performance to draw a fair number of people. Which it definitely did. Much Christian-flavored music. No wonder I remembered the Morris Community Church. 

My, it helped that the weather was perfect. The sun was mostly out from behind the clouds, as I recall. I stood behind the aluminum bleachers. I have noted before that when the sun is out, no way do people want to sit close to the stage. I was surprised Thursday that so many people did. But this included a little gaggle of very devoted supporters of the performing group.

They brought their own chairs (just like at the softball complex) and sat even closer than the aluminum bleachers! Historically people have sat a fair distance from the stage, bringing about a feeling of embarrassment about the place. I am forthcoming enough to say that. 

The biggest "sell" for the Killoran stage used to be Prairie Pioneer Days, its original summer iteration. The only iteration I care to reflect on. 

I can try to say the obvious about how the community never should have dropped the ball with PPD. Often I'll share opinions that draw brickbats from opinion leaders in Morris. I would observe that many of these people just want to go to their lake places on summer weekends. They'd be dazed if you suggested to them that they spend one summer weekend in Morris for some reason. A weekend in Morris! 

A friend of mine says this problem continues into fall when people will say they're "going to the Cities." It's never "Twin Cities," it's just "the Cities." Well, I tend to just stay here in Motown. Call me an outlier. 

But I must assess the Thursday night event at East Side Park a near-total success. It would have helped to have more than one food truck. A long line formed and was persistent at the one truck. So I skipped the concessions, just stood over behind the aluminum bleachers. 

And then I met up with our former librarian Melissa Yauk. She was here all the way from Idaho which is her retirement home! Idaho! Looks like she has not let Morris drift far from her thoughts, so bless her. 

Melissa has the gift of being able to read more than one book at the same time. I asked her once for some advice on trying to appreciate fiction better. She gave me some and I made a try. Fiction is just not my thing, unless you want to argue that my blog writing is "fiction." That's a little self-deprecating line I learned from William F. Buckley. Buckley had a foray into fiction writing. I wonder what he would think of the "conservatives" of today. He gained some of his fame by attacking the "John Birch" element of an earlier time. 

So what about the "MAGA" of today? 

Won't be long before East Side Park will be the site for the "welcome UMM" picnic. Word is, UMM will have about the same enrollment as last year. I'm inclined to think this is wishful thinking. So many articles out there now about how the old four-year colleges are a tougher sell with young people. But UMM has "degree in three." Hey, why not award any kid a diploma who can simply come up with the money? Cynicism on a Saturday. I'm just trying to be real. 

The State of Minnesota has an investment in our campus. Let's make it work. Can we get a real "UMM band" again? 

Let's acknowledge who performed Thursday at East Side Park - it was "Hope Marie Lillies and Sparrows." I got home and shared reaction with a friend via email:

 

The quality of the music was pleasing but I'm not a Christian pop fan at all. And Jim Morrison hates it even more than I do. I'll have to tease Jim in an email by telling him about the performance.

Only one food truck! That was Mi! Mexico. Very long line for a very long time, and I did not have the patience. I had money on me for food. Menu was complicated! So I would have handed the person $15 and just said "give me something good for $15." But I didn't have anything.

 

It is amazing how the years just rolled by with almost zero use of the Killoran stage. Would it have been so hard to organize some events like tonight? Oh, a girl with the group tonight writes a lot of her own songs, so I'm very impressed. 

 

Here's from an email I received from a friend who was also at the park:

Speaking of the Killoran {bandshell], did you read about that at the end of the article on the city council in the fishwrap this week? Someone commenting on the vandalism and broken door there.

I responded: 

It's my understanding that vandalism was a main reason why the former band shell was torn down. And the kids back then also vandalized the Sam Smith statue. Look for more unruly kids in the future, because Trump blocked funding for after-school and summer programs. Keeping kids engaged in activities is important, otherwise they get bored.  

Why couldn't the community have made sure to have events at Killoran stage like last night all through the years?

My friend continued his thoughts:

. . .got there a little before 6:30. Yes, a long line at the Mi Mexico truck. I know that it was advertised that Just Chillin’ was to have a food truck there as well, but someone told me that they had double-booked the evening or something and went to the other event. We ate food from the Hockey Boosters  who had set up in the shelter – they had nacho chips with pulled pork, BBQ sauce and cheese for the toppings, and a bottle of water, all for $10. Very satisfying and filling. 

We watched the concert from our seats in the shelter for a while. I dunno, she was an OK singer but all of her tunes tended to sound alike and run together. Until she did a cover of “Walking on Sunshine” – that was uptempo and got the crowd’s attention. But, as soon as that was done, she went back to her “and then I wrote. . .” phase and more unrecognizable songs. And all slower tempo. Didn’t anyone tell her that the one main rule of performing outside is “no slow songs”? 

 

Morris Public Library

Speaking of Melissa

Yauk was librarian during tranquil times for the Morris Public Library. The current public mess reminds us how much pressure can be associated with running the library. So Melissa gets kudos. 

The current librarian was there when Melissa was still there. The library promoted from within. "Embattled" would describe Anne Barber now. 

Since the city is not forthcoming with the public on details, we have the license to speculate and opine all we want, n'est-ce pas? Gossip? Well, inquiring minds would like to know some things. From the email to my fellow park concert attendee:

 

Anything new on the damn library situation? The council and mayor must be profoundly embarrassed about this. And look at all their time that has been tied up. They didn't run to do this. There is a missing piece to puzzle, and the media should dig to tell us about it. I mean, doesn't the city have the discretion to manage its own library? 

I think maybe this started with the city manager wanting to get some info from Anne and Anne saying "sorry but I only answer to the library board." I'd bet on that. And Dalager decided to side with Anne. The council is apparently OK with what the city manager is doing and saying. So, I think there is some culpability with Anne. But media could find out more for us. Ward said "maybe they've been told not to." 

 

Pretty direct

If the city manager, who I have never met, was told "scram," well then I can understand the CM getting so animated in her comments. And the council people sit there and let it flow. I wouldn't want to be in the librarian's position. But when lawyers butt heads, who knows how it could turn out? Obviously it should not have come to this.

   

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Will we continue to be "aspirational?"

Well it's about time, I mean to have my screen windows open around the clock. It took until mid-July. No need to anticipate waking up in middle of night to close everything up, so as to keep furnace from coming on. I know, many people simply turn their thermostat off. I have done that in years past. 

I got a new thermostat that has the possibility of confusing me. I was told my previous one had to go - it operated on a "hearing aid battery." That's what the plumbing/heating guy told me. And he added "they didn't tell us about that." Always wrinkles involved in maintaining a single-family home. 

The word out there is that costs are mounting to a quite concerning level, costs for maintaining your own home. I look at the rows of neat little houses in south Morris and I wonder if this is such an efficient arrangement. I wonder why the houses had to be built so close to each other. Maybe this is why we don't see new homes constructed very often in the old established residential parts of town. 

Look how the townhome addition is expanding out next to the bypass. Ah, the lure of the country and open spaces. Well, the people might have to listen to a trucker's "Jake brakes" sometimes. Boy, the traffic can be pretty steady along the bypass. Whoever planned that knew what they were doing. 

There's a house under construction right now in the townhome addition. I don't know if all the homes there are technically townhomes. They look that way to me. And just down the road are a couple quite opulent new full-scale houses. Well, congratulations to these people on their material blessings. 

The direction of politics now is to give more favors to the very wealthy. The less-well-off go along with that because it's "aspirational." "I may not be wealthy but at least in America we all have a chance." 

I remember some class warfare when I was young. Go to any small town and you'd find people my generation (young at the time) grumbling about certain well-off people. I know it happened in Morris. You'd hear resentment toward certain local "bank presidents." Oh, those guys could very much be lightning rods. I sense nothing like this in 2025. 

Looks like the "aspirational" attitude won out. It is nice from the standpoint of all of us having comity. Still, I wonder if there might be a tipping point where the less-well-off say "wait a minute." Maybe as a Democrat I'm more inclined to lean that way than other people. We're the ones who listen to the "redistributionist" arguments. We have been very much out of favor over this last chapter of USA history. 

But world history teaches us that the less-well-off can become aggrieved. Do you sense any signs of this building up in America? Well maybe not yet. And we cannot predict the future. But we can speculate on possibilities. That's what I'm doing. 

We have been buying into the Republican mantra of "trickle-down" for so long. Ronald Reagan taught us this. It has validity to a point. We are seeing extreme conservatives win so triumphantly now, we might wonder if that can continue indefinitely. 

 

Firm stance

There are so many committed Republicans out there who would be so incredulous, rude to your face, if you hinted that maybe economic class divisions need to be lessened some, sandpapered down as it were. These people continue to win. I have seen the zeitgeist in America change over time. We have gone from patriotic Americans supporting our war efforts, to where war is absolutely shunned. And I find that amazing. We spent years trying to replicate what we accomplished in WWII. The troops we saw in the news reports always reminded us of our heroic "grunts" in WWII. 

We got deluded by that and decided that "patriotic" Americans had to support our wartime adventures around the globe. Everything since WWII has seemed like a failure. And maybe we misunderstood our own success in WWII. Oliver Stone the moviemaker has been a leader in trying to get us to re-think WWII. Essentially he says the Russians coming from the east were instrumental in crushing the Nazis. D-Day was a vehicle for opening a western front that would wear the Germans out. 

It all worked in the end. Success? Who really wants to think about success when you consider the sheer tragedy of WWII worldwide? Those who were killed were not around to tell us their story. We had "veterans" who survived and could talk a good game at Memorial Day programs. We should really leave the past in the past. 

 

Toe in the water 

And now, what about the possible revival of real "class warfare" or just "class envy?" I put my toe in the water a few days ago. I suggested in a comment to Yahoo! News that maybe some of the billionaires who got the tax cut could chip in for funeral expenses for the many victims of the Texas flooding. 

The "trickle down" Republicans would lose their temper and call you an idiot if you suggested that the DOGE cuts hurt readiness for natural disasters. But when you look at the sheer size of the cuts, how could you argue there could be no bad consequences? But Republicans get all up in arms. 

They'd say "don't point fingers," as if Republicans themselves don't point fingers at various people all the time. 

So, what about the idea of those billionaires just helping out a little: all those families that will have sudden funeral bills staring at them, like for around $10,000? 

Does anyone really need to be a billionaire? Hey, do you really know how much a "billion" is? 

I got someone's dander up by the comment I shared on Yahoo! News. This individual responded: "So billionaires caused the floods?" This attitude has seemed most common. Forget the old wisdom of "I am my brother's keeper." It's gone. 

Has Christianity itself been bastardized? Bastardized by the Trump movement? You can't talk simple logic or compassion with these people. Wouldn't some of the billionaires have their souls warmed if they helped out families of the flooding victims some? So many young people lost. Now we'll probably see a boom in the funeral home industry. 

I looked up a church service from an LCMC church in Kerrville, Texas. LCMC is the same denomination as for our Good Shepherd in Morris. Of course they express grief. Then again, you can be sure that all LCMC people voted for Trump and the Republicans. 

Maybe people need reminding that a guiding principle of the Republican Party is that it "does not want people to like government." Well, we reap what we sow. 

Many people have asked "why did so many poor white people fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War?" Well today, I must ask "why do so many disadvantaged and struggling people fight to support Trump and the Republicans?" 

"Aspirational?" In the abstract maybe.

 

It continues

Here's a headline as of 10 a.m. Tuesday: "Trump administration to incinerate USAID emergency food instead of sending it to people abroad." 

Christianity is behind the power of Trump and MAGA. Is it time to resolutely reject the Christian faith? 

Give credit to the Catholics, I think they are trying to hold firm. Firm for what's good for humanity.

  

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com