I assume you got the school calendar yesterday. Did you notice that there are no athletic events listed? What's up with that?
Ah, "what's up?" A question we might ask regularly because of the adjustments we're always having to make. The digital age forces many of these. Others spring from enlightenment on various topics, and this too is connected to our digital universe which spreads info so incredibly fast.
The digital world is in fact a "meritocracy" where the best info rises to the top. This counters a lot of the old fear-mongering about how "you can't trust the Internet." Sounds rather dated now, although you must always be careful about what you choose to trust.
Change? How about the fact that our local newspaper isn't even really a shadow of its old self - frequent 14-page issues of late and that's for the whole week. Heck, I plied my journalism with the Morris paper when it was in its total salad days. I covered more ground with my work, traveling to more things and personally witnessing more important things, than anyone else who has ever worked in the Morris commercial media.
You'll see "journalist" under my name on our family monument at Summit Cemetery. But that's under "caregiver" which was a more important role. It's a bench monument and please be my guest for sitting there if you'd like. You may revive memories of my parents.
No athletic events listed on school calendar? I hadn't bothered to examine my calendar yet so I hadn't noticed, unlike my thoughtful emailing acquaintance. Well, this change in the calendar is pretty noteworthy. We must put on our thinking caps to wonder why.
Are there online resources where sports parents can consult to learn of schedule information for the (so very many) sports and levels of competition? It gets complicated. Maybe the school got weary of the complexity of it all, and why should sports/extracurricular get so much attention after all? Especially football.
I find it unconscionable that the school even continues to offer football. Is this an issue that was starting to bother them? I mean, so what if a certain school has a group of male athletes who are bigger, stronger and faster than the boys of another school? What does this prove if you "win" the game, especially if you've had to physically punish your opponent? All that physical punishment leads to health issues that we are learning more and more about.
No athletic events listed! It's still sinking in with me. Of course, the spring sports schedule can get ridiculous with all the postponements required by the weather. The weather is hardly ever ready to deal with spring sports. A couple weeks into the season, you really can't rely on the on-paper spring sports schedule.
Why should the non-spectator sports get so much attention by being on the school calendar? Why are these activities presented as being so important compared to other aspects of school life? I'm offering a philosophical interpretation and maybe that's not where the school district is coming from.
I suspect the school leaders would defend football as still being practicable because of the public wanting it. Problem is, people can be ignorant, as we are learning with these Nuremberg-style Trump "rallies."
Kids get hurt in football in ways that may not show up right away, and can have disturbing effects later in life. If a school district stands for anything, it should stand for promoting the best health and safety of the students, wouldn't you say?
The school calendar almost looks empty without the sports events! It's an incredible transition when you get right down to it.
It's not uncommon for yours truly to have misgivings or even nightmares about aspects of my newspaper background. Very often I regret that I got pulled into the whole world of emotional sports devotion. I feel guilty about it. I feel guilty about elevating the sport of wrestling, a sport I really only found interesting because of certain personalities. It's a terrible sport for having the "loser" of bouts end up so humiliated, on their back and looking up at the lights. In fact, "show him the lights" was a chant I'd sometimes hear.
So, I was an onlooker and not a true participant, thank the Lord. And same with football. My body never went through the ravages of weight loss which many wrestlers undergo, with no rational basis for self-improvement. It's Neanderthal. Wrestling got developed as the "second" sport for winter because it was cheaper than alternatives, IMHO.
I remember going to the Concordia-Moorhead fieldhouse in the Kevin Loge days of Morris basketball - it was packed and with an atmosphere of pandemonium. And for what end? To see a group of boys representing our high school, as few as seven or eight getting appreciable playing time, play a game against another school? Why all the fuss?
I certainly never played football. Therefore I can sit here and trust that my cognitive skills are intact for a 64-year-old, knock on wood. Why should I feel "lucky" just because I never got drawn into such pointless and even dangerous activities? When the school backs off from having sports info on the school calendar, is it a value judgment? I really think it could be. And congratulations if that's the case, even though as with all constructive change, it's too late in coming.
The best way to expedite the demise of football is to please stay away from the games and don't spend any money to support it.
I find it's refreshing now to consult with the school calendar and not be absolutely bombarded with sports info, nearly all of which is of no interest to me. But hey, I see where a choir concert is on the calendar for October 14. Hey, congratulations!
My friend who submitted the tip for this post followed up later in the day Saturday:
Regarding the school calendar, right inside the cover there are 2 links to websites where a person can go on-line to find sports schedules. But that seems inconvenient, doesn’t it? Yes, I (and most hip individuals) can access the interwebs on phones, but it’s much quicker to glance at the “hard copy” calendar, of which we have 2 (1 each at home and the store). Why print the calendar at all then? Just send out an email telling everyone that the full school calendar is accessible on-line.
I believe I presented the suggestion of the online-only school calendar several years ago, maybe ten years ago. And in theory it should have been totally practicable. (General Robert E. Lee liked the word "practicable.") I also thought prep sports news sites could be developed online, by the programs themselves, in lieu of the poor over-stressed newspaper and radio people trying to keep up with it all.
I suggested that students with an interest in writing, the Internet and sports could fill that role, to complement the team managers. My early suggestions did not seem to find a receptive ear. I meant well. I also think that everyone involved in sports would be better served. As for the school calendar, taxpayers would save money if the whole thing was just online.
How far could this go? To where kids can just study at home and bypass bricks and mortar school? I think that would be great. We can have community "club" sports teams. It will be interesting to see the situation ten years from now. You cannot resist the changes pushed along by tech.
"Adapt or die," as Brad Pitt as "Billy Beane" said in "Moneyball."
Addendum, Sunday a.m.
I have had a chance to look at the new Morris paper at the public library. Once again it is just 14 pages, minimal. That's 14 pages for the whole week, whereas in the days when I worked there, it was twice weekly and good-sized. I don't take notes but it seems something like eight of the last nine Morris papers have been 14 pages. There was a time when I only expected to see this size right after Christmas, when everything got slow.
Maybe the people who insisted on cancelling the summer Prairie Pioneer Days (PPD) were right: there's little hope for vitality in Morris in summer. The summer "lake crowd" has won out: people who need to get away to "the lake" in summer and don't want to bother with Prairie Pioneer Days. I personally think it's sad. Cyrus has Cyrus Days.
I keep thinking this problem is going to be remedied. When I first heard of the PPD decision, I was surprised and assumed there would be a quick reversal. But no. I'm told there is "a group" in town that is steadfast in its resolve to not have the summer-based festival anymore. Is this something we should be proud of? Very strange.
Regarding the Morris paper at the mere size of 14 pages, we must wonder: does it really need a full-time general manager (which they call publisher)? Does it need this individual who appears not to do any writing or ad sales except maybe on a spot basis? The cost of her salary must be passed on to customers.
We don't need a publisher only for the purpose of showing up at school board meetings and urging that the high school kids be allowed to wear hats in the classroom. The principal had a contrary view to that, but then the principal got in a spot of trouble. When the paper reported on its own publisher speaking at the school board meeting, she was identified with her newspaper role, and why was that relevant? It's an example, I would argue, of the chutzpah that continues to be shown by people in the legacy media. We'll get over it.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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