Don't you agree? Don't you think that a temperature around freezing in late March feels just as miserable as ten-below in mid-winter? And the cotton pickin' wind!
Truly, this is the time of year when weather "teases" us. We'll get a hint of the pleasant stuff (though not much yet, in 2022), then get walloped for a period where we won't even consider taking a walk outside. The latter description applies to the stretch we're in now. I woke up this morning and could hear the intense wind, did not have to step outside. These days just blur together, we have to endure them.
We only pretend not to be fazed by a period like this - we are Minnesotans. Howard Mohr's book revealed so much about us. It's a far better reference than the movie "Fargo" or the subsequent movie "North Country." Those two movies gave us exaggerated stereotypes. I still wish we'd seen a character in those flicks kick "car clumps" off the side of their cars. You approach one of these in a parking lot and have no idea if it's soft or hard, so you have to avoid them.
Potholes get bad this time of year. We need work on Iowa Avenue where it goes past the old Heartland. Patching with gravel doesn't cut it. The City of Morris could spend its money more wisely. The city got sucked into the "softball complex" and then had to announce it would not make a second $ contribution. Perhaps the city was of the understanding that the first contribution was all that was expected. Wrong-O.
The sports-driven crowd is so insistent, so assertive. Maybe we can understand this by looking at the local media. I just got home from downtown on this Tuesday morning, having purchased another chocolate bunny at Willie's. At Willie's I saw a stack of the new Morris newspapers. Oh my, the top headline tells us "Tigers are fourth in state." Really? I had no idea. Of course this isn't "news" reporting. It's puffery. Lay it on thick for another group of athletes - shall we reverentially call them "student athletes" - who were able to win some games.
I'm not sure I'll even offer the token congratulations. We get so carried away with this sports gravy train all the time. Very soon it'll be "softball" as we wonder how the hell this new "complex" on east edge of town is going to pan out. "It's not done yet." Well certainly it isn't. What's the timeline? Will parking ever be ironed out?
Our school activities director has warned us in a stark manner about the safety issues posed by parking. Mr. Ekren said "someone's gonna get run over." With that as background, let us hope truly that some kid doesn't get hit and hurt by a car.
Sports, sports, sports. I assure you that many people would agree with me on how I assess its out-sized importance. Very few would come forward and say it. So now we get the new Morris paper which is going to do absolute cartwheels telling us the obvious: the Tigers took fourth in state. Taking fourth means you lost your last two games.
I think it would have been a blessing for MACA to lose to Minnehaha Academy. The school's music crowd could have prepared for the spring Texas trip unencumbered by any obligations related to sports. Those obligations included pep band, which CW asserts is not the favorite obligation of your average high school band director.
The kids made it to go south, but only after fulfilling their obligations for the third place game. That game had to be a total downer from the get-go. We had lost the night before. Then we had a noon game the next day away from the prestigious basketball venues. Don't tell me it wasn't downbeat. And we lost too.
And on the same day, we learned of the offensive message from the C-A kid. I was at church coffee Sunday morning trying to argue that "we all know kids do stupid things." I was trying to cut some slack for the kid. I remember how foolish I could be once. Our U.S. criminal justice system is set up to emphasize "rehabilitation" for underage kids.
Two friends have pushed back at me and my attitude on this - they say "we're in different times now," and they think the kid's message crossed all lines. I'm sure it crossed lines but I'll still suggest it was just a kid, and he did not physically harm anyone. We can all overcome words, can't we? The kid can be made to think and reflect on what he did, to learn and to grow.
Am I wrong with that argument too? Just so we all know what I'm talking about, below is the screen shot of the offensive message.
So, why are there no organized music activities for high school-age kids in the summer? Why do we in Morris not even have a summer outdoor music series of some sort? I attended a concert at the Appleton park last summer. To boot, take a look below at what is planned for Alexandria this summer. And to think we have the big, hulking, worthless presence of the Killoran stage at East Side Park. I'm sure the city has to pay for upkeep, just like I'm sure the softball complex will require ongoing maintenance and management.
Shall we always get out of the way for Alexandria? Is Alex like "Mount Pilot" in the old "Mayberry" TV series, from our angle here in Motown? Does it have to be like this?
When I was in the eighth grade, I spoke on behalf of George Wallace in a classroom debate. I bought Wallace's lines about how the racial issues were just about "states' rights." Hey, I was just an eighth grader and I was impressed by Wallace's ability to make politics a "performance art." His ex-wife would later say "he didn't want a marriage, he wanted an audience." My behavior in no way reflected my family. My family has always tended toward Democratic Party leanings, which I say unapologetically in this "red state" time for West Central Minnesota.
Addendum #2: Remember the big basketball fight started by Corky Taylor of the Gophers vs. Luke Witte of Ohio State, back in early '70s? Second chances? Atonement? A few years ago there was an article in the Strib about how the two later formed a friendship and continue to visit each other today. Did our society's "sports monster" create a system where the two entered into conflict because of an unreasonable sense of competition and rivalry? Should we all have hung our heads? Should we continue to do so today?
Addendum #3: Breaking news out of South Dakota is that Jason Ravnsborg will not be impeached. Extreme Republicans were the winner while Gov. Kristi Noem is the forlorn-looking loser. What a cesspool of politics in our neighbor to the west. And I think most Republicans there are primarily happy that the victim in the Ravnsborg car accident, Joe Boever, was a Democrat. Our Lord will pass judgment on all of us for this.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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