Someday we'll recall the days when we saw newspaper vending machines out and around. The decline of the print media began to reduce the number of these. You would think that the decline would make it harder for newspapers to raise prices. But raise prices they have. They are "following the crowd" as it were.
If enough people are willing to pay an inflated price for the product, the product can stay in existence. At least for the short term. We have the news flying in our face about inflation now. How precise are these reports actually? The inflation menace that we read about, hasn't seemed anything like the inflation I remember from the 1970s. We have to wonder: Will we see a real onslaught soon?
In the '70s you could at least put money in the bank and get decent interest. Make that quite generous interest. How could banks be so generous then? Today they are absolutely skinflints. You could say it's basically zero percent and not be refuted much. I mean, .6 percent on a long-term CD? Shouldn't these vehicles be set up to help the common people pay some expenses?
So you "give" your money to the bank, really. They make money by loaning it out and they'll sock you for overdrafts.
Our newspaper in Morris is giving us a heads-up with inflation. This is by its recent announcement that the single copy price for the SCT is going up. "Going up" - isn't that the only way it goes?
I receive Social Security and that does get adjusted for cost of living. Might the Republican Party be considering "sun-setting" Social Security? Leading Republican Rick Scott of Florida recently seemed to push the idea, so much so that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell had to try to quash this.
Why do so many of the conservative troublemakers come from states of the old Confederacy? Lindsay Gramm? Is it time we all started thinking about this more? Then again, look at the Dakotas up here in the Midwest: so Republican, it seems like game-set-match for that party. It is dangerous. We need checks and balances for accountability.
A friend forwarded to me a page from the Stevens County Times E-newsletter. There I saw the announcement about how the single copy price for the paper, like you buy it at Willie's, is going up to $2. This will be effective on May 1.
Obviously we can absorb a few price hikes like this here and there, before we feel a need to make a fuss. At what point could inflation start taking front and center for us? Might that time be coming soon? So, two bucks for the paper. So you'd have to ask yourself how much you really need or want it. Online-based information is ubiquitous.
And despite the protestations of Reed Anfinson - he pleads over and over about how we need the paper to keep an eye on government - I wonder how much of this is just hot air. The SCT is so typical of such papers, in how it seems to want to avoid conflict. Pages 1-3 are full of stuff about people and kids accomplishing things, getting awards, issuing superlatives about the town's future. Just keep voting for the incumbents, eh? If there's a new proposal for community betterment, puff the heck out of it.
But the paper is a private business that can simply do as it wishes. The people there have biases like everyone else.
The matter at hand
At present the paper is not avoiding the unpleasant subject of the offensive message from the C-A kid. I figure the paper is doing this because it has to. So, this week is "anti-racism week" as proclaimed by the press: a front page article with banner headline. We learn that racism is bad. The Pope must be Catholic too.
Hitting this nail on the head with such ferocity accomplishes what, exactly? Is it possible that just a small part of you all, at least, is starting to feel a little sorry for the C-A kid? This is a case where a person could benefit from a good defense attorney, I feel. This is what defense lawyers are for: for protecting someone, in this case a kid, from the "piling on" effect.
What defense could the kid possibly have, as things stand now? Here's a front page article, does not supply the kid's name or even share the content of this presumably outrageous message. The paper tells us that "word came back to Stevens County" about the offensive language. The "word" sure bounces around, doesn't it? I'd laugh with Jim Morrison about this kind of attribution. Passive voice too.
The paper was then measured in how it assessed the damage done: the MACA trip to state was "dulled slightly."
It's not debatable the kid's message was racial. It's not news. The content of the message was abrasive, so obviously so, it needn't be reported as if "news" was being unearthed.
Was there an actual threat in the message? Most people can't judge because they haven't even seen it, as the press would consider it a violation of decorum. Nevertheless the paper splashed this story on the front page. So we're supposed to know all about it.
I have seen the message and do not sense a threat there. Obviously there was no physical harm done, or physical contact at all. So we're left with what? It's a matter of "speech," and simple speech has a lot of protections in this country. So again, a good defense lawyer is probably in order.
The veil grows: the school administration pledges discipline will be forthcoming - "consequences" - but also tells us the disciplinary action cannot be disclosed. You're sort of disclosing something just by making the statement. Here's where maybe a good lawyer could get the kid a break? "Defense lawyers work for all of us." It's true.
The front page article talks of a "racist social media post" but won't elaborate. The article leaves it to us to judge the severity. You can say the language was severe, fine. It was, but I am someone who came of age with the movie "Blazing Saddles." My generation came to be amused by a lot of the language around stereotyping and bigotry, and in our own hearts we were the antithesis of racism. We were hugely irreverent. What? The boomers?
"Blazing Saddles" and other such entertainment was in fact trying to cheapen real racism by parodying it. I could cite other specific examples beyond "Blazing Saddles." The great P.J. O'Rourke in his newspaper satire called "Dacron Republican-Democrat" had perfect examples of what I wish to cite here. So did a "Mad" magazine satire on college course offering bulletins. I have to smile as I reflect on this, because it was truly funny in the cultural template of the times.
Oh, and remember "Blaxploitation" entertainment? The people who took in this stuff were not racists. Remember "Undercover Brother?"
I have been lectured over the past week about how "times have changed." I am receptive to such counsel. Nevertheless, I might choose to be a little retro and to insist that, minus any actual discrimination or physical threats, we can laugh at a lot of the purportedly outrageous stuff.
Maybe it seems small potatoes to me, as someone who was seriously bullied when young.
For sure, I do not know what was in the heart of the C-A kid. If he apologizes, it should come from the heart. He has the right to stick to his opinions if that's all they are: opinions. I wish he would not stick to them, of course.
All kinds of suits have been abuzz consulting with each other on the conduct of the kid who pressed "send" in an impulsive moment. My first response to the incident was "kids do stupid things." I was advised by more than one friend that "no, we're in different times now." Maybe I'll stick to my guns on this, and insist on feeling nostalgia about "Blazing Saddles."
"The sheriff is near!" Remember that?
A final thought on the Morris newspaper price increasing to $2. I have to emphasize: they "blame" this on expenses. Of course they have to blame something. Does a business ever say "we're raising prices because we want more profit?"
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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