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Such an innocent quote, no risk attached. Doesn't involve any expression of feelings. Scandinavians can be averse to that.
So a Scandinavian might say, regarding the current big deal about the Morris police, "That's a heckuva deal, isn't it?" I know Mohr wrote about that. It's a safe statement because you are expressing no opinion. You are just showing that you know what's going on.
The January 6 hearings? Not sure if "heckuva deal" is so practical for that. That topic gets so infused with political bias. Saying it's "a heckuva deal" would presume we should be concerned with the behavior of Trump supporters on January 6. So, Pence's security people were actually calling home to say their "goodbyes" to family, as the mob closed in? Really?
And yet the Trump crowd still cries about how the Jan. 6 committee is "illegitimate." That it's "politically motivated." Politicians tend to do things that are politically motivated.
My feeling now is that the Justice Department is going to charge Hunter Biden, as a way of disarming people like Jim Jordan who would otherwise scream and pound the table endlessly if Trump's people get their tit in a wringer first. Just wait, the Jim Jordans will cry out fanatically anyway.
And here in Morris, there remains a large percentage of the folks who go along with the Jim Jordans. The "evangelicals" aren't backing off from Trump support or Trump worship yet, are they? You would want to enter one of our "conservative" churches this Sunday and say to someone at coffee: "Those Jan. 6 hearings, that's a heckuva deal, isn't it?"
Better off to say "did you hear how much rain we got?" Maybe some of the old rain fixation has faded away - that would be because farmers don't deal in much risk any more. Frankly, things are set up for them so that there is no risk. There is no risk in farming? An offensive statement? Not meant as such, as I congratulate any and all people who have a lifestyle minus substantial risk.
In one's personal life, well that's another matter entirely. Risk is with us.
The police matter
The "heckuva deal" with local law enforcement deserves some attention, n'est-ce pas? My sources tell me the problem was this: the city manager kept the consolidation talks under wraps for so long. Then there was shock value when the whole thing was unveiled. We didn't have enough time to pack it all up, I infer.
You see, the whole headline regarding "cutting the police" has a bad smell to it. You add kerosene to that when you consider the whole flap about "defunding the police." Oh my. People had their pants in a bundle over PR concerns.
Maybe too, here in Morris we are susceptible to buying into allegedly "liberal causes" because of having UMM. The suspicion is that we have a disproportionate number of liberals because of the UMM element. The notion appeared to bear truth at one time, but now it's probably just a lingering stereotype.
College people everywhere have been getting humbled. They have been drawn into the same world of insecurities and humility as the rest of us, all of us who live lives of "quiet desperation." That's from the Henry David Thoreau quote, you might be aware.
I sit at the cafe area at Willie's sometimes, facing the parking lot, watching people come and go, and I think "the majority of people lead lives of quiet desperation." And while I'm free of the stress of having a marital partner, I get my share of concerns too. The recent "derecho" put me in a funk, which I have not totally escaped.
I hear this morning we've had large hail in the area again. The waitress at Don's showed me a picture on her phone. All this "extreme weather" due to climate change, which our president from 2016 to 2020 described as a "hoax." You are such lemmings, all you Trump fanatics. You just won't tone down.
We might conclude that the law enforcement thing just was not rolled out very well. The Star Tribune seized on the matter and got us on page 1. Amazing accomplishment for the denizens of the Morris area, to make the "front page" in late July of all times. We're in the time of year when the denizens seek to get to the lake as much as possible. It's slow time.
We lost the old Prairie Pioneer Days as a way of telling the world we try to be vigorous. So, we just aren't vigorous, I guess. But we made the front page of the Strib. Let's "defund the police."
Well, those aren't the facts really. We're just letting the sheriff's department take over.
What does the sheriff's dept. know about law enforcement in the city of Morris, that our former Morris Police did not? There has simply got to be a story between the lines here. And naturally, we cannot depend on our Morris newspaper to go out and get that story. Anything but. This while the paper harangues us constantly about how we need the local press to keep an eye on government.
In reality the paper just strives to avoid an uncomfortable topic or question. Too risky for them.
I was at the library yesterday and looked at the Morris paper's front page. The headline about law enforcement only said "a decision had been made" (to paraphrase). So that was the story? A decision has been made? Of course the story was the decision itself.
The headline might have taken the course of stating that a consolidation move was afoot. Doesn't sound real negative, does it? But the paper apparently felt uncomfortable even trumpeting that. "Consolidation" might be interpreted as downsizing.
The paper isn't supposed to care how it's "interpreted." Give us the news: the Morris police department will be no more. The headline should have been direct, cogent
A new tack?
What will the sheriff's department do differently? Well, I fervently hope the sheriff will exercise his gray matter and decide we don't need cops positioned in various places to catch people with no seat belt. Truth be told, I don't think the Morris Police themselves were ever comfortable with that. They would nail anyone, anywhere, like an elderly couple on their way to church Sunday morning.
The seat belt law started out as a secondary offense. Surveys showed that's the way people wanted it. But the public sentiment got vetoed, by the bureaucrats I guess. Maybe now there will be backtracking.
My annoyance with all the "trivial" law enforcement has left me in a mood where I don't even wish to smile or say hello to officers when I see them in places like the restaurant. And honest to God, I think that's a real shame. That's not the real me.
Some people might blare at me "well, follow the law." My retort might be to take the January 6 committee seriously and do some re-thinking about Trump and MAGA. That won't happen in our Stevens County. I guess people really did want Mike Pence "hanged." What about his wife Karen? Her too? Think about that when you go to church on Sunday, you rubes. You may be destroying Christianity. And where will that leave us?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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