We accept summer starting to wind down

We're not yet to the halfway point of August. The county fair gets started tonight (Tuesday) with the public supper. I guess tomorrow is the day to stay away from the fairgrounds because of the privileged status of certain people in Stevens County who have association with the 800-pound gorilla of a business. By extension we might think of a certain church too. Not my church. 

My church of First Lutheran continues to show signs of decay. The decay reflects the national decay of our synod, the ELCA. It's no secret that the ELCA has alienated droves of people because of its "liberal" stance. I know "liberal" is defined subjectively. We can agree on a basic understanding of the term - it does in fact apply to the ELCA. 

Is it possible that First Lutheran Church of Morris could literally go under? Maybe one's fears of this are enhanced this time of year. Yes it's mid-August and if it weren't for the fair, tumbleweeds would be blowing across these parts. 

My church retreats for the various reasons that Morris as a whole gets quiet in summer. People who work for education institutions are not required to stick around. And hell, people with "lake places" go there as if there's a mysterious magnet of some sort. This has been cited for the death of Prairie Pioneer Days. 

Some of my friends might say "why do you keep bringing that up?" Well why not? I think it's a barometer for assessing this community. You think otherwise? 

The thought always floats around that we have to be "positive." I reject this as a guiding "mantra." 

So it's August

The fair will probably go just fine. After the fair I expect the fair officials to be quoted in the media using superlatives. We might look for "the best fair ever." Really. I'm tempted to then ask "what was wrong with last year's?" I like to imagine a fair board member quoted in the paper saying "you know, this year's fair wasn't up to snuff," or "it was disappointing" or "it was a flop." How can the fair just get better year after year? Oh, we're transfixed by the mantra of how everything must be viewed as positive. 

I simply must go against the grain on that because I cut my teeth as a writer during Watergate. I was actually in college at the time studying "mass communications." We are instinctively suspicious people. In evaluating the fair, let's be clear on one thing: the fair these days is vastly superior to the late 1970s. I hate to remind you, because I seem "negative," but it's true: the Stevens County Fair of the late '70s seemed like a downer. 

Remember that the late '70s was the time of Jimmy Carter's "malaise" America. I guess Carter didn't actually use the word "malaise," so someone did a celebrated paraphrase. Such is how legends are born. And Captain Kirk never actually said "Beam me up Scotty." The malaise word stuck because America really was in a funk in the late 1970s. Well, maybe the early 1970s too. 

I feel nothing but affection for Jimmy Carter. Maybe he was just along for the ride - forces bigger than him at work. We really needed Reagan to come along. Reagan faced headwinds from a still powerful "liberal crowd." But we felt slowly enlightened by the values and policies he promoted. 

Any good thing can be taken to extreme. Yes we are flawed human beings - as a Christian we believe as much. So "lower taxes" and the whole panoply of right wing stuff got pushed and pushed 'til our state of affairs now, where conservatism has grown grotesque and ugly. Reagan would not get to first base now. We have the yapping Jim Jordan behaving like a wind-up toy. And others. 

But back to the fair: I remember the very popular Morris barber Bob Reese saying during the "down" years: "If it wasn't for the 4-H kids, there wouldn't be much there." From the perspective of 2023 the comment seems unfeeling and unfair. But I assure you, in the context of those times, such an attitude toward any established American institution was typical, didn't raise eyebrows. 

"America's Bicentennial" happened at a very cynical time in America. Were the milestone to happen again, oh my goodness everyone would be bursting buttons with pride and happiness, not a discouraging word anywhere! I was in St. Cloud at the time but still came home for my haircuts and dental appointments. Years later my family would have to change dentists because of small town politics. So painful to raise that here. 

School district politics were troublesome in the 1980s. I wrote for the Morris paper and could not escape this. My parents were clean of any political reputation. Me? Because a union was involved in all the trouble - the public school teachers union - it really was no-win. 

I read a brilliant piece by a journalist once who said there is one subject where it is impossible to be perceived as totally objective, even if you are totally well-schooled on what objective journalism is. This writer said the one big problem area is trying to write about a labor vs. management conflict. You cannot craft your writing to satisfy both sides. 

Remember the Hormel labor action of the mid-1980s? A nightmare on Earth. Some people harbor hatred toward "the other side" to this very day. I think as time went on, society started having trouble with this. We don't hear much if anything anymore of teacher discontent through their unions. So sad we had to be dragged through the unpleasant period. 

My family did find a second dentist, the Hauger office. This reminds me, I haven't been to the dentist in about three years! Get your checkbook ready. 

A Stevens County Fair button costs $8 now. I told the clerk at Willie's that I thought I remembered a time when it was $5. She smiled and cited some other low prices that were once in effect. 

A snile that cheered us

We look back on the Jimmy Carter "malaise" period with some pretty fixed memories. We can remember some big movies that really called for cynicism. "Smoky and the Bandit." Make the sheriff the bad guy. I remember a whole op-ed that took Jackie Gleason to task for accepting the role. 

We cannot know what the future holds. How will a future America reflect on our current state of affairs with Donald Trump at the top of the news cycle every day? He has commanded our almost nonstop attention for 7-8 years now. Why do we all acquiesce to this? 

If we'd throw our weight behind Democratic politicians a little now, the Democratic Party would take care of things. We can always reverse course in the future, maybe elect Republicans who are non-cult members. I remember when Republicans promoted certain values and ideals, and were not merely a cult on behalf of one person. So mysterious. 

I invite you to read the comment below that I posted to a Yahoo News article this morning.

 

Am I going to spend the rest of my life looking at a photo of Trump at the top of Yahoo News every (expletive) day? Can't enough of us wake up to the fact that this whole cavalcade of "legal" news surrounding Trump day in and day out is causing us to feel rather intoxicated? And it's so depressing. Do I have to point this out? What would it take to instill a little happiness among American citizens? And if I even suggest that Kamala Harris would make a nice upbeat president, I'd get shouted down in a thousand ways. I loved Ronald Reagan. Those days are gone.

"Kevin" shared this response to my comment. Thanks Kevin.

 

A little happiness for the day would be to throw Trump in jail now for his many broken laws, corruption, his deviancies toward women, his hatred that he breeds within so many Americans that certainly has divided our country, his sick narcissistic nasty behavior that hurt many people, other companies and most every American person in this country by putting this country in danger for stealing documents and throwing them around for uncleared eyes to see them, lying about it all and not cooperating with the authorities. He's a sick man-child who shouldn't be free at this time because he's also putting bullseyes on many people's back by bad mouthing them, lying and whining about anyone who upsets him to the MAGA cultists who are stupid and crazy enough to shoot people in the back who upset their messiah.

 

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