The rest of the "coverage" announces Lac qui Parle's next game. No mention of when action resumes for The Tigers. I hope MACA fans do not consider "subscribing" to this "service."
It is noon Wednesday, and is there any coverage on the kmrs site? All I see there is bare bones coverage of a wrestling tournament. We all know the Stevens County Times website is worthless. Someone needs to "step it up," don't you think? Feel free to give me feedback. Knowing this town, I could get some nasty feedback. But probably not, as there's too much apathy for people to even pay any mind.
Boys basketball: EV-W 65, Tigers 62
The Eden Valley court was the site for a hard-fought hoops game Tuesday, a game unfortunately that slipped away from the Tigers. Just our eighth loss of the season. The loss by three, 65-62, left our W/L mark at 14-8.
Any other game coverage I can supply? If there is data on the West Central Tribune site, I cannot get access to it. I do not pay to "subscribe" to anything online. I believe information should be free. The newspapers might say their labor costs money. In theory yes but how much "labor" is really required in these endeavors? The people who type up sports are really just stenographers, aren't they? And in a typical small community newspaper, don't the sports coaches themselves do a lot of the writing?
So I cannot report the scoring leaders from the Eden Valley-Watkins game, sorry. I would like to.
Whither church, government?
Got an email from my church yesterday saying we're going to an 11 a.m. Sunday service. We do not have a pastor. Maybe our tribulations are due to the overall tribulations of the ELCA these days. It is a "liberal" denomination which we might surmise could be - could be - a kiss of death.
Unless. . . Unless maybe the views of Americans are beginning to moderate some. Perhaps the spell of MAGA is diminishing. I'll believe it when I see it in full. We're not there yet. But look at the Tuesday special election out in New York state.
I am prepared to respect Republicans fully when they get back to normal reasonable "conservatism." Nothing will make me vote Republican faster than if I sense the Democrats are supporting teachers unions. Believe me I can vote Republican, was a Reagan Democrat once.
But the GOP of the recent past has turned into a cult, a cult of the Orange Jesus, and now we read that Lara Trump may be in line to lead the national Republican Party. More signs that there is an attempt to establish a royal family in America. I would be dumbfounded. But it could happen.
In the meantime we hash over the daily headlines. Here's how I reacted to a Yahoo! News article the other day. I posted this comment with Yahoo! News. It got some notice.
A simple question: Why do Speaker Johnson and other GOP office holders feel they should even be communicating with, or listening to Trump a whole lot, when Trump holds no office. If he gets elected to something, then they can deal with him. Lindsey Graham would say "Trump is the leader of the party." The party is not the same as real government. Seriously, they all should ignore him for now, and part of the reasoning would be the incredible legal trouble that Trump appears to be in. Certainly the GOP office-holders must know that the prosecutors are not coming from out in left field. Do they? Deep down, do they? Or are they just vessels for the MAGA masses? For the radio talk show listeners? Does Speaker Johnson really think that MAGA reflects what God wants? He says the Bible guides him.
"It" responded:
Not my Bible.
"Pookie" responded:
Brian, do you think that Johnson might think that Trump is his God?
"Scott" responded:
The GOP are running a shadow government. The GOP are communicating with Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other dictatorships behind the back of the USA government. Tucker (Carlson) went to Russia as Trump's ambassador. GOP have become traitors. They are White Hamas.
"James Deming" responded:
Why? Because the would-be Orange God/King is their prophet, their leader, their paragon of Republicanism.
"Nichols Alton" responded:
When Trump goes down, many of those who let him dictate how they should vote are going down with him. Those who follow his destructive advice will help us separate "the wheat from the chaff."
"Punk Rock and Minerals" responded:
Because traitor Trump now owns the GOP.
"Andrew" responded:
They still believe the election was stolen and all 91 charges are fake. The only good thing is they are weak and cowardly so they won't get violent when he loses again.
"Patte" responded:
Actually the prosecutors are coming from way, way left.
On micro level here in Motown
We here in Morris might be paying attention to the U of M president search. Me? I came out of the previous experience rather jaded. We had a search process that ended up bringing someone here from South Carolina. The person was here for what amounted to "a cup of coffee," then she re-programmed herself to start singing the praises of University of Pittsburgh.
Why should I have cared about that person? What will the new U president do for our U of M-Morris? I guess that's the big question we should focus on.
I overheard a person at a restaurant recently saying "I don't see UMM students around any more - they used to be all over the place." What we might consider "anecdotal" evidence. How credible are the reports about UMM enrollment? I mean, in this age of online students and PSEO kids, the latter having departed from their high schools where they really ought to stay.
Is PSEO a means for colleges to try to stay relevant, to fill the gap caused by fewer college-age kids enrolling in the traditional way? Is the cost of college too daunting?
Let's get down to the nuts and bolts with UMM: the campus was built as I understand it for 2000 students. From an email I sent to a friend:
I
told (name withheld) at breakfast Friday that my attitude about the local campus is
this: I support the campus "but not necessarily the University of
Minnesota." I stress now that it is up to the state with its legislators
to make sure all the publicly-supported campuses are serving the
interests of the state. If the U can accomplish that here in Morris,
that is absolutely wonderful. But the U has overseen a decline in our
campus. If the current philosophy behind the campus is not working
anymore, it has to be changed. We're down to a "real" enrollment of
maybe 500 and maybe less than that. I think all the estimates are too
generous. We just don't seem to see students around town much any more.
The
bottom line for me is that we should seek a mission that could fill out
our real enrollment to about 2000. I don't care what gets offered here,
maybe a school of nursing? Try mentioning that to Jack Imholte. Holy
balls. But I don't care any more. I never really did care if liberal
arts monopolized things here. If that's good for 2000 students, fine,
but it's a losing strategy now. The legislators need to recognize this
themselves. My regard for this "board of regents" has slid steadily
down. We get these people like Wendell Anderson and Dean Johnson with
their checkered backgrounds. And I think they're interested in
glad-handing with administration more than anything, patting themselves
on the back. Was Ken Powell shown the door?
There
is no page on the world wide web where you can find a convenient
listing of upcoming UMM music events. I always thought music could
survive here because we all need music. Maybe I was wrong? What all else
is dying at UMM? The state legislature can't just sit on its hands
about this. Forget the Regents, get some legislators to work directly.
That
guy who wrote the op-ed for the Peach observed that the "coordinate
campuses" have always been considered a pain by the central
administration. So now the U president candidates have to make their
visits to the coordinate campuses, which probably infuriates some people
in the Twin Cities.
Morris?
Crookston? I'm sure the Twin Cities stuff is enough for the adm. to
handle. And Tim Pawlenty thought a "Rochester campus" was essential to
create? Could that have been politics? A sop to a region? Well,
Southwest State was a sop I guess. In Morris we needed to keep the old
ag school campus going.
I
do not believe in the continued free tuition for Native Americans,
unless maybe the percentage of required Native blood is raised, perhaps
considerably. And how can we really trust those numbers? If you're
one-quarter Native, do you really identify with that group? Should you?
And what about the Supreme Court's ruling against "affirmative action." I
will say again: unless the Morris policy is based on an actual
"treaty," I think it needs to be questioned strongly if not wiped out by
the ruling. Policy based on some "old law," maybe? Well that's the sort
of thing a Supreme Court ruling can nullify. I know there is a think
tank of lawyers going to work making sure the court's judgment is
carried out vs. all the clever-talking college administrators. I wish
all the Natives well. I think they can hold their own. Why should I
think otherwise. And secondly, college isn't for everyone.
Remember the Indians on "F Troop?" They were Jewish guys!
- Brian W.
(end of quoted email) |
| Yulene Velásquez |
My recent assessments of UMM music have not been the most optimistic. But good news: On Tuesday evening I visited campus for a music-flavored event and was cheered. It was not an actual performance, at least not formally promoted as such. I walked out to campus not expecting much really. It was a "good faith" visit. But I was pleasantly surprised by how delightful it was!
My mood is lifted, buoyed, even though I don't think we can see a return any time soon to the kind of music department we remember. Our campus was of course once blessed by much stronger numbers. Even if those days are gone, UMM music can re-shape itself into something we can feel joy about.
The Tuesday night event at TMC on campus was a "Mardi Gras" community sing-along for "Fat Tuesday." We were treated to jazz accordion! Super! I went home with a bounce in my step.
Also lifting my mood was the chance I had to meet UMM's new choral person. She exudes cheer and commitment. Her name is Yulene Velásquez. Below is a picture from the event taken by Del Sarlette. Tuba complemented the accordion. I'm the one seated alone at right. I complained to Del that his camera makes me look old!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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