It is the first morning of 2025. Maybe if lucky I can find something to eat downtown. I can always fall back on drinking a couple bottles of "Glucerna" to get through. Obviously some good ol' coffee too. Then anticipate "normal life" tomorrow, Thursday.
Ended up with an unusual holiday season in our Morris. Usually we are in suspended animation here in coyote country. People leave town to visit others. The inverse happens almost not at all. Poor turnout in church? It's because people are "gone."
"We're going to be gone."
We love Morris in spite of its well-known traits. Nothing grandiose, right? Wait a minute, something of a grandiose nature did come forth, n'est-ce pas? A friend shot me an email about a week ago. He referred me to the Morris fishwrap (newspaper) for elucidation. There was so much elucidation there, I had a hard time handling it in one sitting. This I did at the Morris library.
And why is the library hiring kids? That's a joke! It's a takeoff on the old line "when did they start hiring kids to be policemen?" The joke as you might surmise is that the person saying that is just getting older. Having a hard time handling it. Is that me? I'll be 70 at the end of January. Boomers are noted for not acknowledging effects (ravages) of age.
So my, what is this hot local topic that has suddenly flown in our faces right at the somnambulant holiday season of 2024? It seems rather smacking of controversy.
Remember the controversy over the proposed county jail? Whoa Nellie. The armory got packed with the festering sentiment over that. County commissioners wanted to speak there, I was told. They were not allowed. "You're here to listen to us," the insurgents said.
Important note: I was not blogging then. It was after my departure from the paper but before my foray into online writing. I left a voicemail message for Jerry Lesmeister who sadly has left this life. He called back and said "you're still a member, Brian" (still someone with a viable presence post-newspaper).
Well, I appreciated that much, Jerry. RIP.
It was easy to get the impression there was overwhelming opposition to the jail. I was enlightened later by an upstanding community leader from my church - well, why not identify him as Doug Ehlers - that I was underestimating support for the jail. And the argument for support, according to Mr. Ehlers, was "we need to keep building Morris."
It is a laudable aim, I suppose. Of course we're depending on government dollars. From property taxes? I may not know all the bells and whistles about this.
How did the prison in Appleton turn out? What the heck is its status now? I have been amused by the sign on the outskirts of Appleton: "Do not pick up hitchhikers." Do young people today even learn what "hitchhikers" are? It was a common thing when my father was young and growing up in the Depression. John Dillinger was shot and killed in the summer after Dad graduated from Glenwood High School.
We might remember one or two other past "controversies" in Morris. The most ridiculous one, through my experience, was in our school district toward the end of the 1980s. And I say ridiculous because the problem or issues that surfaced were so obvious, so irrefutable. Yet our community got absolutely dragged through a divisive process that scarred us. No one was better positioned to see this than yours truly at the newspaper.
The stench of "small town politics" with its corrosive, narrow and self-serving personalities was so in evidence.
Do you remember the "cemetery chimes" controversy? That was more recent. Essence of the debate pointed in one clear direction. Whatever you think of "hymns" and their merit, that wasn't the issue, y'all. People wrote letters to the editor suggesting it was. Man, when religion comes into play. . . And now we have an incoming U.S. president who gets his power from the "conservative Christians." Hold on to your hats.
Re. the chimes, well a man's home is his castle. Everyone is entitled to basic peace and quiet where you live. Maybe we put up with some industrial sounds like what happens in west Morris over by Wells Park. But we recognize the need for a strong local economy, are willing to live with some of this. But, carillon bells rendering "hymns?" In our faces?
Let's just listen to the hymns in church on Sunday, if that is your thing. It isn't mine. But I do go to church on Sunday because it's something to do and I like representing the Lutheran ELCA because it's a safe haven from all the Trump-oriented Christians.
Fast-forward to the present: We now have this big to-do about East Side Park! Wow, I have barely been able to wrap my arms around this matter. Thanks to the library for having the local fishwrap available. I'd show the paper more respect if it utilized its website in a manner that wasn't token (if it's even that). Good grief and for crying out loud, can't the paper's website be of service with some (reasonably) timely coverage and attention for our MACA sports teams? I wouldn't want to be unreasonable.
I will try to be reasonable as I take a look at East Side Park. It's a place where this community has allowed the performance stage to sit there years and years with a level of use that can hardly be described as "negligible."
So what's up with Morris?
Now I'll have to try to go out this morning and find some food on this holiday. Another issue for this town, in case you care: there is only one bona fide grocery store for all of Stevens County. Monopolies are not a good deal, they never are. And according to Morris legend, Coborn's just wanted a liquor license. Mercy.
Update: I was delighted to find Casey's open this morning! Got a breakfast burrito and some additional coffee to what I'd had at home. I'm not the kind of person who has to pop Alka-Seltzer or some such thing on the morning after New Year's Eve! I slept like a hibernating bear.
Addendum: A comment that I posted with a Yahoo! News article this morning:
So the U.S. wants to take over other countries, I assume using force if necessary, at the same time we're going to push out the undocumenteds (brown-skinned) through detainment camps? Our world will never allow pure evil to take over as the norm. If force was not a threat, why is Denmark beefing up its defense of Greenland?
"Leonard" responded:
The nations of the world have a duty to humanity to invade the US and dismantle the Trump administration.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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