When this season began, concern was heard out and around about how Riley Asmus opted not to play in his senior year. He needed to preserve his body. As for all the other MACA athletes, I guess their bodies are expendable. Mr. Asmus is ensuring that he stay in one piece, so as to play college baseball. Good luck to the young man.
Meanwhile, the other athletes whose bodies are expendable look like they are doing quite fine, flying quite high in fact. Riley who? Just kidding.
I will never criticize any young man who chooses not to play football. Preserving one's health - body and brain - is always the most laudable aim. Meanwhile we see each home football game coming off as rather a community celebration. Without a doubt an air of festivity at the local facility called Big Cat Field.
The festivity would obviously make young boys set a goal of wanting to be out there playing someday. Well, hope the Good Lord can be with these boys as they embark on that. Playing to win. Must be the American way. Mr. Asmus saw the risks and made decisions accordingly. Here's a tip of the hat to him.
The Tigers played their second straight home game on Friday. Midday it appeared the game might be no-go. There's really only one weather factor that can stand in the way of football, and that's lightning. Well we had some nasty lightning and thunder claps during the day. I place tarps around certain sides of the house as a precaution with all the rain. Truly this has been the summer of rain.
Pep band Friday for the football game was up in the air midday. By the time a decision had to be made, the wisest course was to nix the band. So that was the decision. A friend noted that by game-time, conditions had calmed more than we could have expected. Maybe the band would have been feasible after all. But we went with the recording of the National Anthem.
Come to think of it, why is the National Anthem necessary before seemingly all sports events? It's like saying the Pledge of Allegiance before a public meeting - just not necessary. It's superficial. Makes us feel good about being American, even though we allow a president to rule who tried engineering an insurrection against this very country. Even though he was found responsible in a legitimate legal proceeding for sexual assault.
We all need to look in the mirror about this. And now he acts like he wants to take over the Federal Reserve. The Supreme Court does not rein him in, it does quite the opposite. And what if all nine justices were like Clarence Thomas? Or Samuel Alito? And with all this going on we continue to rise from our seats for the National Anthem at high school sports events. What message is this sending to our children?
The Tigers have won their last two football games.
Both these wins were blow-outs, not a trace of suspense. Was this really fun for anyone? What's going on with the Montevideo and Sauk Centre programs? Have those schools decided to back off from supporting football so much? Do they see the day coming when society phases out this risky sport? Well I guess I'd applaud if the answer as "yes." Well it's just speculation.
The Tigers thumped Sauk Centre on Friday 46-7. In the previous week they trampled over Montevideo 54-0. We have a 2-1 record. How could we have lost to anyone? Well we did lose to Minnewaska Area.
Speaking of Minnewaska, their volleyball team is absolutely super so far this season. Hardly surprising when you consider their GBB team last winter took fourth in state.
Let me state for the record on this Saturday morning that my preference for writing would be to report details from the Morris Area Chokio Alberta football win. In a past time I could do this. I enjoyed it. But this morning I cannot find any details in other media. So it's not like past times.
The Stevens County Times is not fired-up enough to report on a timely basis. They make money selling their newspaper so I wish they'd be more committed. It is not cheap to buy at Willie's. It only comes out once a week. It was twice a week when I worked there. When our volleyball team does well on a Tuesday night, as has happened this season, we have to wait a full week to appreciate details in the print Morris newspaper. An abomination.
And I'm sure a certain former Morris school administrator would agree with me on that. That fellow was mighty feisty. I would suggest he had a pretty serious anger management problem, but he sure believed in timely sports reporting. If I can't do it, then I'll sit down on Saturday morning as I'm doing now and write on extraneous angles like politics. This is the best I can do.
I have not been able to write on MACA volleyball this season. Meanwhile I have opportunities to write about Minnewaska Area volleyball. So that's a pleasure. Below is the link for my current "Morris of Course" post which features the high-flying Lakers. Congrats to them. My father was a 1934 graduate of Glenwood High School.
From a Friday email to me:
I heard that there were some folks (just a few) with picket signs out there, and many people crossed the picket line to work, so no sympathy.
(end of quoted material)
I can argue that unions are outdated fundamentally. What happened in Austin MN to quiet all that down? The situation there was once on the verge of a violent war. A musical was even composed based on the sad conflict. You see, where unions are concerned there is no middle ground.
I defer to ownership and management which I think has the natural right to set terms for employment. We can use legislation to protect the basic rights of workers. But unions foment too much unrelenting conflict. Scars can last a lifetime.
And regarding the University of Minnesota, you can argue that the unions are outdated for this reason: the union model is built on the assumption that the U gets all its funding from the state. It's the union vs. the state as represented by administration. But as time goes on, the U relies increasingly on private sources of funding. A mini example is yours truly.
And givers like us have our blood boil when we see the nasty and disrespectful posture of unions when they decide to walk off the job. Many of us will curtail our giving and find more worthy recipients, recipients who act like they feel inspired by their mission, are happy about it. Unions are the epitome of the sullen and confrontational stance and I say "a pox on them."
Can I repair my attitude about the U now? I doubt it. The strike is the last thing our Morris campus needs. We are truly on the ropes with our very existence, as underscored by the recent Star Tribune expose. It's all we can do to make the college experience worthwhile for our treasured students. They deserve no inconveniences as the result of a strike.
I had the pleasure of making friends with a couple Native American students from Alaska recently. I met up with them while out for one of my walks which includes Prairie Lane. My first thought upon hearing about the strike was about the welfare of these two. Would their UMN-Morris experience be as uplifting as what they deserved?
One of these two students was talkative and I really enjoyed getting to know her. Hope I can encounter her again sometime. She told me she's an "art therapy" major and she hopes to use this to benefit her tribe.
Based on the bitterness caused by the strike, I'm wondering if I should just stay away from campus for Homecoming. Normally I go to dining hall for the public brunch. But there I'd be dealing with the sullen people who opted for the strike. Can I trust them to serve me food? I have gone on record about the strike.
The State of Minnesota needs to take charge with these systems. Strikes are archaic, anachronistic, set a poor example for our youth.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly 73@yahoo.com
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