Many might say so. Others would find it a burden. And it might be a burden just because of the aftermath of the recent harsh weather. Some ice on the highway perhaps. I certainly was not up for it. But we're dependent on Herman for this service and so that's the issue, or it ought to be.
I noticed someone on the "Anonymous" Facebook site floating the question of whether there was a "community Thanksgiving meal." A lot of people really appreciate this. I live alone and it is not practical to do meal prep at home, I mean to get the basic ingredients at the store. And y'all know what's happening with the price of groceries now.
The obvious question I'm posing here is, why can't a community meal be offered in Morris? Why can't one of our several churches get fired up enough to do this? This in a community of 5000 people.
The churches by and large get fired up with encouraging people to push "conservative" political beliefs and to vote for the right people. You know the "right people" I'm referring to. And the list might not even include Congressperson Michelle Fischbach because some people will prefer the hardcore righty Steve Boyd. This is who we have become now.
The churches that have tried to avoid this political trend - First Lutheran and Federated for example - have been thrown on the ropes. It's an "existential" dilemma, to use the newly popularized term. Man, when I was in college, "existential" was out there with the most obscure "50 cent words." Same with "kerfuffle." Usually this changes when a well-known person chooses to drop the word a few times.
With "kerfuffle" it was Chris Matthews. Not sure who primarily got "existential" in front of us.
But First Lutheran and Federated of Morris have gone into this bizarre new "pairing." People would have fainted if you had told them 50 years ago about this. First Lutheran was such a mainstream institution, it could support two services on Sunday. When the decline began setting in, I just knew it would get worse. Then sure enough, step by step the decline got exacerbated.
Hey! There's another word that was once confined to the academic stuffed shirts: "exacerbated." Perhaps the Internet has been responsible for our vocabulary expanding.
First Lutheran has been offering a Christmas Day meal to the public. Shall I assume it's on again? Perhaps I should stay away because I am not a church member anymore. The pairing with Federated is strange because neither building is set to close, to my knowledge. The two churches will retain their names, their identities. Two separate mailing lists.
Normally I would have expected more controversy. Because, well we're talking about church, pilgrims! Church is all about opinion formation. And then throw in a few personality conflicts. Oh, the stories ministers could tell if they opened up about things.
For example, the old guy at my former First Lutheran Church who went to the pastor and insisted that the American flag be displayed at the front of the sanctuary, and he was not going to take "no" for an answer! I talked with the guy about that. I said the flag may deserve reverence but that it was separate from church and the faith. Of course he was unyielding, prone to emotions! "Men died for that flag!"
Well then how do you explain conservative judicial hero Samuel Alito flying the flag upside down at his residence? Of course this was a protest message after the 2020 election. Hey, "men died for that flag."
I was once warned back when I was with the Morris newspaper, that I'd "get in trouble" if I published a photo I took of a kid wearing a cute little hat on Memorial Day, a hat made of images of the U.S. flag. Oh my, I could "get in trouble." And then Justice Alito goes and flies the flag upside down. Mercy.
The void
No one in Morris had the inspiration to try to plan a community Thanksgiving dinner. Del Sarlette and I have always had the idea that Morris should have an "apathy festival."
Oh but the situation has improved here from past times. I remember back in the 1980s that Wheaton had the undisputed reputation of having the really big county fair out here. We in Morris sat back and allowed this for a long time. And if I were to start asking questions about this, I'd be attacked.
The peak of this phenomenon came when shortcomings in our Morris public school system finally could not be ignored anymore. People finally realized that it was time to rise up, be confrontational, even at the risk of hurting their own family and business interests. And some people definitely got hurt.
I had been through several years of observing from my newspaper position how the very small schools in our region were out-performing Morris in extracurricular. I thought it was grounds for some embarrassment. And why should I care so much? I had no children in school. I deserved some credit for trying to point things out. Of course the opposite happened. I was the target for ridicule, often with a biting personal edge.
Sometimes I'd be tempted to think: Why don't you come at me with some actual facts? The teachers union here, or at least a "rabid" faction of it, did tremendous harm. Obstructionist, political. It reminded me of the corruption in the movie "Walking Tall." It was as if only certain entitled people even had the right to express their views.
Perhaps I was just seen as the wrong spokesman, the wrong messenger. And hey, "I knew too much."
There was a problem element of public school teachers who actually fought the development of the sport of hockey. There is a truism at play here: People who work for the government fear change more than anything else. Sheer change.
We in Morris have recently seen the rapid deterioration of the U of M-Morris. Finally it took people in "the press" - MY people - to come to the fore and say "the emperor has no clothes." "Houston, we have a problem." The article in the Star Tribune was the turning point. But is it too late?
Morris develops these concerning issues and then the wheels turn so cotton pickin' slowly for corrective change. Can First Lutheran Church be saved in any form? Can Federated? Won't they have to come up with a new combined name? Consolidate into one building? Save the money of having two buildings? Would that be a bridge too far for some people?
Can more Christians retreat from all this conservative Republican political support? Have more of a big tent? Don't worry, Kamala Harris is not going to hurt you. She might even let you keep your Obamacare subsidies and SNAP payments.
If we lose these things, well then good luck as you desperately try to fill the gap. In the meantime, Steve Boyd will continue telling us that "life begins at conception."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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