We let go of summer too early. Or, the season just seems to make its departure too early. Well, we could always choose to live further south. Actually we are already starting to experience "Iowa winters" due most assuredly to climate change. Yes, the Trump people will say climate change is a "hoax." Those people are a wave that seems impossible to shout down. We will have to live with the consequences of their ideas, like tariffs, until we meet total calamity in some way.
I find I agree with Bill Maher who says we need to hope for a substantial economic downturn as a way of waking us all up. Too bad that has to be the attitude. I have noticed lately that the cable TV news networks are paying far less attention to the stock market, its daily fluctuations. We used to see little red or green arrows at bottom-right of the screen all the time. We'd see "futures" updates when rising early in the morning, as if such news would have gravity.
News people have ended up looking foolish because of overreacting to what appears to be a one-day plunge. This happened with a plunge of about 1,000 "points" in the Dow not long ago. There have been other similar episodes, and the talking heads sometimes speak over the short term like it's a big deal, like a cause for panic. But what invariably happens, up until now, is that these markets bounce back completely within two or three days. The markets race upward frenetically, as if there was no cause for concern in the first place. We have become conditioned for this.
So the news people have begun "shrugging" and just don't bother reacting to the daily movements so much.
Constant stock market updates on TV also have the effect of making us nervous. Gee, should we "buy" or "sell?" Well, the message coming across in the media is always to "buy," anyway. Do you suppose that's because there are powerful advertising interests who want people to "buy" incessantly? Chris Matthews on MSNBC has talked about this. "Are you ever supposed to sell?" Matthews asked with a skeptical grin on his face. "Are you always supposed to buy?" Someday we may learn that some of these talking heads who focus on the stock market so much - the cheerleaders, not Matthews - may in fact have had little of their own money in the markets. Jim Cramer?
Watch the prices at the fair
Anyway, we are all conscious now of autumn showing its faint early signs. We crisscross the fairgrounds and realize that pretty soon school will start. I used to hear grunts of athletes attacking those sleds at the East Elementary playground. "East" was applied from back when we had to distinguish that school from the west side Longfellow school, where I went for grades 1-3. Longfellow is where I learned of the JFK assassination. There was a small "gym" downstairs where Jim Grant would divide us into "squads." Grant was a member of the Holman-Hendrickson clique on the teaching staff. I played little league baseball with (actually against) Jim's son.
How are we doing with food price inflation at the fair? I hope it's under control but I'm not real hopeful. Something that cost $1.50 last year might be $2 this year. This could reach the point where we might be prompted to feel real concern. I have a whole blog post on this subject on my "Morris of Course" site. It's a fresh post that I put up just a couple days ago, and I even vent some concern re. the 4-H foodstand which we keep close to our hearts. But hey, let's keep prices reasonable. You may click on the link below, and as always thanks for reading. - B.W.
Let's not promote football, really
OK, so we're on the doorstep of football. How sad. There is nothing constructive to be gained for those boys who continue to elect to play football. You hear cliches tossed out there about "teamwork" etc. These attributes can be gained from any number of other activities. We might consider marching band again. I share about this on another recent "Morris of Course" post. Again I invite you to click on the link below. You must see the photo of our great drum major, Scott Groth, from about 1970!
http://morrisofcourse.
It's not a "man's" sport
Don't even think about discussing football's value in terms of boys attaining "manhood." We are way past discussing the sport's suggested attributes in gender terms. Is the sport too dangerous for girls? Well if it is, we can easily suggest it's questionable for boys too. The non-brain injuries have always been concerning enough. The brain injuries are now in a completely different, new category because they are absolutely unacceptable. Years can pass before the symptoms might emerge. A man might find he's getting headaches too often. Can you imagine what that must be like? Suicides have been attributed to this.
People close to the sport are aware that any day now, a district attorney somewhere in the U.S. is going to charge the parents of a boy who gets seriously hurt playing football. Don't we all realize that the boys themselves, as young as junior high or maybe even in sixth grade, aren't mature enough to make a fully reasoned decision on whether to play football? A well-known researcher says it's unconscionable for any high school boy to "go out for football" based on peer pressure. This person strongly advocates for "club teams" to replace the high school model. Someday we'll see this and we'll consider it quaint to look back on the days of "high school football." Morris will probably host a team for a long time because we have Big Cat Stadium.
I would much rather have seen "Humanities Phase III" carried out at UMM, rather than the construction of Big Cat Stadium which sits there like a big cold mausoleum all winter. A shared humanities facility for both UMM and the public school would be 100 percent richer in its dividends for the community.
I am hoping there will be some drop-off in football participation at Morris Area High School. Even if there is, it will probably be minuscule. Cultural change can be glacier-like in proceeding.
We in Morris must appreciate our history with marching band, a history fading ever more into the past. Man, if our marching band of the early '70s could be transported via time machine to the present, to lead the parade for Prairie Pioneer Days, it would be jaw-dropping for the parade watchers. It was spectacular. The director applied discipline just like in football, only the kids weren't getting their bodies and brains abused.
Another recent post I wrote on "Morris of Course" was about the infamous occasion, well-remembered to this day by everyone who was there, when director John Woell kicked Mona Lyn Reese out of an evening practice. Mona is today a highly successful composer of music. I invite you to read my post about Woell, Reese and the incident. It's another example of "micro" Morris history that I preserve on my sites, too trivial for the Historical Society to deal with! God bless you all, and don't pay too much for the fair food. Please click:
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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