Let us not unravel the (local) ties that bind

The ELCA Lutheran churches in town are barely able to sustain a weekly Wednesday night event designed to bring believers together. (Remember "Faith and the Believers" locally?)
Any event designed to bring people together seems to be struggling these days in Morris. The ELCA sessions just fit into the pattern. "We can't be here next week because we're going to be gone." A litany of excuses builds up.
Who would have ever predicted that Prairie Pioneer Days in its longstanding form would essentially die? We may not have heard the last about that decision. People are startled and may be starting to suggest we take a fresh look at keeping the summertime thing on life support, at least.
I have expressed concern before about the Superior company getting its hooks in local events like PPD and the fair, whereas such events should be truly community-based and not contingent on a private company's interest. OK, maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps I should do a reversal and suggest that Superior completely take over PPD. They could do this on the basis of community outreach and public relations - a big local company showing civic commitment? Maybe the private sector is simply needed to undergird everything nowadays. Some voices in the GOP say we should "privatize the Veterans Administration." Are these the only motivations that count?
Our Prairie Pioneer Days seemed so healthy for a long stretch of years. I remember so well from my years covering it for the Sun Tribune. Maybe that's what the community needs: me rolling up my sleeves to cover things again. I was never milquetoast, was I. My high school classmate Edie Martin gave a graduation speech on the theme of "don't be a milquetoast." Could it be my whole journalistic career was inspired by that?
Even if I were still doing my thing today, I'd have so much less space in the newspaper to play with. And now we hear that the Willmar paper, owned by the Forum, same company that owns our Morris fishwrap, is cutting its Monday print edition. I nearly bent over laughing as I examined their news report on this. It was surely company "spin." They made it sound like nothing was really being cancelled or eliminated - rather they proclaimed the Monday issue was going "digital only." I'm sure the Forum has hotshot lawyers wearing expensive suits who are ready to deal with customer complaints about this, just like when our Morris paper went from twice a week to once. I was with the Morris paper during its heyday of twice a week.
I'd start out PPD by covering the Women of Today "Baby Olympics" Saturday morning. I was out and around for the rest of the weekend. I rode my bike out to the mid-point of the 10K run to photograph the leader out on the biking/walking trail, in the pristine prairie grass area around the river. "Can I ask your name?" I shouted at the leader. "Brad Abbott," he nicely responded. I think some of his friends in high school called him "Bad Rabbit." He ran like a rabbit that day, although over a longer distance!
The new movie club at our Morris Public Library started out as a once a week thing. Yesterday Anne Barber told me that unfortunately, starting in September (with the start of school), it will be once a month. So, it's hard sustaining that concept too. I must say that Anne at the library is leading the way in trying to promote community-oriented things. "Friday Facts" was full of notes and events for library events all summer. This happens while Morris mostly yawns. I guess we hibernate in summer. Is that a curse of being a non-lake community? The lakes we do have in Stevens County are not associated with lake recreation. My late father called them "cow lakes."
Didn't there used to be an occasional religious service at Eastside Park? I haven't noticed that in a while. I have been pretty hard on the Killoran stage at the park in recent posts, arguing that it's useless. However, the upcoming Willie's party might give us an exception to that. Willie's ranks up there with the Morris Public Library for trying to keep Morris a reasonably vibrant place. If not vibrant, at least on life support. I have quoted esteemed local music person Del Sarlette suggesting this community have an "apathy festival."  But as Del points out, "nobody would show up for the planning meeting."
Our two ELCA churches are trying to work in concert getting people to come to the Wednesday night sessions at the Met Lounge side room. No, we don't meet in the bar, it's in the side room.
Organized religion is taking a major blow this week with major new revelations about the Catholic Church. It's like lifting up a rock and finding disgusting creatures underneath. In this case the creatures are priests. We had one in Morris who sought out child porn.
Are we getting to the point where local governments need to start considering a prohibition of the Catholic Church itself? We prioritize absolute safety for our kids all the time. That's why there's a huge fine for driving around a school bus, even slowly and carefully. Despite the zero tolerance for risk concerning our youth, we have the Catholic Church which is inflicting untold lifelong damage.
Of course, you might say belonging to a church is voluntary, so, parents seeing all the headlines should just choose to have nothing to do with that church. But if the family lineage is associated with the church, I suppose it is hard. It should not be hard. The current news just makes it more likely that millennials will get ever more skeptical of all churches, that the ranks of the "nones" will grow.
Local government should prohibit the presence of any church that has celibacy as a policy for clergy.
Did you know that the Wisconsin Synod of the Lutheran Church, represented in Morris by St. Paul's Lutheran, considers the Pope to be the Antichrist?
Up until now I have been willing to give some slack to the Catholic Church, I suppose because I have had friends and know some fine people who were with the church. There's no justification for cutting slack any more. You Catholics could come over to First Lutheran or Faith Lutheran in Morris and be just as fulfilled. I knew a wonderful older died-in-the-wool Catholic woman once who would say: "Oh but you'll never see the face of Christ." Well, I'm quite sure God is present to hear us at our Wednesday night gatherings at the Met Lounge side room. Just come sometime.
 
Addendum: I mentioned my old classmate Edie Martin in this post. Edie's family was with St. Paul's Lutheran of the Wisconsin Synod. Do you have to be a Packers fan to belong (LOL)? Interesting: the oldest children in the Martin and Eul business families of Morris were both in my class - Mike Eul with Edie Martin - and they were the ones who did not stick around with the family business. I'm glad some of the Euls stayed here to work on my bikes!
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com