We are seeing a concentration of what I would call "efficiency living" in a section of east Morris. This is the section that includes the old school property. It took a while for things to sprout there. But sprout they most certainly have. The complexes there look impressive and we wonder if another one or two might be built on the remaining parcel.
The old school itself was on the higher land. It's hard to imagine now that it was ever there, isn't it? Someday a great many people will have to be reminded of the school history there. It's interesting how the school once saw fit to completely abandon that place for school purposes. Doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with it.
We'll need reminding of the immense history of the spectacle of football games at the field that came to be known as Coombe Field. The ranks of people who can remember having "Mr. Coombe" as their teacher are thinning. I'm one of them. We remember how this pleasant person liked referring to himself in the third person.
Not only did the big school complex define that part of town, we must remember that East 7th Street was once the main entry to town from the east. So, things have really changed.
We see townhomes and small duplexes in that part of town now. The general area seems like an example of how our basic lifestyle is changing. I would suggest we're moving away from the ideal of the single family home, an ideal that the great World War II generation embraced. That generation also celebrated the automobile, that great symbol of independence and freedom.
People once sought the good life by acquiring lots of "stuff." So you'd live in a single family home with a basement and a garage and maybe a storage shed. Lots of "stuff" to show you had gotten established well in the world. Nothing wrong with that by the standards of the time. Today the values seem different. It is not essential to have so much stuff. It is common to hear people say they are simply trying to get rid of stuff.
People find happiness in a far more compact living situation. OK, so "why?"
Maybe it's because we have conquered boredom so convincingly. The tech and digital breakthroughs have been enormous, creating a whole new approach to life that we have come to take for granted. Maybe you'd have to be my age - 64 - to realize the scope of it all. By conquering boredom, I think we find it far more satisfying to live in a confined space. Having a large piece of property does not equate with status anymore. Perhaps a better way to put it, is that it's not tied to self-esteem so much.
The entertainment at our fingertips is endless. We can learn and be entertained from anyplace, anytime.
I would suggest we need to take a fresh look at the sports activities we so strongly thrust at our kids. Is it really an essential rite of passage, for boys to put on "jock straps" etc.? I would suggest that these programs were developed long ago as a means of keeping kids from getting bored. Getting bored as we all know can lead to kids getting in trouble. But boredom is impossible to feel these days.
Incredibly we have come to hear about the opposite problem: distractions. Yes, distracted driving which many now find is just as dangerous as drunk driving. Remember that there was a time when your task when driving was to focus on properly driving your car. Maybe you'd have AM radio on. Or hey, maybe FM! Funky, right? Now it seems quaint.
The phenomenon of distractions has become no laughing matter. People are more likely to get hurt by foul balls at baseball games because they're looking down at their phones.
If you had shared a prediction of this new age with the World War II generation when they were in their prime, they wouldn't believe it. We often cite the Great Depression along with WWII. The people who survived that tremendous adversity came away with very distinctive traits. They allowed their own children to run wild, fall into vices etc. The children did not even seem to appreciate the fruits of all the affluence their parents had come to enjoy. The parents created the great American middle class. The families populated endless residential blocks in America in the single family homes.
The apartment complexes as we see on our old school property would seem so much more efficient and practical. Townhomes have no basements, right? Why should we need a basement? Those tidy duplexes seem practical also. More people can inhabit a limited space, all of them to enjoy the convenience of being close to where essential needs can be met.
Try to put aside the personal automobile. We hear often today about how cities should be designed for a less automobile-dependent culture. Drive through the Twin Cities at 5 or 6 p.m. on a weekday and you'll say "amen." We hear a lot about our aging population. It's mighty practical to design systems for living that do not require motorized transportation.
The wonderful WWII generation would have a hard time grasping these new priorities. Again I'll quote the Billy Beane character from "Moneyball": "Adapt or die."
Some unfortunate blight
There are two new apartment buildings side by side along Iowa Avenue in Morris. They may be new but they are a problem. The building on the south side is a major problem and I'd sure like to know the story with that. Go over there and look for yourself: the land around the building is overgrown and an atrocious mess. It's an embarrassment because Iowa Avenue is a common entry point to Morris and to UMM. Tall weeds are right up against the building, there is standing water, some junk like a wooden pallet, and I've even seen trash like discarded pop containers.
I have shared my concern with the city. The buildings themselves don't look very high-class. I'd prefer just looking at open land there. People in townhomes are across the street. I wonder what they think. The townhome development looks very clean and classy. Certainly the development on the old school property is clean and classy. The duplex houses show some wear and tear but not to the point where it's an issue.
All in all, this part of town has become fascinating for what it represents in our new lifestyle in America. More people can live in smaller spaces and do so with great efficiency and no loss in quality of life. We can put aside the hassles that can crop up with maintaining a single family home. I'm hanging in there "the old way" as best I can.
The old residential core areas of Morris increasingly look worn down or even dilapidated, not that people can't be happy continuing to live there. Don't ever forget there was a precious school complex occupying the elevated spot next to Seventh Street! Don't ever forget the "Pylin" drive-in restaurant!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Friday, July 26, 2019
The world around us is always fluid
We are in the part of summer that is generally considered the slowest for our Morris MN. We tend to think of that time as being bounded by Prairie Pioneer Days (PPD) and the county fair. When fair-time arrives, we often start noticing a "nip" in the nighttime air, indicating that fall is indeed on the way.
We feel shortchanged by summer - too brief a flirtation with the summer-y weather.
We can't use the summer PPD as a benchmark anymore. It has been eliminated. I'm not sure how the midsummer point is going to be identified now, probably with the Hancock July 4. But that's Hancock. We read that the Hancock school is going great guns with growth and vitality. When I first began my long tenure with the Morris print media, the common perception was that Hancock was just hanging on. Surely a county-wide school would be on its way, right?
"County-wide school" would have been fighting words for a lot of people. They would be fighting words in the same way as "corporate farms." Do you remember the negative stigma once projected by "corporate farm?" Not to pass judgment myself, I'm just reporting history.
I remember when the traditional family farm started feeling stressed, and large advocacy meetings were held at our UMM P.E. Center. I listened on the radio. You would have thought that lynch mobs would be heading out to get the "corporate farmers." Another big boogeyman was the "middlemen" in agriculture. Lynch mobs for them too. I'm just characterizing the nature of the rhetoric.
I reminded an older retired farmer of those agitated times recently. He got a look on his face like he didn't wish to acknowledge it. The voices of protest then were clinging to a past model that was not going to hang on. Oh, I could cite another boogeyman from the restless times: the U.S. secretary of agriculture, Earl Butz. I remember a local hardware store owner pandering to the crowd and simply saying the downtown merchants "supported you 100 percent."
We can conclude today that those meetings represented a futile cause. A part of us has to feel sad about that. Any time change wrests us from our comfortable norms, there is sadness. New norms take over and we eventually feel comfortable, just as we feel no issue in connection with the vast and efficient truly corporate farms in our midst today. They employ people.
Remember when Bob Bergland had to be spirited away from his office for his own protection, because something like 50 aggrieved farmers were coming to confront him?
I recall one really big meeting at UMM that had the revolutionary tone, though it ended up as so much flailing away. A subsequent meeting was planned along the same lines. My family watched some news coverage of the second event and it seemed much smaller. The movement had become dispirited.
A bright spot in summer here
We may be in a slow time of year for Morris but there are always exceptions. One is the Irondale marching band's appearance at Big Cat Stadium. Those suburban Twin Cities musicians have come here many summers to fine-tune. It's a rehearsal exercise. Still they invite the public to come on out and sample the artistry. This happened Thursday night and yours truly was pleased to be there. It's the finest thing to happen at Big Cat all year. Certainly better than football where the male bodies smash into each other.
The promo for the Irondale performance has been mixed through the years. I noticed a little flier with typed text, on at least one bulletin board of a local business. Even if people saw this, not many turned out. That's unfortunate. Of the small audience seen Thursday, certainly many were from Irondale.
I stood next to a friend who teased me about what he saw as the critical or "negative" tone in my online writing. One man's negativity can be another man's fountain of hope. Am I being negative when I warn about Donald Trump, about his "Nuremberg style rallies" which they most surely are, and about his usurpation of power which might now extend to the Federal Reserve?
Yes I'm being negative and critical I guess.
I have been negative about the local Chamber of Commerce decision to end the summer PPD which had East Side Park as its home. How sad because the summer PPD was the only hope for the Killoran stage to get meaningful use. The stage should not have been built unless there was a commitment to ensure it would add life to the community.
Now we hear PPD is going to be at the fairgrounds. I will remind you that the fairgrounds can be a dead and listless place when there is no carnival or midway there.
Am I being negative or critical with how I present my thoughts about the PPD decision? I'd like to think I'm being positive about the wonderful, traditional PPD which was considered a major accomplishment when it was first created. At its height, it seemed to take no back seat to Glenwood's Waterama which set the standard. Well it was comparable anyway.
I felt that once the Miss Morris pageant left the park, it did not seem like part of PPD any more. I felt events could be scheduled at the park right into the evening. And here I'll be "negative" again: I do not feel that in the year 2019, "beauty pageants" (whether they use the word beauty or not) are proper anymore. I think they are sexist. I know they tried shedding their old image by incorporating "scholarship." Oh, the "Miss Morris Scholarship program," making it clear that it wasn't just a silly cosmetic thing. The ploy was just a fig leaf. The event should just be cancelled. Yes this is a "negative" assertion.
You'll note that I have been "negative" about the sport of football. I am positive however in terms of my caring about the present and future health of the young men who get lured into playing this pointless and dangerous game. Unfortunately we'll probably see a good turnout of humanity for football at Big Cat this fall. All I can do is try to enlighten.
And then I could rest my case although I'll never rest on certain important topics, like the danger that is Donald Trump. If he seizes the Federal Reserve and forces quantitative easing, we could see a surge in inflation that will finally get everyone's attention. I can at least see it coming. The people who think abortion is important will be struck rather quickly by issues more connected to their existential state.
I can only shrug and say I tried to ring a firebell in the night. And this I do with my "negative and critical" writing.
More re. school calendar
I wrote recently on the surprising omission of sports from the Morris school calendar that gets mailed to everyone. Silly rabbit, there's no need for an "on paper" school calendar anymore! Someday we'll look back and think it was quaint. All that "paper!"
Well, a friend shared with me an angle that might upset some people: businesses have bought advertising in the school calendar. Were these businesses given the heads-up that the product would substantially change? Hmmm. Without sports in the calendar, it is of very little value to non-school parents.
I think maybe the school is "conditioning" us, getting us to accept no sports this year, before ending the paper calendar completely the next. In the meantime, the businesses who advertised get the short end of the stick. Maybe they deserve an apology.
One silver lining: maybe the absence of sports will make people less aware of when the home football games are, and maybe our attendance will go down a little. We need to phase out the sport of football if it cannot be axed immediately. You laugh at this? You're a fool if you do.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
We feel shortchanged by summer - too brief a flirtation with the summer-y weather.
We can't use the summer PPD as a benchmark anymore. It has been eliminated. I'm not sure how the midsummer point is going to be identified now, probably with the Hancock July 4. But that's Hancock. We read that the Hancock school is going great guns with growth and vitality. When I first began my long tenure with the Morris print media, the common perception was that Hancock was just hanging on. Surely a county-wide school would be on its way, right?
"County-wide school" would have been fighting words for a lot of people. They would be fighting words in the same way as "corporate farms." Do you remember the negative stigma once projected by "corporate farm?" Not to pass judgment myself, I'm just reporting history.
I remember when the traditional family farm started feeling stressed, and large advocacy meetings were held at our UMM P.E. Center. I listened on the radio. You would have thought that lynch mobs would be heading out to get the "corporate farmers." Another big boogeyman was the "middlemen" in agriculture. Lynch mobs for them too. I'm just characterizing the nature of the rhetoric.
I reminded an older retired farmer of those agitated times recently. He got a look on his face like he didn't wish to acknowledge it. The voices of protest then were clinging to a past model that was not going to hang on. Oh, I could cite another boogeyman from the restless times: the U.S. secretary of agriculture, Earl Butz. I remember a local hardware store owner pandering to the crowd and simply saying the downtown merchants "supported you 100 percent."
We can conclude today that those meetings represented a futile cause. A part of us has to feel sad about that. Any time change wrests us from our comfortable norms, there is sadness. New norms take over and we eventually feel comfortable, just as we feel no issue in connection with the vast and efficient truly corporate farms in our midst today. They employ people.
Remember when Bob Bergland had to be spirited away from his office for his own protection, because something like 50 aggrieved farmers were coming to confront him?
I recall one really big meeting at UMM that had the revolutionary tone, though it ended up as so much flailing away. A subsequent meeting was planned along the same lines. My family watched some news coverage of the second event and it seemed much smaller. The movement had become dispirited.
A bright spot in summer here
We may be in a slow time of year for Morris but there are always exceptions. One is the Irondale marching band's appearance at Big Cat Stadium. Those suburban Twin Cities musicians have come here many summers to fine-tune. It's a rehearsal exercise. Still they invite the public to come on out and sample the artistry. This happened Thursday night and yours truly was pleased to be there. It's the finest thing to happen at Big Cat all year. Certainly better than football where the male bodies smash into each other.
The promo for the Irondale performance has been mixed through the years. I noticed a little flier with typed text, on at least one bulletin board of a local business. Even if people saw this, not many turned out. That's unfortunate. Of the small audience seen Thursday, certainly many were from Irondale.
I stood next to a friend who teased me about what he saw as the critical or "negative" tone in my online writing. One man's negativity can be another man's fountain of hope. Am I being negative when I warn about Donald Trump, about his "Nuremberg style rallies" which they most surely are, and about his usurpation of power which might now extend to the Federal Reserve?
Yes I'm being negative and critical I guess.
I have been negative about the local Chamber of Commerce decision to end the summer PPD which had East Side Park as its home. How sad because the summer PPD was the only hope for the Killoran stage to get meaningful use. The stage should not have been built unless there was a commitment to ensure it would add life to the community.
Now we hear PPD is going to be at the fairgrounds. I will remind you that the fairgrounds can be a dead and listless place when there is no carnival or midway there.
Am I being negative or critical with how I present my thoughts about the PPD decision? I'd like to think I'm being positive about the wonderful, traditional PPD which was considered a major accomplishment when it was first created. At its height, it seemed to take no back seat to Glenwood's Waterama which set the standard. Well it was comparable anyway.
I felt that once the Miss Morris pageant left the park, it did not seem like part of PPD any more. I felt events could be scheduled at the park right into the evening. And here I'll be "negative" again: I do not feel that in the year 2019, "beauty pageants" (whether they use the word beauty or not) are proper anymore. I think they are sexist. I know they tried shedding their old image by incorporating "scholarship." Oh, the "Miss Morris Scholarship program," making it clear that it wasn't just a silly cosmetic thing. The ploy was just a fig leaf. The event should just be cancelled. Yes this is a "negative" assertion.
You'll note that I have been "negative" about the sport of football. I am positive however in terms of my caring about the present and future health of the young men who get lured into playing this pointless and dangerous game. Unfortunately we'll probably see a good turnout of humanity for football at Big Cat this fall. All I can do is try to enlighten.
And then I could rest my case although I'll never rest on certain important topics, like the danger that is Donald Trump. If he seizes the Federal Reserve and forces quantitative easing, we could see a surge in inflation that will finally get everyone's attention. I can at least see it coming. The people who think abortion is important will be struck rather quickly by issues more connected to their existential state.
I can only shrug and say I tried to ring a firebell in the night. And this I do with my "negative and critical" writing.
More re. school calendar
I wrote recently on the surprising omission of sports from the Morris school calendar that gets mailed to everyone. Silly rabbit, there's no need for an "on paper" school calendar anymore! Someday we'll look back and think it was quaint. All that "paper!"
Well, a friend shared with me an angle that might upset some people: businesses have bought advertising in the school calendar. Were these businesses given the heads-up that the product would substantially change? Hmmm. Without sports in the calendar, it is of very little value to non-school parents.
I think maybe the school is "conditioning" us, getting us to accept no sports this year, before ending the paper calendar completely the next. In the meantime, the businesses who advertised get the short end of the stick. Maybe they deserve an apology.
One silver lining: maybe the absence of sports will make people less aware of when the home football games are, and maybe our attendance will go down a little. We need to phase out the sport of football if it cannot be axed immediately. You laugh at this? You're a fool if you do.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Sunday, July 21, 2019
What's with no sports on school calendar?
Here's an email heads-up I got from a friend Saturday a.m.:
I assume you got the school calendar yesterday. Did you notice that there are no athletic events listed? What's up with that?
Ah, "what's up?" A question we might ask regularly because of the adjustments we're always having to make. The digital age forces many of these. Others spring from enlightenment on various topics, and this too is connected to our digital universe which spreads info so incredibly fast.
The digital world is in fact a "meritocracy" where the best info rises to the top. This counters a lot of the old fear-mongering about how "you can't trust the Internet." Sounds rather dated now, although you must always be careful about what you choose to trust.
Change? How about the fact that our local newspaper isn't even really a shadow of its old self - frequent 14-page issues of late and that's for the whole week. Heck, I plied my journalism with the Morris paper when it was in its total salad days. I covered more ground with my work, traveling to more things and personally witnessing more important things, than anyone else who has ever worked in the Morris commercial media.
You'll see "journalist" under my name on our family monument at Summit Cemetery. But that's under "caregiver" which was a more important role. It's a bench monument and please be my guest for sitting there if you'd like. You may revive memories of my parents.
No athletic events listed on school calendar? I hadn't bothered to examine my calendar yet so I hadn't noticed, unlike my thoughtful emailing acquaintance. Well, this change in the calendar is pretty noteworthy. We must put on our thinking caps to wonder why.
Are there online resources where sports parents can consult to learn of schedule information for the (so very many) sports and levels of competition? It gets complicated. Maybe the school got weary of the complexity of it all, and why should sports/extracurricular get so much attention after all? Especially football.
I find it unconscionable that the school even continues to offer football. Is this an issue that was starting to bother them? I mean, so what if a certain school has a group of male athletes who are bigger, stronger and faster than the boys of another school? What does this prove if you "win" the game, especially if you've had to physically punish your opponent? All that physical punishment leads to health issues that we are learning more and more about.
No athletic events listed! It's still sinking in with me. Of course, the spring sports schedule can get ridiculous with all the postponements required by the weather. The weather is hardly ever ready to deal with spring sports. A couple weeks into the season, you really can't rely on the on-paper spring sports schedule.
Why should the non-spectator sports get so much attention by being on the school calendar? Why are these activities presented as being so important compared to other aspects of school life? I'm offering a philosophical interpretation and maybe that's not where the school district is coming from.
I suspect the school leaders would defend football as still being practicable because of the public wanting it. Problem is, people can be ignorant, as we are learning with these Nuremberg-style Trump "rallies."
Kids get hurt in football in ways that may not show up right away, and can have disturbing effects later in life. If a school district stands for anything, it should stand for promoting the best health and safety of the students, wouldn't you say?
The school calendar almost looks empty without the sports events! It's an incredible transition when you get right down to it.
It's not uncommon for yours truly to have misgivings or even nightmares about aspects of my newspaper background. Very often I regret that I got pulled into the whole world of emotional sports devotion. I feel guilty about it. I feel guilty about elevating the sport of wrestling, a sport I really only found interesting because of certain personalities. It's a terrible sport for having the "loser" of bouts end up so humiliated, on their back and looking up at the lights. In fact, "show him the lights" was a chant I'd sometimes hear.
So, I was an onlooker and not a true participant, thank the Lord. And same with football. My body never went through the ravages of weight loss which many wrestlers undergo, with no rational basis for self-improvement. It's Neanderthal. Wrestling got developed as the "second" sport for winter because it was cheaper than alternatives, IMHO.
I remember going to the Concordia-Moorhead fieldhouse in the Kevin Loge days of Morris basketball - it was packed and with an atmosphere of pandemonium. And for what end? To see a group of boys representing our high school, as few as seven or eight getting appreciable playing time, play a game against another school? Why all the fuss?
I certainly never played football. Therefore I can sit here and trust that my cognitive skills are intact for a 64-year-old, knock on wood. Why should I feel "lucky" just because I never got drawn into such pointless and even dangerous activities? When the school backs off from having sports info on the school calendar, is it a value judgment? I really think it could be. And congratulations if that's the case, even though as with all constructive change, it's too late in coming.
The best way to expedite the demise of football is to please stay away from the games and don't spend any money to support it.
I find it's refreshing now to consult with the school calendar and not be absolutely bombarded with sports info, nearly all of which is of no interest to me. But hey, I see where a choir concert is on the calendar for October 14. Hey, congratulations!
My friend who submitted the tip for this post followed up later in the day Saturday:
Regarding the school calendar, right inside the cover there are 2 links to websites where a person can go on-line to find sports schedules. But that seems inconvenient, doesn’t it? Yes, I (and most hip individuals) can access the interwebs on phones, but it’s much quicker to glance at the “hard copy” calendar, of which we have 2 (1 each at home and the store). Why print the calendar at all then? Just send out an email telling everyone that the full school calendar is accessible on-line.
One has to smile: yes it is totally practical to have all sorts of things online-only. That's the direction we're going of course, but things can't happen overnight. Some people will be offended that they are expected to be totally Internet-proficient. Ten years ago we might hear from some: "I'm not online." That's much less likely today. Today you'll find people saying they really can't navigate all that well, but with time they'll be too embarrassed to say that.
I believe I presented the suggestion of the online-only school calendar several years ago, maybe ten years ago. And in theory it should have been totally practicable. (General Robert E. Lee liked the word "practicable.") I also thought prep sports news sites could be developed online, by the programs themselves, in lieu of the poor over-stressed newspaper and radio people trying to keep up with it all.
I suggested that students with an interest in writing, the Internet and sports could fill that role, to complement the team managers. My early suggestions did not seem to find a receptive ear. I meant well. I also think that everyone involved in sports would be better served. As for the school calendar, taxpayers would save money if the whole thing was just online.
How far could this go? To where kids can just study at home and bypass bricks and mortar school? I think that would be great. We can have community "club" sports teams. It will be interesting to see the situation ten years from now. You cannot resist the changes pushed along by tech.
"Adapt or die," as Brad Pitt as "Billy Beane" said in "Moneyball."
Addendum, Sunday a.m.
I have had a chance to look at the new Morris paper at the public library. Once again it is just 14 pages, minimal. That's 14 pages for the whole week, whereas in the days when I worked there, it was twice weekly and good-sized. I don't take notes but it seems something like eight of the last nine Morris papers have been 14 pages. There was a time when I only expected to see this size right after Christmas, when everything got slow.
Maybe the people who insisted on cancelling the summer Prairie Pioneer Days (PPD) were right: there's little hope for vitality in Morris in summer. The summer "lake crowd" has won out: people who need to get away to "the lake" in summer and don't want to bother with Prairie Pioneer Days. I personally think it's sad. Cyrus has Cyrus Days.
I keep thinking this problem is going to be remedied. When I first heard of the PPD decision, I was surprised and assumed there would be a quick reversal. But no. I'm told there is "a group" in town that is steadfast in its resolve to not have the summer-based festival anymore. Is this something we should be proud of? Very strange.
Regarding the Morris paper at the mere size of 14 pages, we must wonder: does it really need a full-time general manager (which they call publisher)? Does it need this individual who appears not to do any writing or ad sales except maybe on a spot basis? The cost of her salary must be passed on to customers.
We don't need a publisher only for the purpose of showing up at school board meetings and urging that the high school kids be allowed to wear hats in the classroom. The principal had a contrary view to that, but then the principal got in a spot of trouble. When the paper reported on its own publisher speaking at the school board meeting, she was identified with her newspaper role, and why was that relevant? It's an example, I would argue, of the chutzpah that continues to be shown by people in the legacy media. We'll get over it.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
I assume you got the school calendar yesterday. Did you notice that there are no athletic events listed? What's up with that?
Ah, "what's up?" A question we might ask regularly because of the adjustments we're always having to make. The digital age forces many of these. Others spring from enlightenment on various topics, and this too is connected to our digital universe which spreads info so incredibly fast.
The digital world is in fact a "meritocracy" where the best info rises to the top. This counters a lot of the old fear-mongering about how "you can't trust the Internet." Sounds rather dated now, although you must always be careful about what you choose to trust.
Change? How about the fact that our local newspaper isn't even really a shadow of its old self - frequent 14-page issues of late and that's for the whole week. Heck, I plied my journalism with the Morris paper when it was in its total salad days. I covered more ground with my work, traveling to more things and personally witnessing more important things, than anyone else who has ever worked in the Morris commercial media.
You'll see "journalist" under my name on our family monument at Summit Cemetery. But that's under "caregiver" which was a more important role. It's a bench monument and please be my guest for sitting there if you'd like. You may revive memories of my parents.
No athletic events listed on school calendar? I hadn't bothered to examine my calendar yet so I hadn't noticed, unlike my thoughtful emailing acquaintance. Well, this change in the calendar is pretty noteworthy. We must put on our thinking caps to wonder why.
Are there online resources where sports parents can consult to learn of schedule information for the (so very many) sports and levels of competition? It gets complicated. Maybe the school got weary of the complexity of it all, and why should sports/extracurricular get so much attention after all? Especially football.
I find it unconscionable that the school even continues to offer football. Is this an issue that was starting to bother them? I mean, so what if a certain school has a group of male athletes who are bigger, stronger and faster than the boys of another school? What does this prove if you "win" the game, especially if you've had to physically punish your opponent? All that physical punishment leads to health issues that we are learning more and more about.
No athletic events listed! It's still sinking in with me. Of course, the spring sports schedule can get ridiculous with all the postponements required by the weather. The weather is hardly ever ready to deal with spring sports. A couple weeks into the season, you really can't rely on the on-paper spring sports schedule.
Why should the non-spectator sports get so much attention by being on the school calendar? Why are these activities presented as being so important compared to other aspects of school life? I'm offering a philosophical interpretation and maybe that's not where the school district is coming from.
I suspect the school leaders would defend football as still being practicable because of the public wanting it. Problem is, people can be ignorant, as we are learning with these Nuremberg-style Trump "rallies."
Kids get hurt in football in ways that may not show up right away, and can have disturbing effects later in life. If a school district stands for anything, it should stand for promoting the best health and safety of the students, wouldn't you say?
The school calendar almost looks empty without the sports events! It's an incredible transition when you get right down to it.
It's not uncommon for yours truly to have misgivings or even nightmares about aspects of my newspaper background. Very often I regret that I got pulled into the whole world of emotional sports devotion. I feel guilty about it. I feel guilty about elevating the sport of wrestling, a sport I really only found interesting because of certain personalities. It's a terrible sport for having the "loser" of bouts end up so humiliated, on their back and looking up at the lights. In fact, "show him the lights" was a chant I'd sometimes hear.
So, I was an onlooker and not a true participant, thank the Lord. And same with football. My body never went through the ravages of weight loss which many wrestlers undergo, with no rational basis for self-improvement. It's Neanderthal. Wrestling got developed as the "second" sport for winter because it was cheaper than alternatives, IMHO.
I remember going to the Concordia-Moorhead fieldhouse in the Kevin Loge days of Morris basketball - it was packed and with an atmosphere of pandemonium. And for what end? To see a group of boys representing our high school, as few as seven or eight getting appreciable playing time, play a game against another school? Why all the fuss?
I certainly never played football. Therefore I can sit here and trust that my cognitive skills are intact for a 64-year-old, knock on wood. Why should I feel "lucky" just because I never got drawn into such pointless and even dangerous activities? When the school backs off from having sports info on the school calendar, is it a value judgment? I really think it could be. And congratulations if that's the case, even though as with all constructive change, it's too late in coming.
The best way to expedite the demise of football is to please stay away from the games and don't spend any money to support it.
I find it's refreshing now to consult with the school calendar and not be absolutely bombarded with sports info, nearly all of which is of no interest to me. But hey, I see where a choir concert is on the calendar for October 14. Hey, congratulations!
My friend who submitted the tip for this post followed up later in the day Saturday:
Regarding the school calendar, right inside the cover there are 2 links to websites where a person can go on-line to find sports schedules. But that seems inconvenient, doesn’t it? Yes, I (and most hip individuals) can access the interwebs on phones, but it’s much quicker to glance at the “hard copy” calendar, of which we have 2 (1 each at home and the store). Why print the calendar at all then? Just send out an email telling everyone that the full school calendar is accessible on-line.
I believe I presented the suggestion of the online-only school calendar several years ago, maybe ten years ago. And in theory it should have been totally practicable. (General Robert E. Lee liked the word "practicable.") I also thought prep sports news sites could be developed online, by the programs themselves, in lieu of the poor over-stressed newspaper and radio people trying to keep up with it all.
I suggested that students with an interest in writing, the Internet and sports could fill that role, to complement the team managers. My early suggestions did not seem to find a receptive ear. I meant well. I also think that everyone involved in sports would be better served. As for the school calendar, taxpayers would save money if the whole thing was just online.
How far could this go? To where kids can just study at home and bypass bricks and mortar school? I think that would be great. We can have community "club" sports teams. It will be interesting to see the situation ten years from now. You cannot resist the changes pushed along by tech.
"Adapt or die," as Brad Pitt as "Billy Beane" said in "Moneyball."
Addendum, Sunday a.m.
I have had a chance to look at the new Morris paper at the public library. Once again it is just 14 pages, minimal. That's 14 pages for the whole week, whereas in the days when I worked there, it was twice weekly and good-sized. I don't take notes but it seems something like eight of the last nine Morris papers have been 14 pages. There was a time when I only expected to see this size right after Christmas, when everything got slow.
Maybe the people who insisted on cancelling the summer Prairie Pioneer Days (PPD) were right: there's little hope for vitality in Morris in summer. The summer "lake crowd" has won out: people who need to get away to "the lake" in summer and don't want to bother with Prairie Pioneer Days. I personally think it's sad. Cyrus has Cyrus Days.
I keep thinking this problem is going to be remedied. When I first heard of the PPD decision, I was surprised and assumed there would be a quick reversal. But no. I'm told there is "a group" in town that is steadfast in its resolve to not have the summer-based festival anymore. Is this something we should be proud of? Very strange.
Regarding the Morris paper at the mere size of 14 pages, we must wonder: does it really need a full-time general manager (which they call publisher)? Does it need this individual who appears not to do any writing or ad sales except maybe on a spot basis? The cost of her salary must be passed on to customers.
We don't need a publisher only for the purpose of showing up at school board meetings and urging that the high school kids be allowed to wear hats in the classroom. The principal had a contrary view to that, but then the principal got in a spot of trouble. When the paper reported on its own publisher speaking at the school board meeting, she was identified with her newspaper role, and why was that relevant? It's an example, I would argue, of the chutzpah that continues to be shown by people in the legacy media. We'll get over it.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Friday, July 19, 2019
Earl Wilson pitched through racial barrier
I am a fan of McLain in the present because he co-hosts a wonderful sports podcast called "No Filter Sports." He's the guy who accomplished the herculean feat of winning 31 games in 1968. The number is on par with what Roger Maris did in 1961 with 61 home runs. Denny has had some trouble with lawbreaking in his life. At present he seems to be keeping his nose clean.
The No. 2 starting pitcher for Detroit in '68 was Lolich, the superb lefty. Lolich's extraneous claim to fame was for being judged overweight, at least by the standards of the time. Those standards were unforgiving compared to today. Today we barely bother passing judgment on anyone for appearing overweight. In the '60s, things were much different: a time when tight-fitting jeans were most popular among young people. Today it's all about comfort when it comes to clothing. (I might add that the '70s were worse for accenting the tightness.)
Earl Wilson was the No. 3 starting pitcher for those 1968 Tigers. I acquired a 1963 baseball card for Wilson when he was with the Boston Red Sox. I acquired only a few cards that year when I was eight years old. I seem to remember getting these at a neighborhood grocery store on the west side of the tracks in Morris MN. I was entranced.
I remember the '63 Topps cards having bright colors. It turns out that Wilson had historical significance as a Red Sox player at a time when that organization was very grudging with getting African-Americans on board.
Earl was a talented black man from Ponchatoula, Louisiana. His talent got the attention of the Red Sox organization early-on, and one has to wince reading the early scouting report: "He is a well-mannered colored boy, not too black, pleasant to talk to, well-educated, has a very good appearance and conducts himself as a gentleman." Well. . .
Remember that in the 1950s, "Ike" Eisenhower talked about "big overgrown Negroes" when he was weighing school integration. Are we so much more civilized now? As I write this I follow the media coverage of Donald Trump's Nuremberg-style political "rallies." We should be profoundly scared. Did the German people really know the path they were heading down in the 1930s? German people aren't stupid, are they? Are the American people of 2019 stupid?
Red Sox didn't make it easy
Red Sox general manager Bucky Harris seemed inclined to want to have an African-American on board with the big club. The top candidate then was Pumpsie Green. He played for Minneapolis until getting his belated nod to join the bigs. The Red Sox had a Neanderthal field manager who tried putting the brakes on Harris' sentiment. Manager Pinky Higgins went straight to owner Tom Yawkey and said: "There will be no (n-word) on this team as long as I have anything to do with it."
The guy would fit perfectly with a Trump rally in the present, wouldn't he? As with all pathetically regressive folks, time would solve the problem if enlightenment failed.
Green debuted with Boston in July of 1959. Wilson then came up a week later. Wilson had been held back some by service commitments with the Marines. He pitched for his first win on August 20, 1959. He also showed a trait that would become defining for him: an excellent hitting pitcher.
He became the first African-American to pitch a no-hitter in the American League when he beat the Angels and Bo Belinsky at Fenway Park in 1962. He even hit a home run in that game. Yawkey gave him a $1,000 bonus. That money went a lot further than!
Wilson became one of the first pro athletes to have an agent represent him in contract negotiations.
Not escaping race
Race figured into an incident that appeared to lead to Wilson getting traded. An incident? I can't leave that hanging because you might wonder what the heck happened. In 1966, Wilson and a couple teammates went to a bar for a drink in Florida. The bartender said the establishment did not serve (n-word). The party left. A writer heard the story about this and made it public.
In those days, the public didn't seem to appreciate their heroes going to a bar to unwind a little. This figured in their thoughts more than the racist offense. Wilson got traded to Detroit. He immediately performed well in the Motor City. And this continued into 1967 which proved to be Wilson's best season. He led the pitching staff with 22 wins. But the team got edged for the pennant by just one game.
The '68 campaign would bring to fruition all the Tigers fans' dreams. Wilson was most certainly on board but he was now out-shone by McLain and Lolich. Wilson had a quite acceptable record of 13-12 and a 2.85 ERA. He hit seven home runs in the season - incredible for a pitcher!
Wilson was the No. 3 starting pitcher for the '68 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Tigers dropped this game 7-3 and Wilson did not do particularly well, but the team won the Series.
In '69 Wilson fashioned a 12-10 record with a 3.31 ERA. The team was in second but trailed Baltimore by 19 games, a real bummer. Baltimore was fueled by Frank Robinson who lifted that team for years after his acquisition (in a steal) from the Cincinnati Reds. I'm personally bitter about that because my Twins had to settle for second in 1966, Robinson's first year as an Oriole - he won the triple crown and his team took it all.
Wilson's final season was 1970. All in all he had a terrific career and should be remembered better as a pioneering African-American player. He won 121 games. He hit 35 home runs to complement his pitching.
My Minnesota Twins had two good-hitting pitchers in that era: Jim Perry and Jim Kaat. We also had one of the worst in Dean Chance! Chance was unusual in that he hit poorly and fielded his position poorly, this despite the fact he had an excellent background as an all-around athlete. His pitching had to be extra sharp to compensate for his shortcomings! Man, we came within a whisker of winning the pennant in 1967. If we had just given up on Zoilo Versalles and accepted a serviceable shortstop. Versalles went into decline because of an inability to manage painkillers.
Two of Wilson's home runs came when he was pinch-hitting. The great catcher Bill Freehan commented that Wilson was a better hitter than some regulars on the roster. Well, remember that the '68 Tigers had Ray Oyler! Poor Ray picked up a reputation as a hopeless hitter. Detroit manager Mayo Smith eventually went with Mickey Stanley, an outfielder by specialty, at shortstop for the 1968 World Series.
Wilson led an exemplary overall life and this included his time after baseball. He left us for that pitching mound in the sky on April 23, 2005. God can feel pleased having this nice-hitting pitcher on the roster!
I was 13 years old when Detroit won their championship in 1968. The memories a boy forms at that age are irreplaceable.
I was mesmerized following Denny McLain and paid no mind to his later shortcomings of character. I'm pleased to be listening to his sports podcast today. A wonderful show with a panel of three - they have chemistry. Very candid and straightforward, and funny.
Finally, I'd like to share with you song lyrics I've written about the 1968 Detroit Tigers. It looks like a "strophic" melody but could probably be noted as AABB - some slight variations in melody although the pattern stays constant through the various stanzas. Earl Wilson is included. I invite you to read and enjoy this paean to the Motor City and its 1968 heroes.
"Ode to 1968 Tigers"
by Brian Williams
I was just a teenage boy
Back in '68
Baseball was a source of joy
Tigers made it great
There they were on baseball cards
Winning hearts of all
They were primed and playing hard
Answering the call
Yes it was a stressful time
In the USA
War and riots on our mind
So we had to pray
We had baseball to escape
'Cause we needed fun
Tigers were a team first-rate
Runner-up to none
Kaline was a superstar
Up on the marquee
In our city that made cars
He was royalty
Tigers were a Cadillac
In the A.L. race
They displayed their potent bats
And the gloves were great
Mayo Smith was manager
He could hardly miss
Never did a doubting word
Come across his lips
Yes it helped he had a squad
Talented and deep
They would play right into fall
Past the summer heat
Pitching on a pedestal
Garnering such fame
One guy won a bushel-full
Denny was his name
Freehan wore the catcher's mask
Back behind the plate
He was up to ev'ry task
Lifting up his mates
Norman had the first base glove
Tiger to the core
Symbol of a winning club
Breaking down the door
Stanley was in center field
Covered lots of ground
Then he got a whole new deal
Shortstop made him proud
Lolich was a southpaw gem
On the pitching mound
His resolve would never bend
As they sought the crown
Though his weight was tilting high
No one had to care
It would not affect his pride
None the worse for wear
Mister Wert just rode the tide
Playing third with ease
Strasburg P.A. felt its pride
When he took the field
Dick McAuliffe did the dance
In the infield scene
He had quite the batting stance
We could all agree
Horton could bring oohs and aahs
With his boxscore line
Cause his bat was really boss
As the Tigers climbed
Then there was the "Silver Fox"
Northrup was his name
Holding down an outfield spot
In the grand old game
There was Sparma on the hill
For the clinching game
He came through and filled the bill
Tigers never waned
Earl Wilson there to pitch
Did his job just fine
And this guy could really hit
For the Tiger nine
I was just a teenage boy
Back in '68
Baseball was a source of joy
Tigers made it great
When I dream they come alive
From my memory
Like they're still between the lines
For the fans to see
Tigers were my team
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Monday, July 15, 2019
The darkness that is Trump, obvious now
We are waking up to a new world now, in which the past whispers or suspicions about Donald Trump's racism and general mental instability are giving way to bald realization. Can we rule out any drastic prediction about Trump now?
Can we rule out that he might get drawn very directly into the whole Epstein thing? C'mon, can we rule it out? Can we rule out that he will harass the Federal Reserve into doing things that will have deleterious consequences?
I'm reminded of a college friend of mine, Brad from the Iron Range, who I knew mainly from dorm lounge conversations. He insisted that the average person had little idea and little interest in how "the Fed" affected their lives. Indeed the effect is profound, Brad asserted. He was a person of Finnish descent from Virginia MN.
Remember when Paul Volcker took over the Fed? He really made us "take our medicine." You see, this is what the Fed has to do sometimes: make decisions that cause short-term adversity but would be healthy long-term. We hear about the need for the Fed's "independence." So I was scared recently, as we all should be, to see headlines saying it's "uncertain" whether Trump can fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
If it's "uncertain," I guarantee you that our unstable commander in chief will test the limits. Doesn't he always?
We all know that some interest rate reduction would produce a sugar rush for Wall Street and this is what Trump prioritizes. He feels this is the only measuring stick for the economy and his re-election. Let's emphasize the latter. If a president has to concede that the Fed needs to raise interest rates, and if this lessens the chance for re-election, well so what? The president doesn't absolutely need the job, does he? He's doing it for public service or at least we think this, in theory. But doesn't Trump contradict our presumptions from theory? Isn't this clear by now?
Do you all need a big shot of caffeine to become sensitive to what's happening? Shouldn't Trump's sudden burst of naked racism and nativism awaken us? Do we want to be remembered in historical accounts as acquiescing to all that is going on?
Trump watches TV all day, bad enough in itself, and when he isn't consuming Fox News then it's the financial news networks, CNBC and Fox Business. He is absolutely determined to look good on the financial news shows - he can't risk any slippage there. When I was a kid, the financial news was boring. The Big 3 TV networks had a reporter like Irving R. Levine do a segment each day that seemed nothing more than filling an obligation. There was nothing sexy about the financial news, not at all like today.
So you think Trump can't fire the Fed chair? OK let's consider: the Fed chair can only be removed "for cause." I think Trump could at least try to drive a Mack truck through that, based on his fantastical and paranoid delusions. He once criticized Janet Yellen for not raising interest rates fast enough. Why would he have argued that? In his defensive mindset, he thought Yellen was just "trying to help Obama."
So now, his fear is that Powell would refuse to cut interest rates merely as an act of being anti-Trump. Might Powell be anti-Trump? A good share of the people who are still in their right mind are skeptics of Trump. If Powell is found to have shared even one skeptical comment about Trump, even in a private conversation, even in a party conversation, Trump could seize on this as being "cause" for removing the Fed chair.
Nobody is prohibited from having their own personal political views, not even FBI agents. What are these institutions supposed to do? Screen all prospective employees to see if they've ever shared a political opinion with anyone?
We might already be suspicious of the Fed because it is run by un-elected people. That's a rational doubt to have about the Fed, not like Trump's paranoid position.
I'm suggesting that Trump is desperate to get re-elected. Why do I assert this? It's because I have a brain. Trump knows that if he is forced to leave the presidency, he'll be a sitting duck for the Southern District of New York and all the "goods" they have on him.
I guess a sitting president cannot be indicted for anything, although once again there is some disturbing gray area. What if accounts come forward of Trump engaging in sexual conduct with minors as a result of the rolling revelations about Epstein? Can you really tell me that such suspicions are absurd and could never have factual grounding? I wouldn't rule out Bill Clinton even. Clinton was willing to receive oral sex from an intern right in the White House, and BTW when are we finally going to get a graphic movie about this?
Clinton may still be somewhat of a hero to the progressive crowd but I think that is now with substantial reservations. At the time the whole Clinton/Lewinsky thing was unraveling - and BTW why did we call it the Lewinsky scandal and not the Clinton scandal? - I wanted Clinton to resign. It's not like we'd be turning the presidency over to Bob Dole. Bob Dole? The Republicans of today would skewer the man for being too moderate. So they embrace Donald Trump.
Where will it end? How will it end? Can Trump ever be made to leave the White House? He has attorneys pounding away with counter-actions all the time, to restrain reasonable efforts at oversight. Could lawyers stand in the way of an orderly change in the presidency? Didn't that Cohen fellow warn us with a look of grave seriousness in his eyes?
We need a hero now, someone who has been in Trump's orbit and is ready to do an about-face. We should pray every day that this happens. If it does not, heaven help us all.
So the interests of Wall Street come first? I'm looking at the July 15 entry in the daily devotional book given me by Knute Nelson Hospice. The apostle Paul warned his protege Timothy: "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." And "some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
I know the local Apostolic Christians consider it very important to make money. Is Neil Schmidgall still flying his "Trump" flag in front of his residence north of Morris? If you know him, please advise him to take it down. To anyone offended by my comments, I'd just say that I'm proud to make them.
Addendum: It is halfway through the day Monday as I post this, and it appears we're getting into "Alice Through the Looking Glass" territory.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Can we rule out that he might get drawn very directly into the whole Epstein thing? C'mon, can we rule it out? Can we rule out that he will harass the Federal Reserve into doing things that will have deleterious consequences?
I'm reminded of a college friend of mine, Brad from the Iron Range, who I knew mainly from dorm lounge conversations. He insisted that the average person had little idea and little interest in how "the Fed" affected their lives. Indeed the effect is profound, Brad asserted. He was a person of Finnish descent from Virginia MN.
Remember when Paul Volcker took over the Fed? He really made us "take our medicine." You see, this is what the Fed has to do sometimes: make decisions that cause short-term adversity but would be healthy long-term. We hear about the need for the Fed's "independence." So I was scared recently, as we all should be, to see headlines saying it's "uncertain" whether Trump can fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
If it's "uncertain," I guarantee you that our unstable commander in chief will test the limits. Doesn't he always?
We all know that some interest rate reduction would produce a sugar rush for Wall Street and this is what Trump prioritizes. He feels this is the only measuring stick for the economy and his re-election. Let's emphasize the latter. If a president has to concede that the Fed needs to raise interest rates, and if this lessens the chance for re-election, well so what? The president doesn't absolutely need the job, does he? He's doing it for public service or at least we think this, in theory. But doesn't Trump contradict our presumptions from theory? Isn't this clear by now?
Do you all need a big shot of caffeine to become sensitive to what's happening? Shouldn't Trump's sudden burst of naked racism and nativism awaken us? Do we want to be remembered in historical accounts as acquiescing to all that is going on?
Trump watches TV all day, bad enough in itself, and when he isn't consuming Fox News then it's the financial news networks, CNBC and Fox Business. He is absolutely determined to look good on the financial news shows - he can't risk any slippage there. When I was a kid, the financial news was boring. The Big 3 TV networks had a reporter like Irving R. Levine do a segment each day that seemed nothing more than filling an obligation. There was nothing sexy about the financial news, not at all like today.
So you think Trump can't fire the Fed chair? OK let's consider: the Fed chair can only be removed "for cause." I think Trump could at least try to drive a Mack truck through that, based on his fantastical and paranoid delusions. He once criticized Janet Yellen for not raising interest rates fast enough. Why would he have argued that? In his defensive mindset, he thought Yellen was just "trying to help Obama."
So now, his fear is that Powell would refuse to cut interest rates merely as an act of being anti-Trump. Might Powell be anti-Trump? A good share of the people who are still in their right mind are skeptics of Trump. If Powell is found to have shared even one skeptical comment about Trump, even in a private conversation, even in a party conversation, Trump could seize on this as being "cause" for removing the Fed chair.
Nobody is prohibited from having their own personal political views, not even FBI agents. What are these institutions supposed to do? Screen all prospective employees to see if they've ever shared a political opinion with anyone?
We might already be suspicious of the Fed because it is run by un-elected people. That's a rational doubt to have about the Fed, not like Trump's paranoid position.
I'm suggesting that Trump is desperate to get re-elected. Why do I assert this? It's because I have a brain. Trump knows that if he is forced to leave the presidency, he'll be a sitting duck for the Southern District of New York and all the "goods" they have on him.
I guess a sitting president cannot be indicted for anything, although once again there is some disturbing gray area. What if accounts come forward of Trump engaging in sexual conduct with minors as a result of the rolling revelations about Epstein? Can you really tell me that such suspicions are absurd and could never have factual grounding? I wouldn't rule out Bill Clinton even. Clinton was willing to receive oral sex from an intern right in the White House, and BTW when are we finally going to get a graphic movie about this?
Clinton may still be somewhat of a hero to the progressive crowd but I think that is now with substantial reservations. At the time the whole Clinton/Lewinsky thing was unraveling - and BTW why did we call it the Lewinsky scandal and not the Clinton scandal? - I wanted Clinton to resign. It's not like we'd be turning the presidency over to Bob Dole. Bob Dole? The Republicans of today would skewer the man for being too moderate. So they embrace Donald Trump.
Where will it end? How will it end? Can Trump ever be made to leave the White House? He has attorneys pounding away with counter-actions all the time, to restrain reasonable efforts at oversight. Could lawyers stand in the way of an orderly change in the presidency? Didn't that Cohen fellow warn us with a look of grave seriousness in his eyes?
We need a hero now, someone who has been in Trump's orbit and is ready to do an about-face. We should pray every day that this happens. If it does not, heaven help us all.
So the interests of Wall Street come first? I'm looking at the July 15 entry in the daily devotional book given me by Knute Nelson Hospice. The apostle Paul warned his protege Timothy: "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." And "some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
I know the local Apostolic Christians consider it very important to make money. Is Neil Schmidgall still flying his "Trump" flag in front of his residence north of Morris? If you know him, please advise him to take it down. To anyone offended by my comments, I'd just say that I'm proud to make them.
Addendum: It is halfway through the day Monday as I post this, and it appears we're getting into "Alice Through the Looking Glass" territory.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Friday, July 12, 2019
Still some vestiges of Prairie Pioneer Days
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| Skip Killoran, son of the late beloved Eleanor Killoran, is at right. |
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| Ken Hodgson leads the community choir during talent night at the park. |
The city is way overdue fixing a pregnant problem at East Side Park: that cement or asphalt area in the middle. This should have been addressed long ago, and if money is an issue, maybe some civic-oriented private interests could get involved. Skip Killoran has reportedly expressed concern about the limited use of the stage, very understandable.
The few events at the Killoran stage are notorious for having the audience sprinkled around the perimeter of the park, because on a warm or sunny day they find it uncomfortable to congregate on the cement area. Sometimes it seems laughable. So why don't we do something about it? Why not have a community band concert weekly at the park in summer? I have suggested that high school-age kids could assemble there weekly for performances. Too much to ask of them?
Well, I was in the Morris High School band when we had marching band rehearsals all week long in summer - no problem getting kids to turn out. If kids today can get fired up to attend those sports camps, why can't some musically-oriented kids get together to share their talents? Del Sarlette says I should talk to the high school band director about that. Not sure what he's implying.
Pretty soon we'll have the county fair. I have never recovered from the confusion I felt when the community supper was switched to Tuesday. At first I thought the fair had simply expanded by a day, understandable. But no, Wednesday at the fair seemed the same as it's always been. I took Mom out there and saw "private parking" signs along the drive to the main parking lot. I was flabbergasted.
"Private parking" for our county fair? Turns out the Superior people had taken over. It's not appropriate.
A disturbing backdrop
President Trump is talking to reporters on TV as I write this. He just quoted Rush Limbaugh. It's July 12 in Morris MN. It ought to be a happy time with people converging on East Side Park for the weekend.
President Trump is so ignorant, rude and dangerous - we all know this - we wonder where our nation is headed. Oh, to have a "normal" respectful and intelligent president and to have the upbeat feeling that accompanies Prairie Pioneer Days in Morris. We hear that ICE raids might be taking off. We see a strengthening of the executive branch of government with a president who is so deferential to autocratic leaders.
The president demonizes Democrats as if they are fundamentally bad people. Were the eight years of Barack Obama so terrible? Well of course not. President Trump exudes defensiveness and rancor. We hear the news about Epstein as evidence of a growing immoral plutocracy. We seem to countenance it.
The Christian faith is at a crossroads now. So many in its ranks are knee-jerk behind the president - no intellectual curiosity at all, no sense of restraint, of sober reflection. Every Christian should apply every fiber of his/her being to trying to ensure Trump exits the presidency.
Trump intimidates the press. He's doing it right now as I write this. Trump's demonstrable lies are constant. He has minions around him like William Barr. You will always find people like this, people who might be otherwise sensible but see an opportunity to be close to power. How dangerous might this become?
Trump talks about the "fake" New York Times. Do you really believe that? Don't you think Trump and the Times are actually diametrically opposed when it comes to credibility? Trump right now is decrying Paul Ryan, using language that a bullying seventh grade boy would use. Why don't we hear more outrage about this out and around? What is the matter with us?
It is Friday today and I am noticing vestiges of Prairie Pioneer Days. Is it true that Heartland Motors has chosen to rebel against the re-scheduling of Prairie Pioneer Days? I notice that they're having the big annual classic car show this weekend, just as if PPD still existed. What do you make of that? Or, what do you make of the public library having a big used book display out front last night, in conjunction with the farmers market? The book sale always struck me as a major kick-off event for PPD. People would just stream in and out of the community meeting room of the library.
So, to an extent there is still an air of special activity in Motown in mid-July. There are vestiges of PPD.
When I first learned of the event's cancellation for summertime, I was taken aback, as someone who normally hears snippets or rumors that something is about to happen. I never dreamt that the cancellation of the summer PPD would ever be on the table.
I read the media report that the Chamber did this pursuant to a "survey." Well my goodness, think of the basic psychology about this. How was the survey question worded? In other words, was there a presumption that there was an issue with the summer PPD?
My only complaint toward the end with PPD was that "ribfest" might be getting too much attention. But I would never present this observation as grounds for nixing PPD in summer. I guess I'm already concerned about how Superior is accommodated for the county fair. Superior is obviously very important and successful, but I don't like it acting like the 800-pound gorilla. I also don't like how the perception of Superior seems inseparable from religion. The company's patriarch has flown a "Trump" flag under an American flag outside his residence just north of Morris. Fortunately this is on a very lightly traveled road. Increasingly I'm offended by this.
Trump is browbeating the Federal Reserve as he exhibits behavior that in the past would have been derided as violating Washington D.C. norms. Trump is trampling on the norms. Is he now going to unleash ICE? Will the Christian church actually protest this? My ELCA synod probably would. But we're put down by many as politically liberal these days. We believe climate change theory, unlike the dunce president who says it's a "hoax."
What is to become of us all?
Normally I'd be taking my (now deceased) parents to East Side Park early afternoon Saturday, where they'd grab a lunch from the church foodstand, "Luther's Eatery." It was a good place to eat if you didn't have political aversion to supporting the ELCA. There are a lot of fanatical red-staters around Stevens County. The irony is that these people, largely up in years, would be personally better off if they could just accept some Democratic Party leadership, the party that believes in taking care of senior citizens and ensuring there's a proper safety net, not just throwing more money at the military.
The prospects for our nation's recovery do not appear good, sadly.
What about the prospects for PPD returning to its proper place on the calendar? I don't know.
Kevin Wohlers said to the Chamber: "Are you sure this is what people want?" Maybe the question on the cotton pickin' "survey" was worded in such a way as to encourage grumbling or negativity. Sometimes it's in our nature to think like this. Maybe that's especially true in Morris. We know we don't have a lot of special amenities here. We're on the other side of the coin from Alexandria.
That doesn't mean that Morris cannot be a special place in its own way. The summer PPD was a nice gesture toward experiencing this.
Addendum: Paul Ryan objects to how Trump once called Stormy Daniels "Horse Face." Frankly I find Daniels to be an attractive woman. So, this is the Apostolics' president.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
In past we'd be preparing for PPD
I imagine the coming weekend is when we'd normally have Prairie Pioneer Days (PPD) in Morris. It is hard to avoid a sense of loss. The creation of this festival was considered a big deal at one time.
I am getting to an age where my memories are becoming more exclusive. I hope my blogs will someday be seen as having value for preserving the memories. Like of the Centennial in 1971. That event proved that our community could handle a summer festival, could pull it off.
When I began full-time at the Morris paper, we had the Fall Festival which was a precursor to Prairie Pioneer Days. The Fall Festival that I recall is not to be confused with the later event organized by Vicky Dosdall at the fairgrounds. And now I hear that the "new" Prairie Pioneer Days, about which I am skeptical, will be at the fairgrounds.
I admit I could be proven wrong and that the change will be considered worthwhile. We might as well hope for the best. Even in summer there is risk with the weather, so in early fall we can presume the risk is even greater.
We are going through a change of leadership at the Chamber of Commerce. A well-placed source tells me that up until now, the transition has not been good for the Chamber's operations.
Kevin Wohlers made public comments suggesting we should not have pulled the plug on the summer Prairie Pioneer Days. It is true that far fewer people see the drastically shrinking Morris newspaper, but the paper still has enough readers (I hate to admit) that quotes such as Kevin's can make him the spokesman for a point of view.
I do think there are a couple of issues with Eastside Park as the focal point. I would like to criticize the city for having neglected the issue of that big cement or asphalt surface in the center of the park. That surface serves no positive purpose at all. It is a detriment.
Allow me to elaborate: Yesterday (Monday) I did something I have not done in years: brought a basketball into town to shoot some hoops. There are two hoops at Eastside Park. In theory some kids could play a game there. How often do you see anyone using those hoops? How often do you even see a solitary person shooting hoops there? Well, I genuinely tried on Monday.
I don't know if the hard surface is the same as what existed there in the early 1970s. Maybe it's the same surface but it has deteriorated. Weeds are growing from cracks. It is not a smooth surface. Back during my last couple years in high school, enough kids would gather at the park to play a lively game of basketball. I remember showing up alone with my ball sometimes, then getting joined by neighborhood kids like Tom Moldenhauer or Mark Ness. We might play "horse." Fun times to be sure.
On Monday I noticed my ball getting all marked up as a result of the rough surface, making me wonder if the ball was being damaged. I didn't want it to strike the ground any more than necessary. So next time I'll try Wells Park where hoops are found also. But it's too bad if I would have to give up on Eastside Park.
The cement or asphalt seems not just deleterious for basketball, it has been a hindrance for audiences that might like to enjoy a performance at the Killoran stage. If the Killoran stage strikes you as a white elephant, it is because the park was not fundamentally re-designed to accommodate it. People are averse to sitting there whenever the sun is out.
Only once have I been present there when the conditions were really acceptable for people being in the aluminum bleachers: it was a UMM jazz performance in early fall (as I recall) when the temperature was comfortably cool and the sun was under the clouds. If the conditions are not perfect, people will avoid the hard surface at park's center, and I think this has really been an abomination for this community. That's a strong word but I don't think the solution would be that hard.
If the city doesn't want to pay for it, maybe some philanthropic interests could step forward.
As far as PPD was concerned, I have memories of driving on the streets immediately around the park on that weekend, and feeling I had to go extra slow. Cars were of course parked in every available spot. I found it was best to drive a couple blocks away to avoid congestion, because people might be popping out between parked cars to cross the street.
Secondly, where does one park when the nearby spots are all taken? I had a little trick figured out when I dropped off my parents: I'd pull off to the side on the end of an alley where my temporarily parked car was not going to cause any problems. Five or so minutes later I'd move the car to a long-term spot, probably 3-4 blocks away.
And therein lies another issue: what about senior citizens or other people who are not particularly mobile? People who are spry can walk several blocks, no problem. But we have an aging population these days. We have heightened sensitivity about accommodating elderly and handicapped people. This is an important factor to consider.
Maybe it's an unavoidable issue, but I will always have the warmest memories of the summer PPD. I probably abused my position at the Morris newspaper when I promoted or "puffed" it at the time of its creation. And, I was most ambitious covering it over the years. I'd ride my bike out to the halfway point of the 10K run, out along the biking/walking trail by the river. It was exhilarating. There was truly a sense of excitement.
By comparison, what kind of atmosphere are we going to sense this coming weekend in Morris? Maybe 50 years from now, a group of people in Morris, largely out of nostalgia, will organize a mid-July event patterned after the "old" Prairie Pioneer Days.
Addendum: One of the banes of my existence has been to struggle with whether it's "Eastside Park" or "East Side." This is the sort of thing where, if I was suspected of the wrong version in my Morris Sun Tribune writing, I would not only be corrected, I'd be insulted as being something of an idiot, at least by certain people. I worked in that environment for years. I have joked with Jim Morrison that if God intends to punish me in the afterlife, He will have me type "Holstein" over and over. No matter how I typed it, the editor would put a blue pen marking over it. Is the "e" before the "i" or vice versa? Capitalized or not capitalized? One big change today: In seconds one can consult with Google to resolve anything.
Addendum #2: This is unrelated but let me just postulate: If Trump himself were found to be guilty of having sex with the underage human trafficking victims - the whole Epstein thing - would his "base" even care? Would the local Apostolics care? I don't think they would.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
I am getting to an age where my memories are becoming more exclusive. I hope my blogs will someday be seen as having value for preserving the memories. Like of the Centennial in 1971. That event proved that our community could handle a summer festival, could pull it off.
When I began full-time at the Morris paper, we had the Fall Festival which was a precursor to Prairie Pioneer Days. The Fall Festival that I recall is not to be confused with the later event organized by Vicky Dosdall at the fairgrounds. And now I hear that the "new" Prairie Pioneer Days, about which I am skeptical, will be at the fairgrounds.
I admit I could be proven wrong and that the change will be considered worthwhile. We might as well hope for the best. Even in summer there is risk with the weather, so in early fall we can presume the risk is even greater.
We are going through a change of leadership at the Chamber of Commerce. A well-placed source tells me that up until now, the transition has not been good for the Chamber's operations.
Kevin Wohlers made public comments suggesting we should not have pulled the plug on the summer Prairie Pioneer Days. It is true that far fewer people see the drastically shrinking Morris newspaper, but the paper still has enough readers (I hate to admit) that quotes such as Kevin's can make him the spokesman for a point of view.
I do think there are a couple of issues with Eastside Park as the focal point. I would like to criticize the city for having neglected the issue of that big cement or asphalt surface in the center of the park. That surface serves no positive purpose at all. It is a detriment.
Allow me to elaborate: Yesterday (Monday) I did something I have not done in years: brought a basketball into town to shoot some hoops. There are two hoops at Eastside Park. In theory some kids could play a game there. How often do you see anyone using those hoops? How often do you even see a solitary person shooting hoops there? Well, I genuinely tried on Monday.
I don't know if the hard surface is the same as what existed there in the early 1970s. Maybe it's the same surface but it has deteriorated. Weeds are growing from cracks. It is not a smooth surface. Back during my last couple years in high school, enough kids would gather at the park to play a lively game of basketball. I remember showing up alone with my ball sometimes, then getting joined by neighborhood kids like Tom Moldenhauer or Mark Ness. We might play "horse." Fun times to be sure.
On Monday I noticed my ball getting all marked up as a result of the rough surface, making me wonder if the ball was being damaged. I didn't want it to strike the ground any more than necessary. So next time I'll try Wells Park where hoops are found also. But it's too bad if I would have to give up on Eastside Park.
The cement or asphalt seems not just deleterious for basketball, it has been a hindrance for audiences that might like to enjoy a performance at the Killoran stage. If the Killoran stage strikes you as a white elephant, it is because the park was not fundamentally re-designed to accommodate it. People are averse to sitting there whenever the sun is out.
Only once have I been present there when the conditions were really acceptable for people being in the aluminum bleachers: it was a UMM jazz performance in early fall (as I recall) when the temperature was comfortably cool and the sun was under the clouds. If the conditions are not perfect, people will avoid the hard surface at park's center, and I think this has really been an abomination for this community. That's a strong word but I don't think the solution would be that hard.
If the city doesn't want to pay for it, maybe some philanthropic interests could step forward.
As far as PPD was concerned, I have memories of driving on the streets immediately around the park on that weekend, and feeling I had to go extra slow. Cars were of course parked in every available spot. I found it was best to drive a couple blocks away to avoid congestion, because people might be popping out between parked cars to cross the street.
Secondly, where does one park when the nearby spots are all taken? I had a little trick figured out when I dropped off my parents: I'd pull off to the side on the end of an alley where my temporarily parked car was not going to cause any problems. Five or so minutes later I'd move the car to a long-term spot, probably 3-4 blocks away.
And therein lies another issue: what about senior citizens or other people who are not particularly mobile? People who are spry can walk several blocks, no problem. But we have an aging population these days. We have heightened sensitivity about accommodating elderly and handicapped people. This is an important factor to consider.
Maybe it's an unavoidable issue, but I will always have the warmest memories of the summer PPD. I probably abused my position at the Morris newspaper when I promoted or "puffed" it at the time of its creation. And, I was most ambitious covering it over the years. I'd ride my bike out to the halfway point of the 10K run, out along the biking/walking trail by the river. It was exhilarating. There was truly a sense of excitement.
By comparison, what kind of atmosphere are we going to sense this coming weekend in Morris? Maybe 50 years from now, a group of people in Morris, largely out of nostalgia, will organize a mid-July event patterned after the "old" Prairie Pioneer Days.
Addendum: One of the banes of my existence has been to struggle with whether it's "Eastside Park" or "East Side." This is the sort of thing where, if I was suspected of the wrong version in my Morris Sun Tribune writing, I would not only be corrected, I'd be insulted as being something of an idiot, at least by certain people. I worked in that environment for years. I have joked with Jim Morrison that if God intends to punish me in the afterlife, He will have me type "Holstein" over and over. No matter how I typed it, the editor would put a blue pen marking over it. Is the "e" before the "i" or vice versa? Capitalized or not capitalized? One big change today: In seconds one can consult with Google to resolve anything.
Addendum #2: This is unrelated but let me just postulate: If Trump himself were found to be guilty of having sex with the underage human trafficking victims - the whole Epstein thing - would his "base" even care? Would the local Apostolics care? I don't think they would.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Mad Magazine continues the drift from print
Now it's Mad Magazine that has joined the list of defunct print products. The print version of Mad is being retired. Ten years ago this would have been a bigger story. It is hardly a blip now because we increasingly feel less need for on-paper everything.
Let me run this by you: do you share my feeling that our Willie's grocery store doesn't need to bother with the weekly ad circular? We get ours in the mailbox. It's a slight annoyance because I have to examine it well enough to be sure no letters are stuck inside. Then I just toss it. I know Willie's wants to trumpet prices so that we can be aware of how we might save pennies on certain items. I'm dubious about this.
Don't you think ads lure us into 1) buying items we don't necessarily want or need, 2) buying items in greater quantities than we might desire, or 3) buying brands or versions that would not be our top preference? I have told Paul Martin that more and more of us go to Willie's every day to simply buy a small number of items. I go there fixated on just buying a few specific things. I'm not going to be persuaded by an "ad" to do anything different.
There are more and more single people among us, more retirees who aren't shopping for a family with kids. Seems to me the deli should be continually expanded. The idea of filling our cart with raw materials for home-cooked meals is becoming impractical. It doesn't matter how you might save pennies on some of these items. If you still do things the old-fashioned way, from Norman Rockwell's America, you end up with dirty dishes at the end of the day, a hassle and a cause of eventually having a clogged drain if you aren't careful.
I'm not lazy when it comes to my attitude of "doing dishes," I just find it's not worth the trouble. Perhaps I'm no example for our population at large because I'm living alone. That's unfortunate but it's a forced circumstance. But I'll repeat: there are more and more singles out there.
We see a product called "Daily Harvest" advertised on TV. The commercial starts out "I haven't bought groceries in weeks." Wow! Not music to Paul Martin's ears I guess. But the Paul Martins of the world still have to adjust. Just as the car industry is adjusting to electric cars.
The Canary publication still gets distributed locally. On average it's much smaller than it used to be and it has "filler." Seems that we often see two full pages for Jim Gesswein Motors (Milbank?) while on many weeks I see no display for our Heartland. And Valu Ford? It seems not to be there at all, but does it matter? Obviously people go online to research major purchases of all kinds.
Is Gesswein an old-fashioned "holdout" or are there special reasons for their generosity with the stodgy old print media, with ads that get ink on your fingers?
Our Morris paper has canceled its free shopper, the "Ad-Viser." It's something for the museum now. When I worked at the paper, I'd spend Friday loading Ad-Viser bundles into the van in Lowry. Those memories are for the archive. Man, those bundles could seem endless, so one day an employee there teased me: "Brian, are you sure there's room (in the van) for you?" Now it's gone, gone with the wind I guess. And we don't care because whatever need was felt for that thing before, is gone now.
It's not "news" when such a thing vanishes, and it's only minor news that Mad Magazine is done as a print product.
A headline about Mad gets the interest of boomers like me for whom Mad was an essential part of growing up. I read a book called "The End of Victory Culture" in which the author noted a supreme irony: "Mad" poked fun at the very things that were symbols of the good, affluent lives our parents had given us. Our parents were the Depression/World War II generation. What a different life story they had from us.
Shortly after the Morris paper cut off my "comp" subscription - I didn't take it hard because I learned from Jim Morrison that Ed Morrison had been cut off the same way - the folks there must have thought I wouldn't mind getting the Ad-Viser stuffed in my mailbox. I actually felt enraged by that. I promptly left a note in their off-hours drop box that I didn't want it. They complied. I didn't want to speak face to face with anyone there.
I'd wager that the non-locally owned Morris paper has been a humorless place for some time. The paper often comes out as a mere 14 pages now - I think it was 16 last week. The material on pages 1-3 seems largely "fluff" or happy news - it's not necessary for us to see. What would be necessary, is articles on local government that are really probing, letting us know about issues or conflicts so we might help adjudicate. All the "happy" news seems like it might cause an inferiority complex as we see attention given so many happy, successful, award-winning people. Meanwhile as the saying goes, the majority of us "lead lives of quiet desperation."
A writer who poked fun at the "happy news" satirized this by giving a mock headline: "How I named my hamster." There's a headline for the Morris Sun Tribune or whatever it's called: "How I named my hamster."
As with the demise of the print Mad Magazine, the demise of the Morris paper when it finally comes will not strike us as a big deal.
Ten years ago the closing of Shopko would have been jaw-dropping. I don't think it is now, even though it should be. We are all too happy these days to defer to the big impersonal corporate world and its ethos, to just accept whatever happens and shrug. I guess I'm old fashioned.
When I was with the Morris paper, the summer Prairie Pioneer Days was a huge calendar highlight. Who could have foreseen that it would just disappear? Very odd. The Stevens County Museum should do an elaborate exhibit with lots of photos about what the summer PPD was like in Morris. It will be one of the most special chapters in the community's history.
So, Mad Magazine has been laid to rest as a print product. As the media world got more and more fragmented, I think it was hard for Mad to satirize things. Mad was at its best when we had the Big 3 TV networks. Entertainment was packaged for a mass audience which meant it had to be watered down, and this lent itself to parody. Today with niche programming taking over ever more, we can find what we truly want in the media.
Mad Magazine will be preserved in the pantheon of our nation's history. Here is how the boomer generation got its laughs. Will young people just be puzzled as they ponder what made us tick?
Addendum: I was at Morris library today and saw new Morris paper of 14 pages total. Only issue of the week. How can they continue with a staff of six people? The business could probably be managed from Alexandria. If Morris paper gets nixed, we'll probably be offered the Alex paper which has the same owner. What is the point of the Dairy Month page?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Let me run this by you: do you share my feeling that our Willie's grocery store doesn't need to bother with the weekly ad circular? We get ours in the mailbox. It's a slight annoyance because I have to examine it well enough to be sure no letters are stuck inside. Then I just toss it. I know Willie's wants to trumpet prices so that we can be aware of how we might save pennies on certain items. I'm dubious about this.
Don't you think ads lure us into 1) buying items we don't necessarily want or need, 2) buying items in greater quantities than we might desire, or 3) buying brands or versions that would not be our top preference? I have told Paul Martin that more and more of us go to Willie's every day to simply buy a small number of items. I go there fixated on just buying a few specific things. I'm not going to be persuaded by an "ad" to do anything different.
There are more and more single people among us, more retirees who aren't shopping for a family with kids. Seems to me the deli should be continually expanded. The idea of filling our cart with raw materials for home-cooked meals is becoming impractical. It doesn't matter how you might save pennies on some of these items. If you still do things the old-fashioned way, from Norman Rockwell's America, you end up with dirty dishes at the end of the day, a hassle and a cause of eventually having a clogged drain if you aren't careful.
I'm not lazy when it comes to my attitude of "doing dishes," I just find it's not worth the trouble. Perhaps I'm no example for our population at large because I'm living alone. That's unfortunate but it's a forced circumstance. But I'll repeat: there are more and more singles out there.
We see a product called "Daily Harvest" advertised on TV. The commercial starts out "I haven't bought groceries in weeks." Wow! Not music to Paul Martin's ears I guess. But the Paul Martins of the world still have to adjust. Just as the car industry is adjusting to electric cars.
The Canary publication still gets distributed locally. On average it's much smaller than it used to be and it has "filler." Seems that we often see two full pages for Jim Gesswein Motors (Milbank?) while on many weeks I see no display for our Heartland. And Valu Ford? It seems not to be there at all, but does it matter? Obviously people go online to research major purchases of all kinds.
Is Gesswein an old-fashioned "holdout" or are there special reasons for their generosity with the stodgy old print media, with ads that get ink on your fingers?
Our Morris paper has canceled its free shopper, the "Ad-Viser." It's something for the museum now. When I worked at the paper, I'd spend Friday loading Ad-Viser bundles into the van in Lowry. Those memories are for the archive. Man, those bundles could seem endless, so one day an employee there teased me: "Brian, are you sure there's room (in the van) for you?" Now it's gone, gone with the wind I guess. And we don't care because whatever need was felt for that thing before, is gone now.
It's not "news" when such a thing vanishes, and it's only minor news that Mad Magazine is done as a print product.
A headline about Mad gets the interest of boomers like me for whom Mad was an essential part of growing up. I read a book called "The End of Victory Culture" in which the author noted a supreme irony: "Mad" poked fun at the very things that were symbols of the good, affluent lives our parents had given us. Our parents were the Depression/World War II generation. What a different life story they had from us.
Shortly after the Morris paper cut off my "comp" subscription - I didn't take it hard because I learned from Jim Morrison that Ed Morrison had been cut off the same way - the folks there must have thought I wouldn't mind getting the Ad-Viser stuffed in my mailbox. I actually felt enraged by that. I promptly left a note in their off-hours drop box that I didn't want it. They complied. I didn't want to speak face to face with anyone there.
I'd wager that the non-locally owned Morris paper has been a humorless place for some time. The paper often comes out as a mere 14 pages now - I think it was 16 last week. The material on pages 1-3 seems largely "fluff" or happy news - it's not necessary for us to see. What would be necessary, is articles on local government that are really probing, letting us know about issues or conflicts so we might help adjudicate. All the "happy" news seems like it might cause an inferiority complex as we see attention given so many happy, successful, award-winning people. Meanwhile as the saying goes, the majority of us "lead lives of quiet desperation."
A writer who poked fun at the "happy news" satirized this by giving a mock headline: "How I named my hamster." There's a headline for the Morris Sun Tribune or whatever it's called: "How I named my hamster."
As with the demise of the print Mad Magazine, the demise of the Morris paper when it finally comes will not strike us as a big deal.
Ten years ago the closing of Shopko would have been jaw-dropping. I don't think it is now, even though it should be. We are all too happy these days to defer to the big impersonal corporate world and its ethos, to just accept whatever happens and shrug. I guess I'm old fashioned.
When I was with the Morris paper, the summer Prairie Pioneer Days was a huge calendar highlight. Who could have foreseen that it would just disappear? Very odd. The Stevens County Museum should do an elaborate exhibit with lots of photos about what the summer PPD was like in Morris. It will be one of the most special chapters in the community's history.
So, Mad Magazine has been laid to rest as a print product. As the media world got more and more fragmented, I think it was hard for Mad to satirize things. Mad was at its best when we had the Big 3 TV networks. Entertainment was packaged for a mass audience which meant it had to be watered down, and this lent itself to parody. Today with niche programming taking over ever more, we can find what we truly want in the media.
Mad Magazine will be preserved in the pantheon of our nation's history. Here is how the boomer generation got its laughs. Will young people just be puzzled as they ponder what made us tick?
Addendum: I was at Morris library today and saw new Morris paper of 14 pages total. Only issue of the week. How can they continue with a staff of six people? The business could probably be managed from Alexandria. If Morris paper gets nixed, we'll probably be offered the Alex paper which has the same owner. What is the point of the Dairy Month page?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
The alliance of evangelicals & Donald Trump
I hope the mainstream, moderate people who call themselves Christians in Morris hang in there. My own perception is that the fervor is not overwhelming at the two ELCA churches and Federated of Morris. Plenty of nice people to be sure, and among the older folks they are probably clueless about the political overtones with the commitment to Christianity today.
We hear the term "evangelical" in the news. Sometime it would be nice to get a precise definition. The generally accepted definition now seems squishy. It seems more like code language than anything. Surely these people are Republican and it's just a matter of how far right they want to go, how reactionary they want to be. It has been said that the rapid growth of the "nones" - that portion of the population having departed from organized religion - springs from the association of Christianity with right wing politics. The millennials sense something is up. And a child shall lead them.
People who make their living in religion notice the reality. They have to be attuned to membership and money. In theory the proper principles and commitment to Christianity's tenets should promote those objectives.
We learn that 81 percent of "evangelicals" voted for Trump. Shall we put the local Apostolics in with the broader evangelicals? In terms of basic attitude and comportment, they seem similar if not identical. I have asked before: Is it possible that even one local Apostolic did not vote for Trump? We can rattle off some of the other local church names that seem to equate with "evangelical." How many non-Trump voters in this swath of people? Even one?
It becomes a concerning thing when you worry about our basic fate as a nation. What about our economy where the pivotal factors have nothing to do with social and moral questions? How well-schooled are you all on the Federal Reserve? There's a well-established saying "don't fight the Fed." There's a general understanding in the Beltway, even if not put forward in firm legal terms, that politicians don't rock the boat with the Fed.
Someone like George W. Bush, surely an ideological conservative, understood that. The current president is so off the wall, eccentric and ignorant, almost going beyond a parody of himself, we wonder what on earth is going to happen. The seeds may be getting planted now, the seeds for eventual catastrophe. Ignore these words at your own peril.
Evangelicals embraced Trump to a greater extent than they did Bush or the squeaky-clean Mitt Romney. It puzzles the heck out of me.
Excessive zeal maybe?
There is a very iconic local resident who has displayed a Trump flag in front of his residence just north of Morris. Are we witnessing some sort of mass delusion? Why have so many among us fallen for the amoral reality TV star? One possible basis is fear. I once read that extreme conservatives feel fear as a matter of instinct, I mean if there's a sudden loud noise right behind them.
Fundamentalists were once scared of Darwinism. We hardly need to review the fear felt by Southerners toward civil rights. The evangelicals of today seem to fear the loss of the kind of comfortable world once defined by Norman Rockwell. Sadly, Rockwell's vision of America was idyllic in a way that brought actual criticism of his artistry. I wouldn't criticize him on that basis. Art is always about engendering emotional reaction, and if you want to imagine that Rockwell's vision was even in reach, if that infatuates you, then fine. Really. Art is imagination.
Right at the present there's an outcry over a public body in the suburban Twin Cities wanting to discontinue the Pledge of Allegiance. Maybe this is a perfect lab example of what I'm talking about. One might argue that the Pledge is simply a waste of time or a distraction, that it says nothing about what's really in your heart anyway. The second I read this news coverage, I knew the likes of Fox and Friends would pounce all over those poor people.
Evangelicals hope that Trump-appointed Justices will toss out Roe vs. Wade, never mind the Pandora's box that would result. At the same time, they seemingly give not a thought to Trump browbeating the detached Federal Reserve and helping set the stage for a blast of hyper-inflation. Quantitative easing? Trump criticized Janet Yellen for not raising interest rates fast enough. Yellen was a powerful woman, something that seems to play mind games with him. Now he threatens to fire or demote the Fed chair if interest rates aren't pushed down dramatically.
Quantitative easing was an emergency measure. What new territory might we be entering now? Oh but the evangelicals simply want abortion attacked. Or, to stand in the way of gay people's rights. A whole new church was established in the Morris area because of the gay rights thing (anti-gay rights of course). That church calls itself Lutheran. It's not ELCA of course because the ELCAers are progressive, calm and reasonable. We don't scare easily.
My deceased mother never connected partisan politics to her religious faith. She wouldn't even comprehend the kind of discussions we're having now. My own little issue with Lutheranism is that Martin Luther was such a virulent anti-Semite, his language contributed to what happened to the Jews in the mid-20th Century. I was so shocked when finally researching this, I will never view Lutheranism the same.
But Mom would like me to continue attending First Lutheran Church in Morris.
Is there hope? There is always hope. The Evangelical Immigration Table has asserted that Christian faith demands that the White House and Congress do better with treating children and families who seek asylum at the Southern border. I hope that iconic person with the Trump flag outside Morris would go along with this. The next time you see an Apostolic - they're easy to spot - bring this up.
Addendum: The millennials will be succeeded by a generation for which a suggested term is "iGen."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
We hear the term "evangelical" in the news. Sometime it would be nice to get a precise definition. The generally accepted definition now seems squishy. It seems more like code language than anything. Surely these people are Republican and it's just a matter of how far right they want to go, how reactionary they want to be. It has been said that the rapid growth of the "nones" - that portion of the population having departed from organized religion - springs from the association of Christianity with right wing politics. The millennials sense something is up. And a child shall lead them.
People who make their living in religion notice the reality. They have to be attuned to membership and money. In theory the proper principles and commitment to Christianity's tenets should promote those objectives.
We learn that 81 percent of "evangelicals" voted for Trump. Shall we put the local Apostolics in with the broader evangelicals? In terms of basic attitude and comportment, they seem similar if not identical. I have asked before: Is it possible that even one local Apostolic did not vote for Trump? We can rattle off some of the other local church names that seem to equate with "evangelical." How many non-Trump voters in this swath of people? Even one?
It becomes a concerning thing when you worry about our basic fate as a nation. What about our economy where the pivotal factors have nothing to do with social and moral questions? How well-schooled are you all on the Federal Reserve? There's a well-established saying "don't fight the Fed." There's a general understanding in the Beltway, even if not put forward in firm legal terms, that politicians don't rock the boat with the Fed.
Someone like George W. Bush, surely an ideological conservative, understood that. The current president is so off the wall, eccentric and ignorant, almost going beyond a parody of himself, we wonder what on earth is going to happen. The seeds may be getting planted now, the seeds for eventual catastrophe. Ignore these words at your own peril.
Evangelicals embraced Trump to a greater extent than they did Bush or the squeaky-clean Mitt Romney. It puzzles the heck out of me.
Excessive zeal maybe?
There is a very iconic local resident who has displayed a Trump flag in front of his residence just north of Morris. Are we witnessing some sort of mass delusion? Why have so many among us fallen for the amoral reality TV star? One possible basis is fear. I once read that extreme conservatives feel fear as a matter of instinct, I mean if there's a sudden loud noise right behind them.
Fundamentalists were once scared of Darwinism. We hardly need to review the fear felt by Southerners toward civil rights. The evangelicals of today seem to fear the loss of the kind of comfortable world once defined by Norman Rockwell. Sadly, Rockwell's vision of America was idyllic in a way that brought actual criticism of his artistry. I wouldn't criticize him on that basis. Art is always about engendering emotional reaction, and if you want to imagine that Rockwell's vision was even in reach, if that infatuates you, then fine. Really. Art is imagination.
Right at the present there's an outcry over a public body in the suburban Twin Cities wanting to discontinue the Pledge of Allegiance. Maybe this is a perfect lab example of what I'm talking about. One might argue that the Pledge is simply a waste of time or a distraction, that it says nothing about what's really in your heart anyway. The second I read this news coverage, I knew the likes of Fox and Friends would pounce all over those poor people.
Evangelicals hope that Trump-appointed Justices will toss out Roe vs. Wade, never mind the Pandora's box that would result. At the same time, they seemingly give not a thought to Trump browbeating the detached Federal Reserve and helping set the stage for a blast of hyper-inflation. Quantitative easing? Trump criticized Janet Yellen for not raising interest rates fast enough. Yellen was a powerful woman, something that seems to play mind games with him. Now he threatens to fire or demote the Fed chair if interest rates aren't pushed down dramatically.
Quantitative easing was an emergency measure. What new territory might we be entering now? Oh but the evangelicals simply want abortion attacked. Or, to stand in the way of gay people's rights. A whole new church was established in the Morris area because of the gay rights thing (anti-gay rights of course). That church calls itself Lutheran. It's not ELCA of course because the ELCAers are progressive, calm and reasonable. We don't scare easily.
My deceased mother never connected partisan politics to her religious faith. She wouldn't even comprehend the kind of discussions we're having now. My own little issue with Lutheranism is that Martin Luther was such a virulent anti-Semite, his language contributed to what happened to the Jews in the mid-20th Century. I was so shocked when finally researching this, I will never view Lutheranism the same.
But Mom would like me to continue attending First Lutheran Church in Morris.
Is there hope? There is always hope. The Evangelical Immigration Table has asserted that Christian faith demands that the White House and Congress do better with treating children and families who seek asylum at the Southern border. I hope that iconic person with the Trump flag outside Morris would go along with this. The next time you see an Apostolic - they're easy to spot - bring this up.
Addendum: The millennials will be succeeded by a generation for which a suggested term is "iGen."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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