Whither school days for 2020?

There is disarray in how school should be approached for fall. We can flail away some on this matter, as we're in June. The discord can be kept in the background. But June gives way to July and then August, at which time we could expect pre-season sports workouts and scrimmages. What are the odds of having normal sports seasons? Many people are probably more interested in this than the schoolroom stuff. 
I have seen baseball action resume locally. I can see the ballfield from where I live on Northridge Drive. 
We make note of the contradictions and confusion in the policies adopted to reduce risk of virus spreading. Some humor has been gotten from it. We can be a little lackadaisical here in Morris because there is no eruption of the health menace. Apparently it's negligible so far. 
Was in DeToy's Restaurant this morning (Sunday) and it was basically normal. Perhaps the turnout was a little less because in-person church has not resumed - the restaurant is a destination for after-church, I gather. Still, the place seemed pretty "alive" this a.m. I would not have guessed that restraint was called for. People were "themselves," pretty cheery and uninhibited. Coffee was free in honor of  someone's birthday. Guy's name was Randy. Well, happy birthday Randy.
We feel relieved every time we sense a "normal" routine these days. This is why the impatient states of the U.S. wanted to "open up": we were so frustrated and sad having restrictions imposed. Was it a case of just wanting to feel denial? Was it a case of just wanting to "roll the dice?" To roll the dice recklessly, in fact? Was it determination to follow Donald Trump's attitude about the whole thing? 
Oh, people have a right to their opinions. I have been flabbergasted at the reverence shown by so many toward Trump. Repeating the reasons for my umbrage would be futile now. His followers cannot be deterred. And there are so many here in the rural Seventh Congressional District. 
Today we learn the president shared or promoted a video of someone shouting "white power!" We suspected right along that Trump was a racist. His stance is most surely overt now. 
We got the revelation that Russia paid a bounty to the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers. If Trump knew about this and did nothing, he should be impeached (again) immediately. If he did not know, that is a scandal in itself - it would show that Trump is not commander in chief. 
 
So, what about school?
Closer to home, what is school going to look like, once we get to August and really have to start making decisions? A check of the news indicates there is discord on this, really all over. A Hancock parent friend of mine talked about three options A, B and C. Option A is fully normal in-person school. B is the hybrid thing and C is remote learning. Nice to have choices, but they are so wildly disparate. 
My friend showed a parent's wisdom in her befuddlement over option B: if in-person schooling is practical some of the time, why would it not be practical full-time? Risk is risk. 
Defining the nature of risk is a real poser now. We should have reached a consensus on masks by now. Instead we allow disagreement. Mike Pence talks about personal freedom ingrained in the Constitution - amen and hallelujah - but certainly the law allows for measures deemed essential for protecting health and safety. Isn't the Trump crowd pretty "pro-life?" 
Did you get that mailer from a Republican congressional candidate last week? It was one of those slickly-produced full-color cards - why not just simple text? "Tell us what you stand for." Anyway, this dude who I had not heard of before had "pro-life" as a chief priority. Is that what you deem a chief priority now in your lives, with all that is going on? Abortion is, and always has been a troubling and complicated issue, but it seems impractical to think of ever outlawing it. Besides, wealthy Republicans could no doubt still have a discreet back-door way of getting an abortion for their mistress. 
Pence talks about the primacy of individual freedoms as if these must be promoted even with hazardous consequences to many: spreading of the virus. Did you see this headline last week: how the virus is spreading in new and surprising ways across parts of the country? It has invaded the red states bastion of the Trump voter. Premature openings have laid bare the fallacious arguments of the Trump people. 
It's too late now, but an aggressive Federal response from the very beginning, even with some abridgement of personal freedom, could have contained this thing so we'd be closer to moving on. The Federal government has power to coordinate and support such an effort that the states do not have. But we saw Trump insist from the start that the ball was in the court of the states. Then he could pounce on various Democratic governors. Isn't that inspiring? 
The depressing norm pushes on and on. I cringe to turn on cable TV news yet again today (Sunday) and find the wheels spinning as usual: outrageous behavior and leadership by the president and his Republican sycophants, but no levers being pulled to rein it in. The sycophantic behavior is a truly astonishing phenomenon. 
Democrats and cable program hosts are not inhibited in pointing out the horrible dysfunction, but what does one accomplish by listening to this day after day after day? The Republicans have the primary power and they are not giving an inch. They respond to the critics with overt disrespect, even mocking. It becomes like "noise" over an extended time - no constructive responses. 
Let me share my assessment about school for fall: we have been seeing quotes from school administrators who have their own self-interest for getting school going "as usual." They know full well that when school drifts away from the standard setting in buildings, the more people will question why we need to keep fully funding that model. It's a model we have not questioned enough, because we have not really been presented options to it yet. 
A continued extreme shutdown will cause parents to do what comes natural for human beings: adapt. Families will increasingly want to escape the shackles of the established (legacy) education model, one in which the expansive campus is rather a prison. They will find in time that with the miracle of online, the traditional approach should no longer be etched in stone. And that means the whole class of education professionals will have their livelihood endangered. 
I'd be giddy to see a stake put through the heart of the teachers unions, a real boil on America. The promised land awaits. In the meantime, I enjoyed breakfast at DeToy's with an atmosphere that was nearly 100 percent normal. God bless.
 
I have a podcast message to share today as well, called "blessed by summer weather." We must count our blessings these days! Here's the link from my "Morris Mojo" podcast:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Blessed-by-summer-weather-eg23u9
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com