Are you all hanging in there? It must be getting harder for a lot of us. Not just families with kids in school, but people alone who are denied the much-needed socializing. My only opportunity to see the Minneapolis newspaper is through the window on vending machines. A couple headlines there can give a heads-up for the direction of things. And this morning, after walking past the green device in front of Don's, I realized that rules and restrictions are getting tighter.
At first there was some relaxation of rules, remember? So there was a sense, maybe, we were coming out of the worst. That is definitely not the sense now. Everyone is so concerned about school. That's understandable if the issue is having the kids supervised while both parents are gone from the house. I'm less sympathetic to the concerns if it's just about "learning." Internet access gives all of us boundless opportunities to learn and enrich ourselves.
Would this be the weekend for the football opener? Would be close for sure. And if you argue that sports is such an essential part of community life, I would demur with a shake of the head. Many boys who would play football, who play for the cheers and adulation of the crowd, will now be spared all the pounding on their bodies. They will be spared the risk of serious injury. And if you cannot find a way to fill that void, you have problems.
Work proceeds on the UMM softball fields, apparently to be re-purposed for both college and high school. Won't we need some certainty about a vaccine before we proceed with such activities? We are blinded by the kind of optimism that comes from people with obscenely rose-colored glasses. I mean like politicians. I mean like Donald Trump, who needs to sell optimism as a way of staying in office to stay immune from the law catching up to him. Or, to his family members or other associates, many of whom have already been convicted and are writing books and jockeying for pardons. Sounds like pure farce but this is the America of 2020.
I am surrounded by people here in Morris who will fight for Donald Trump. We see more of his yard signs and flags out. A concerted effort by the federal government from the very start would have limited the reach and tragedy of the virus. Trump was afraid of upsetting the stock market. He sells the stock market above all else. And in order to keep it stable or keep it from crashing, his Federal Reserve now says it is increasing its tolerance of inflation.
At present there is very little talk on the street about inflation. Believe me, this specter can arise as it most definitely did in the 1970s. It became a hot-button issue. In case you need a primer, inflation destroys the value of money. Sounds like something that would get your attention. Don't say I didn't warn you. We may have to use inflation to pay off the national debut with devalued money. Is this how we paid for the Vietnam war?
I see headlines today about more schools possibly re-considering when to open. Beware all these schools: they are desperate, desperate I tell you, to protect their standard model of the in-person experience. They need to keep justifying all the money they consume. Otherwise society might develop better ideas. Colleges are probably worse than public schools this way. Public schools at least offer the babysitting service, in effect.
Our college system is overbuilt. We see this in spades with the old State University system, now called "Minnesota State" as if that accomplishes anything (other than reminding us of Jerry Van Dyke). The response to this overbuilt situation has been tortoise-slow, surprising no one. Adjusting government-sponsored systems is worse than trying to turn a barge around in a river.
We are blessed here in Morris MN having the more stable and prestigious University of Minnesota.
The Morris area is not without its issues now, Covid-related. What about the planned start of school? Could well be wiped out. A source tells me this morning: "There were at least 50 Apostolics in the area that had tested positive for the Covid. If that is the case, that may well affect the Sept. 8 start of school for here and Hancock."
The source of this info was reportedly an MAHS teacher.
I wonder if DeToy's Restaurant in Morris will come under pressure to conform to rules/recommendations better. Going there now gives the impression there are no rules/recommendations at all. This is even with law enforcement people in there. I have observed this. You have to behave because who'd want to get shot seven times in the back! But the law enforcement people aren't paying any heed re. the Covid-related guidelines, based on what I saw. This could change at any time.
And then there's the curious case of the Dennis Johnson visitation at my church of First Lutheran Friday night. I assume it was held in the church as planned. Thought that was very strange. Touching, yes, because Dennis deserved a generous public gesture at the time of his passing to the next life. But how prudent is this?
It's like the recent Joe Lembcke funeral where people essentially "stormed in." Well, Donald Trump thought his rally in Tulsa OK was so essential also, and Herman Cain most likely died because of attending. Such grave things to have to weigh.
These are not pleasant times. Wait until we all get cooped up for the winter - no chance to take a pleasant walk - and have to live with indoor air constantly. We might shudder.
The Morris newspaper
My "Morris Mojo" podcast episode for today is about the Morris paper's difficulty finding news to cover. The editor has a column about this. Her "woe is me" is rather understandable given the near-halt to so many things. I invite you to listen with this permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/The-Morris-newspaper-eire0g
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Indoor visitation: we are torn
It would seem unimaginable to have rites for a person like Dennis Johnson anywhere but in his church. We can celebrate Dennis' life outside for the actual funeral. But according to public information, looks like the visitation will be at church. As in, "inside" the church.
I made it all the way to age 65 without having to deal with pandemics such as what hovers now. It is still hovering, isn't it? I just stopped by the library to review the limitations for access that I knew were drastic. Oh, they are still drastic. They are so involved, no way could I record here the details from memory. There is special library time set aside for people judged most delicate or vulnerable. Must use hand sanitizer before entering.
No fun using the library if your time is limited to 15 minutes. A big part of the benefit of the library is to linger, to browse, to perhaps socialize. There's the delightful "story time" for kids. Special events are common. Under normal circumstances I'd be one of the biggest promoters of our library. I contributed $ to the Library Foundation during Melissa Yauk's tenure as director. (I'm tempted to say "librarian," the term from a past time.)
I have to ask, now with the pandemic having persisted so long - perhaps to return with a vengeance in fact - when will we hear public discussion about whether various institutions deserve the normal extent of financial support, of taxpayer support? I'm asking this question even though I am not the type to be "grouchy" re. taxes I pay. I'm rather out of the opposite mold. But an array of public institutions are so constricted now.
We might put schools of all kinds at the top of the list. And while colleges have been champing at the bit to re-open in the most "normal" way possible, they have had to contend with a pesky force: the campus newspapers! I am referring to the healthiest and most traditional form of campus media, not the oddball right wing papers we have seen at UMM. I told Jacqueline Johnson that maybe my failure to understand the weird right wing papers was just a "generational" problem. Heaven knows that happens. But Johnson quickly retorted: "I don't think it's generational."
College papers, for as long as they have the proper freedoms, can keep these places in check from becoming virus hotspots. You would think the leaders of academia wouldn't have to be held in check (compelled). But I'm afraid the money pressures are overbearing. Colleges might be said to be feeling significant pressures anyway. I mean, in the new world of unlimited information online.
We want our colleges to keep fulfilling a valuable function. Maybe they have to evolve using the proper judgment instead of succumbing to the "arms race" of acquiring ever more fancy amenities. There's work being done on UMM's softball fields.
No need to lecture me on money, because a Williams family fund exists for music at UMM. I'm told that UMM music is striving to overcome its special challenges now, special because music involves singing and playing instruments naturally. With face masks? That's funny. I'm told UMM choir is gamely plunging ahead with twice-weekly outdoor sessions at - drum roll please - East Side Park! What a development, to have the stage and bleachers there actually amount to something! Brad Miller should get a key to the city!
If word gets around, maybe some onlookers can come and look on - rimshot - I mean maybe an audience could assemble. I will stop by myself. I have lots of memories at the park from when I covered the big and robust Prairie Pioneer Days for the Morris newspaper. Believe me, PPD was a truly big deal for a number of years at its zenith. Even without the pandemic, it was wiped from the summer slate. Unbelievable.
I think it's amazing to see the apparent indoor visitation for the late Dennis Johnson - God rest his soul - and juxtapose that with the myriad special rules at the library. Or, to juxtapose it with the church itself of First Lutheran which has a policy of not even letting people inside if the outside service is canceled on Sunday. In fact, the note on the doors says "do not enter" with "not" underlined! A friend said "what if you have to go to the bathroom?" Do we need to arrange for porta potties?
Oh, I know the sentiment is just overwhelming for Dennis and this is entirely justified, just as it was in the wake of Joe Lembcke's recent passing. The word on the street is that people just piled into Assumption Church for Joe's funeral, a gesture that might make one misty, just as it would for Dennis. But then on the other side of the coin, apparently the virus is real, has not gone away, could return and is especially lethal with older people. Older people are the type who would dominate the turnout for Dennis, I'm sure. I mean, people like yours truly.
I'd love to be there. Dennis' death is leaving a void in our church and the Morris community as a whole. He always had such a calm, reassuring and disarming presence. He was a TV star too with wife Carole!
When I think back, I'm struck by how the couple always participated with genuine interest whenever there was a group discussion of some kind. Not just church either. Dennis' enthusiasm was genuine. He had a sense of humor too. I was not aware that he had severe health complications starting about three weeks before his death. I was totally shocked to learn of his passing.
I first met Dennis when I photographed him giving blood at the old P.E. Annex in 1979. I wish I had known him longer. When in school I didn't make enough effort to get to know adults of the Morris community, not even the parents of my fellow MHS Class of '73 members. Ironically, I got to know so many of these people so much better years later when I made the rounds for the Morris newspaper. I will remember many of these people best from when they were senior citizens. And that's a shame - I should have crossed that bridge earlier.
Dennis Johnson, RIP.
Visit my podcast
"We remember Dennis" is the heading for my "Morris Mojo" podcast episode for today. They say funerals are a "celebration of life" but let's be honest, eh? It's somber. I invite you to click:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/We-remember-Dennis-eiolv5
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
I made it all the way to age 65 without having to deal with pandemics such as what hovers now. It is still hovering, isn't it? I just stopped by the library to review the limitations for access that I knew were drastic. Oh, they are still drastic. They are so involved, no way could I record here the details from memory. There is special library time set aside for people judged most delicate or vulnerable. Must use hand sanitizer before entering.
No fun using the library if your time is limited to 15 minutes. A big part of the benefit of the library is to linger, to browse, to perhaps socialize. There's the delightful "story time" for kids. Special events are common. Under normal circumstances I'd be one of the biggest promoters of our library. I contributed $ to the Library Foundation during Melissa Yauk's tenure as director. (I'm tempted to say "librarian," the term from a past time.)
I have to ask, now with the pandemic having persisted so long - perhaps to return with a vengeance in fact - when will we hear public discussion about whether various institutions deserve the normal extent of financial support, of taxpayer support? I'm asking this question even though I am not the type to be "grouchy" re. taxes I pay. I'm rather out of the opposite mold. But an array of public institutions are so constricted now.
We might put schools of all kinds at the top of the list. And while colleges have been champing at the bit to re-open in the most "normal" way possible, they have had to contend with a pesky force: the campus newspapers! I am referring to the healthiest and most traditional form of campus media, not the oddball right wing papers we have seen at UMM. I told Jacqueline Johnson that maybe my failure to understand the weird right wing papers was just a "generational" problem. Heaven knows that happens. But Johnson quickly retorted: "I don't think it's generational."
College papers, for as long as they have the proper freedoms, can keep these places in check from becoming virus hotspots. You would think the leaders of academia wouldn't have to be held in check (compelled). But I'm afraid the money pressures are overbearing. Colleges might be said to be feeling significant pressures anyway. I mean, in the new world of unlimited information online.
We want our colleges to keep fulfilling a valuable function. Maybe they have to evolve using the proper judgment instead of succumbing to the "arms race" of acquiring ever more fancy amenities. There's work being done on UMM's softball fields.
No need to lecture me on money, because a Williams family fund exists for music at UMM. I'm told that UMM music is striving to overcome its special challenges now, special because music involves singing and playing instruments naturally. With face masks? That's funny. I'm told UMM choir is gamely plunging ahead with twice-weekly outdoor sessions at - drum roll please - East Side Park! What a development, to have the stage and bleachers there actually amount to something! Brad Miller should get a key to the city!
If word gets around, maybe some onlookers can come and look on - rimshot - I mean maybe an audience could assemble. I will stop by myself. I have lots of memories at the park from when I covered the big and robust Prairie Pioneer Days for the Morris newspaper. Believe me, PPD was a truly big deal for a number of years at its zenith. Even without the pandemic, it was wiped from the summer slate. Unbelievable.
 |
| Dennis Johnson (kmrs-kkok) |
Oh, I know the sentiment is just overwhelming for Dennis and this is entirely justified, just as it was in the wake of Joe Lembcke's recent passing. The word on the street is that people just piled into Assumption Church for Joe's funeral, a gesture that might make one misty, just as it would for Dennis. But then on the other side of the coin, apparently the virus is real, has not gone away, could return and is especially lethal with older people. Older people are the type who would dominate the turnout for Dennis, I'm sure. I mean, people like yours truly.
I'd love to be there. Dennis' death is leaving a void in our church and the Morris community as a whole. He always had such a calm, reassuring and disarming presence. He was a TV star too with wife Carole!
When I think back, I'm struck by how the couple always participated with genuine interest whenever there was a group discussion of some kind. Not just church either. Dennis' enthusiasm was genuine. He had a sense of humor too. I was not aware that he had severe health complications starting about three weeks before his death. I was totally shocked to learn of his passing.
I first met Dennis when I photographed him giving blood at the old P.E. Annex in 1979. I wish I had known him longer. When in school I didn't make enough effort to get to know adults of the Morris community, not even the parents of my fellow MHS Class of '73 members. Ironically, I got to know so many of these people so much better years later when I made the rounds for the Morris newspaper. I will remember many of these people best from when they were senior citizens. And that's a shame - I should have crossed that bridge earlier.
Dennis Johnson, RIP.
Visit my podcast
"We remember Dennis" is the heading for my "Morris Mojo" podcast episode for today. They say funerals are a "celebration of life" but let's be honest, eh? It's somber. I invite you to click:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/We-remember-Dennis-eiolv5
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Monday, August 24, 2020
Another day along East 7th Street
Rode bike home this afternoon with senior lunch in my backpack. Saw a new "Trump" flag, a nice large one, flapping conspicuously from a flagpole along East 7th Street. The street is an important artery in Morris. It was once the main entry to town from the east - did you know that?
The nature of that part of town was once different. The presence of the school defined that in large part. The expansive playground for time immemorial (it seemed) was where we'd see pre-season football practice this time of year. East Seventh had a neighborhood grocery store, the Dairy Queen and a good old-fashioned drive-in eating place. The DQ lasted long enough for Erv Krosch to be involved through part of its history.
If Prairie Pioneer Days is ever restored, maybe it could be called "Pylin Days," named for the drive-in. Think "American Graffiti." I came out quite fine as a customer of the old Stark's Grocery, as the baseball cards I bought there were re-sold years later. At the start they cost a nickel a pack. Green packages in 1964, as I recall. The small ice cream cone at the DQ was a nickel, the "large" size a dime!
Wouldn't you love to see your money go a little further these days? We don't hear much about inflation these days. Not sure why the awareness or worry isn't greater. The subject is capable of getting our attention, as it surely did in the 1970s. That decade is receding into the mists of time, not that we don't still see the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies on TV.
Michael Kinsley has written that "inflation comes along once every generation." This op-ed was long ago but it's vivid in my memory. Kinsley pointed out that inflation flares up and causes a panic, as well it should. Paul Volcker had a way of rolling up his sleeves for "putting out the fire." He'd raise interest rates by a whole point!
I was impressionable and young when inflation hovered and seemed hopelessly persistent. Volcker took charge and warned us about a recession as a consequence. Maybe the recession was why we got "Smokey and the Bandit" movies, cynical and lacking taste. Kinsley observed that once inflation wanes, we forget too quickly. So the problem is that we let our guard down. It's human nature to celebrate better times while forgetting about the specter of bad things.
Was inflation a direct consequence of the Vietnam war? What a twin serving of prominent news themes as I was growing up: war and inflation. I could add that the "hangover" of the Vietnam war was a phenomenon itself. Is there any more humiliating thing from U.S. history than the "fall of Saigon," desperate people clinging to helicopters on rooftops, helicopters being pushed off ships into the water?
Didn't we have a Republican president from 1968 to 1976? We had two of course because the first one got thrown off his horse, as it were. He got a pardon from his successor, a preview of what we're seeing now with Trump kneecapping the legal system to ensure certain people won't "talk." Roger Stone "knew stuff." He'll stay quiet now.
I'll be watching a lot of the Weather Channel because of the news media's obligation to cover the Republican convention. The coverage will have to be done with a modicum of respect. I do sense overall in the media, a heightened sense of the need to "deconstruct" Trump and be far less willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Trump and his people browbeat the media into making Hillary's emails seem just as big a scandal as anything Trump was involved in. Jeffrey Toobin has expressed regret about that. But look at the consequence: we have had four years of Trump as president, a man devoid of a basic caring sense toward anybody. The media was aware of this way back but was hesitant to "look behind the curtain" to see the extent to which the emperor had no clothes.
I look through headlines on the Drudge Report and Yahoo News this morning, and it is slowly becoming a litany of expose-type stuff about Trump and his people. We read and read and read. But to what end? I have seen more than one Trump flag around Morris. There's a lawn sign out by where I live. One property on East 7th has a very prominent "We All Matter" display, a variant on "All Lives Matter," commonly seen as a rebuttal to Black Lives Matter.
BLM is a totally legitimate assertion. We all know what it means, that its basis has merit. Why fight that? Consider the news out of Kenosha WI today.
Drift toward the GOP
Our congressional district seems to be tilting ever more "red." There is talk that Minnesota is close to becoming a red state. I guess the Dakotas are spilling over. Western Minnesota must reflect that mindset more than the east with its big urban presence. And why resent the big cities? That's where the people are.
I could pick any number of news items this week as examples of how Trump is menacing the fabric of our nation. Here's a good one: President Trump told an interviewer that he wants law enforcement officers at polling places. Trump said "we're going to have sheriffs, and we're going to have law enforcement, and we're going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we're going to have everybody, and attorney generals."
Sheriffs? Really? Could I expect to see the Stevens County sheriff or deputies at polling places on election day? Really? The president is pledging that. He didn't say "maybe." Can Trump direct people like our Stevens County sheriff and deputies to be present at poll locations? Really?
I would like to see Marshall at our radio station get a quote from our sheriff about this. Does the sheriff expect to be pressed into duty for this? How would he conduct himself? What would he do? Arrest suspected "fraudsters?" Isn't this rather absurd?
But Trump has done and said one absurd thing after another. He'll never "cross a line" to become untenable as president in the eyes of so many of our Stevens County residents. They worship him. Well, that is their right. Maybe they idolize Jerry Falwell Jr. too. I'll excuse myself, if you don't mind.
My podcast today
I invite you to visit my "Morris Mojo" podcast for 8/24, entitled "outdoors at Faith Lutheran" 'cause I went "across the tracks" to Faith for Sunday's outdoor service. No, I'm not leaving First Lutheran. But I wanted to catch up with some friends I have at the "enemy" (just joking) church. I'm so glad I did. My podcast touches on spiritual matters and how the ELCA strives to cope. The permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Outdoors-at-Faith-Luth-eijugt
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
The nature of that part of town was once different. The presence of the school defined that in large part. The expansive playground for time immemorial (it seemed) was where we'd see pre-season football practice this time of year. East Seventh had a neighborhood grocery store, the Dairy Queen and a good old-fashioned drive-in eating place. The DQ lasted long enough for Erv Krosch to be involved through part of its history.
If Prairie Pioneer Days is ever restored, maybe it could be called "Pylin Days," named for the drive-in. Think "American Graffiti." I came out quite fine as a customer of the old Stark's Grocery, as the baseball cards I bought there were re-sold years later. At the start they cost a nickel a pack. Green packages in 1964, as I recall. The small ice cream cone at the DQ was a nickel, the "large" size a dime!
Wouldn't you love to see your money go a little further these days? We don't hear much about inflation these days. Not sure why the awareness or worry isn't greater. The subject is capable of getting our attention, as it surely did in the 1970s. That decade is receding into the mists of time, not that we don't still see the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies on TV.
Michael Kinsley has written that "inflation comes along once every generation." This op-ed was long ago but it's vivid in my memory. Kinsley pointed out that inflation flares up and causes a panic, as well it should. Paul Volcker had a way of rolling up his sleeves for "putting out the fire." He'd raise interest rates by a whole point!
I was impressionable and young when inflation hovered and seemed hopelessly persistent. Volcker took charge and warned us about a recession as a consequence. Maybe the recession was why we got "Smokey and the Bandit" movies, cynical and lacking taste. Kinsley observed that once inflation wanes, we forget too quickly. So the problem is that we let our guard down. It's human nature to celebrate better times while forgetting about the specter of bad things.
Was inflation a direct consequence of the Vietnam war? What a twin serving of prominent news themes as I was growing up: war and inflation. I could add that the "hangover" of the Vietnam war was a phenomenon itself. Is there any more humiliating thing from U.S. history than the "fall of Saigon," desperate people clinging to helicopters on rooftops, helicopters being pushed off ships into the water?
Didn't we have a Republican president from 1968 to 1976? We had two of course because the first one got thrown off his horse, as it were. He got a pardon from his successor, a preview of what we're seeing now with Trump kneecapping the legal system to ensure certain people won't "talk." Roger Stone "knew stuff." He'll stay quiet now.
I'll be watching a lot of the Weather Channel because of the news media's obligation to cover the Republican convention. The coverage will have to be done with a modicum of respect. I do sense overall in the media, a heightened sense of the need to "deconstruct" Trump and be far less willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Trump and his people browbeat the media into making Hillary's emails seem just as big a scandal as anything Trump was involved in. Jeffrey Toobin has expressed regret about that. But look at the consequence: we have had four years of Trump as president, a man devoid of a basic caring sense toward anybody. The media was aware of this way back but was hesitant to "look behind the curtain" to see the extent to which the emperor had no clothes.
I look through headlines on the Drudge Report and Yahoo News this morning, and it is slowly becoming a litany of expose-type stuff about Trump and his people. We read and read and read. But to what end? I have seen more than one Trump flag around Morris. There's a lawn sign out by where I live. One property on East 7th has a very prominent "We All Matter" display, a variant on "All Lives Matter," commonly seen as a rebuttal to Black Lives Matter.
BLM is a totally legitimate assertion. We all know what it means, that its basis has merit. Why fight that? Consider the news out of Kenosha WI today.
Drift toward the GOP
Our congressional district seems to be tilting ever more "red." There is talk that Minnesota is close to becoming a red state. I guess the Dakotas are spilling over. Western Minnesota must reflect that mindset more than the east with its big urban presence. And why resent the big cities? That's where the people are.
I could pick any number of news items this week as examples of how Trump is menacing the fabric of our nation. Here's a good one: President Trump told an interviewer that he wants law enforcement officers at polling places. Trump said "we're going to have sheriffs, and we're going to have law enforcement, and we're going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we're going to have everybody, and attorney generals."
Sheriffs? Really? Could I expect to see the Stevens County sheriff or deputies at polling places on election day? Really? The president is pledging that. He didn't say "maybe." Can Trump direct people like our Stevens County sheriff and deputies to be present at poll locations? Really?
I would like to see Marshall at our radio station get a quote from our sheriff about this. Does the sheriff expect to be pressed into duty for this? How would he conduct himself? What would he do? Arrest suspected "fraudsters?" Isn't this rather absurd?
But Trump has done and said one absurd thing after another. He'll never "cross a line" to become untenable as president in the eyes of so many of our Stevens County residents. They worship him. Well, that is their right. Maybe they idolize Jerry Falwell Jr. too. I'll excuse myself, if you don't mind.
My podcast today
I invite you to visit my "Morris Mojo" podcast for 8/24, entitled "outdoors at Faith Lutheran" 'cause I went "across the tracks" to Faith for Sunday's outdoor service. No, I'm not leaving First Lutheran. But I wanted to catch up with some friends I have at the "enemy" (just joking) church. I'm so glad I did. My podcast touches on spiritual matters and how the ELCA strives to cope. The permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Outdoors-at-Faith-Luth-eijugt
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Meritocracies can lead us astray
Does the Top 40 still exist? People my age remember the radio show that instructed us on the songs we should like most. Don't you wonder if we were really weighing artistic criteria? The songs were a companion as we went through an average day. It was shared culture in the same manner as the popular TV shows from the "Big 3" networks.
Seems to be our nature that we like things "ranked." We like to know when something is "on the rise" or "past its prime." Then we wait for a new treat that might be completely different. The flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione had his "run" in pop music in the '70s due to deejays being sick of the BeeGees. Mangione was so slightly built, I had to worry if he could handle his brass instrument for live TV appearances. He had the quality of being unruffled. More than I could accomplish.
I remember when another brass player, Maynard Ferguson, who BTW was an idol of mine, basically missed a high note when on the Tom Snyder late-late show. My theory was that the heat of the TV studio could make it tough for brass players who of course need saliva and their lips to buzz.
The top 40 crosses my mind because I'm pondering how the Internet of today has given us a meritocracy for everything. If it's online, it's ranked somehow. A meritocracy can serve people's interests, without a doubt. You might say it's a boon for all of us.
Might be easy to argue that point. It's one side of the coin, I'd argue, with the other being the stress that comes about when you are being ranked in almost any endeavor.
The grading system in school has always reflected this, although I sense it's much less stringent than when I was in school. The relief is too late to benefit me! Schools have had to become more user-friendly or customer-friendly. Because parents really are customers. And schools have lost the monopoly type of power that once put them in position to lord over a whole lot of kids and people. Beware the aegis of government monopolies.
Super-duper churches
A childhood friend of mine from my neighborhood, now in the Twin Cities, said the "megachurches" are siphoning people away from the smaller churches. This reminded me of an unfavorable critique I read of the "mega" kind. They pride themselves on putting on such a big show all the time. This critic's piece pointed out some nitpicking adjustments made during a rehearsal at one such church. The writer thought everyone was feeling pressure to "knock it out of the park."
Surely we would expect Christ himself to encourage a more humble and self-effacing approach. Christ seemed to share many admonitions not quite in line with how many of the most fervent proponents of the faith preach.
The writer/critic would probably like the ELCA churches of Morris, neither of which could be confused for a megachurch. My goodness, our humbleness drips. A virtue? To an extent, probably. However, a little jump-starting might seem in order. The ELCA churches are First and Faith. Tomorrow (Sunday) will probably see a little "Gideon's band" of a turnout by both churches, not inside but "by," as a semblance of a church service gets assembled. Shorts allowed, certainly. Lawn chairs like what you'd see along a parade route. No more parades here like in the wonderful heyday of Prairie Pioneer Days. Remember those? The pandemic has dealt a curve to the other such events locally.
Church hangs on in almost a vestigial way. It's a stretch to say the outdoor services are really inspiring. Churches have tried to stay relevant in the pandemic with some sort of online representation. Seemed interesting at first, but the novelty value wanes, don't you think? And if online is our source of spiritual enrichment, we don't necessarily need to see the local faces. And without real fellowship, it's hard to see how many churches will remain stable.
The megachurches of the Twin Cities by virtue of their sheer size are probably going to continue seeming interesting and viable. The big cities seem to be losing luster in other ways. "Gotham" used to be a comic book type of label for a dark and crowded place - now it seems more on the money.
I told a friend recently that I haven't had an original song put on YouTube for several months because I was discouraged by what I felt was pressure to "knock it out of the park." I remember when I thought it was a miracle to just put a song on YouTube! Wasn't even thinking of the video aspect. We continually push our standards higher, and we get spoiled by all we can accomplish.
Young people take it for granted. Boomers like me are genuinely amazed. We grew up with the "Big 3" TV networks which in fact had their own meritocracy or ranking with those "Nielsens." We'd see an article every week in the Variety section with the ratings, so we could see if a certain well-known show was "on the way down." They all headed that way eventually.
We look to. . .Fonzie?
There's a legend or backstory behind the "jumping the shark" episode of TV's "Happy Days," which incidentally I watched in real time in my St. Cloud MN apartment. Today it's famous because "jumping the shark" has been put forward as a term for anything that goes from legitimate to borderline ridiculous. I mean, the creative people start reaching, stretching or groping.
Toward that end, the Happy Days people realized their show was starting its decline and would need an injection of something you might call outrageous, ridiculous, brainless, whatever, anything for a "buzz" to maybe buy some time. "Fonzie" jumped over the shark on water skis, remember? The show played on the popularity of the movie "Jaws." (And BTW, I had trouble watching Roy Scheider again after he was in "Marathon Man" - I will not elaborate.)
Happy Days may have bought a little reprieve. But TV shows were fragile with their standing. I mean, how could the original "Star Trek" get canceled when it should have just been getting going? Nuanced sci-fi was ahead of its time. Do you remember any sub-plots from "Bonanza?" The ranking system eventually spelled thumbs-down for Bonanza. Rankings seemed part of the American ethos and it has flowed more than ever in the digital age. To the point where people can be driven to having psychological issues due to stress.
Half of us are above average. The other half are below. The bottom 50 percent will always be there. In a bygone time - think Norman Rockwell - we hired local contractors sometimes who we knew were not the best. We might hire them because they attended our church. Maybe they were in the same veterans service organization (always a slam-dunk for affinity). Today? Well my goodness, there's "HomeAdvisor" which strives to get us matched up with the very best. Might well be strangers. A different world, yes.
My trumpet player idol of years ago, the now-deceased Maynard Ferguson, left America once and said he was sick of American competitiveness. I remember him quoted: "In America if your son places first in something, you get him a new bike. If he takes second, he gets nothing."
Was it that bad in the 1950s? Maybe so. I might have been too young to appreciate, but I know our Morris High School had a valedictorian and salutatorian. This we learned when looking through old yearbooks at the dentist's office. No such awards in my high school era, as our society was second-guessing some values, questioning elitism. But the capitalist judgmental ethos seemed to come roaring back.
A plain and humble commitment to anything is now judged ho-hum, not to be emulated, even though Jesus Christ himself would likely set that as the ideal. We will someday be reminded, most likely painfully, of the true ideals that Christ espoused. And he would not put megachurches on any special pedestal. No need to be prejudiced about megachurches. But the big budgets, high tech and polished performances should definitely not be the end-all.
Honeycutt elucidates
I thank Frank Honeycutt of "Living Lutheran" for giving me the inspiration to share thoughts about meritocracies today. He wrote, "Jesus isn't opposed to success. He is concerned about elevating the self to some sort of God-like status." And more: "Placing ourselves last opens up a whole new vantage point on the world. It helps us to see more clearly the people God has given us to love."
The many people who appear to ascribe God-like qualities to Donald Trump these days, need to pay heed. Our local Apostolics should pay heed.
Honeycutt is an ELCA pastor in Walhalla SC. He's working on a new book on baptism with Fortress Press.
Addendum: I learned the term "Gideon's band" from Max Lerner when I had the privilege of interviewing him for the college paper at St. Cloud State.
Addendum #2: Maynard's reasoning for leaving America was probably multi-tiered! It was said he wanted to escape taxes here! And when he got re-established here, legend has it the tax man had to sort of approach him and go "ahem!"
My podcast episode for 8/22
"Ranking each other" is the title for my podcast episode on "Morris Mojo." The theme reflects today's blog thoughts. I also recite today's devotion from my ELCA booklet. Please click on permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Ranking-each-other-eih5vm
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Seems to be our nature that we like things "ranked." We like to know when something is "on the rise" or "past its prime." Then we wait for a new treat that might be completely different. The flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione had his "run" in pop music in the '70s due to deejays being sick of the BeeGees. Mangione was so slightly built, I had to worry if he could handle his brass instrument for live TV appearances. He had the quality of being unruffled. More than I could accomplish.
I remember when another brass player, Maynard Ferguson, who BTW was an idol of mine, basically missed a high note when on the Tom Snyder late-late show. My theory was that the heat of the TV studio could make it tough for brass players who of course need saliva and their lips to buzz.
The top 40 crosses my mind because I'm pondering how the Internet of today has given us a meritocracy for everything. If it's online, it's ranked somehow. A meritocracy can serve people's interests, without a doubt. You might say it's a boon for all of us.
Might be easy to argue that point. It's one side of the coin, I'd argue, with the other being the stress that comes about when you are being ranked in almost any endeavor.
The grading system in school has always reflected this, although I sense it's much less stringent than when I was in school. The relief is too late to benefit me! Schools have had to become more user-friendly or customer-friendly. Because parents really are customers. And schools have lost the monopoly type of power that once put them in position to lord over a whole lot of kids and people. Beware the aegis of government monopolies.
Super-duper churches
A childhood friend of mine from my neighborhood, now in the Twin Cities, said the "megachurches" are siphoning people away from the smaller churches. This reminded me of an unfavorable critique I read of the "mega" kind. They pride themselves on putting on such a big show all the time. This critic's piece pointed out some nitpicking adjustments made during a rehearsal at one such church. The writer thought everyone was feeling pressure to "knock it out of the park."
Surely we would expect Christ himself to encourage a more humble and self-effacing approach. Christ seemed to share many admonitions not quite in line with how many of the most fervent proponents of the faith preach.
The writer/critic would probably like the ELCA churches of Morris, neither of which could be confused for a megachurch. My goodness, our humbleness drips. A virtue? To an extent, probably. However, a little jump-starting might seem in order. The ELCA churches are First and Faith. Tomorrow (Sunday) will probably see a little "Gideon's band" of a turnout by both churches, not inside but "by," as a semblance of a church service gets assembled. Shorts allowed, certainly. Lawn chairs like what you'd see along a parade route. No more parades here like in the wonderful heyday of Prairie Pioneer Days. Remember those? The pandemic has dealt a curve to the other such events locally.
Church hangs on in almost a vestigial way. It's a stretch to say the outdoor services are really inspiring. Churches have tried to stay relevant in the pandemic with some sort of online representation. Seemed interesting at first, but the novelty value wanes, don't you think? And if online is our source of spiritual enrichment, we don't necessarily need to see the local faces. And without real fellowship, it's hard to see how many churches will remain stable.
The megachurches of the Twin Cities by virtue of their sheer size are probably going to continue seeming interesting and viable. The big cities seem to be losing luster in other ways. "Gotham" used to be a comic book type of label for a dark and crowded place - now it seems more on the money.
I told a friend recently that I haven't had an original song put on YouTube for several months because I was discouraged by what I felt was pressure to "knock it out of the park." I remember when I thought it was a miracle to just put a song on YouTube! Wasn't even thinking of the video aspect. We continually push our standards higher, and we get spoiled by all we can accomplish.
Young people take it for granted. Boomers like me are genuinely amazed. We grew up with the "Big 3" TV networks which in fact had their own meritocracy or ranking with those "Nielsens." We'd see an article every week in the Variety section with the ratings, so we could see if a certain well-known show was "on the way down." They all headed that way eventually.
We look to. . .Fonzie?
There's a legend or backstory behind the "jumping the shark" episode of TV's "Happy Days," which incidentally I watched in real time in my St. Cloud MN apartment. Today it's famous because "jumping the shark" has been put forward as a term for anything that goes from legitimate to borderline ridiculous. I mean, the creative people start reaching, stretching or groping.
Toward that end, the Happy Days people realized their show was starting its decline and would need an injection of something you might call outrageous, ridiculous, brainless, whatever, anything for a "buzz" to maybe buy some time. "Fonzie" jumped over the shark on water skis, remember? The show played on the popularity of the movie "Jaws." (And BTW, I had trouble watching Roy Scheider again after he was in "Marathon Man" - I will not elaborate.)
Happy Days may have bought a little reprieve. But TV shows were fragile with their standing. I mean, how could the original "Star Trek" get canceled when it should have just been getting going? Nuanced sci-fi was ahead of its time. Do you remember any sub-plots from "Bonanza?" The ranking system eventually spelled thumbs-down for Bonanza. Rankings seemed part of the American ethos and it has flowed more than ever in the digital age. To the point where people can be driven to having psychological issues due to stress.
Half of us are above average. The other half are below. The bottom 50 percent will always be there. In a bygone time - think Norman Rockwell - we hired local contractors sometimes who we knew were not the best. We might hire them because they attended our church. Maybe they were in the same veterans service organization (always a slam-dunk for affinity). Today? Well my goodness, there's "HomeAdvisor" which strives to get us matched up with the very best. Might well be strangers. A different world, yes.
My trumpet player idol of years ago, the now-deceased Maynard Ferguson, left America once and said he was sick of American competitiveness. I remember him quoted: "In America if your son places first in something, you get him a new bike. If he takes second, he gets nothing."
Was it that bad in the 1950s? Maybe so. I might have been too young to appreciate, but I know our Morris High School had a valedictorian and salutatorian. This we learned when looking through old yearbooks at the dentist's office. No such awards in my high school era, as our society was second-guessing some values, questioning elitism. But the capitalist judgmental ethos seemed to come roaring back.
A plain and humble commitment to anything is now judged ho-hum, not to be emulated, even though Jesus Christ himself would likely set that as the ideal. We will someday be reminded, most likely painfully, of the true ideals that Christ espoused. And he would not put megachurches on any special pedestal. No need to be prejudiced about megachurches. But the big budgets, high tech and polished performances should definitely not be the end-all.
 |
| Frank Honeycutt |
I thank Frank Honeycutt of "Living Lutheran" for giving me the inspiration to share thoughts about meritocracies today. He wrote, "Jesus isn't opposed to success. He is concerned about elevating the self to some sort of God-like status." And more: "Placing ourselves last opens up a whole new vantage point on the world. It helps us to see more clearly the people God has given us to love."
The many people who appear to ascribe God-like qualities to Donald Trump these days, need to pay heed. Our local Apostolics should pay heed.
Honeycutt is an ELCA pastor in Walhalla SC. He's working on a new book on baptism with Fortress Press.
Addendum: I learned the term "Gideon's band" from Max Lerner when I had the privilege of interviewing him for the college paper at St. Cloud State.
Addendum #2: Maynard's reasoning for leaving America was probably multi-tiered! It was said he wanted to escape taxes here! And when he got re-established here, legend has it the tax man had to sort of approach him and go "ahem!"
My podcast episode for 8/22
"Ranking each other" is the title for my podcast episode on "Morris Mojo." The theme reflects today's blog thoughts. I also recite today's devotion from my ELCA booklet. Please click on permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Ranking-each-other-eih5vm
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Whistling past graveyard at UMM?
Tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll see the start of UMM. Will it get off the ground or will its intentions be nixed by the health menace? We are seeing a conflicted state all across America, the convergence of our fundamental optimism and the terrifying reality.
We cannot count on the best outcome, much as we'd like the reality to reflect the always-rising stock market. These are two different things, incidentally, and it is possible to be a skeptic about the markets.
But in-person school? Is this something we should welcome here in Morris? Does it just reflect our impulse for denial of harsh facts? You have probably seen the headlines about University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill reversing from in-person classes. How much of a harbinger might we recognize here?
Optimism is nice. It has generally served us well over the recent past. So optimistic are we, we drift toward politicians who seem to believe we hardly need government, we hardly need the Post Office etc. Which reminds me: I need to check today if the collection box by the public library is still there. These have been disappearing all over as Trump - which he admits - wants to kill the potential for mail-in voting.
Not that he doesn't have other ideas in his bag of tricks. A headline this morning has Trump thinking he may deserve a third term because he was "spied upon." And we thought there was enough fear over a second Trump term.
Trump's failure on the pandemic is easy to document. Back in October - seems another whole epoch - the U.S. was judged very well-positioned to deal with a health crisis like the one that is ravaging.
Obama when president talked elaborately about preparedness. But of course, Trump and his mesmerized legions cannot say one good word about anything that the classy Obama did.
Was Obama not the epitome of proper decorum as president? How could he have done better in that regard? And do we even have to argue the decorum point in connection to Trump? Well, I'd probably have to. You see, this is Morris MN, where we support Republican state lawmakers and our most important local industry has a blue "Trump/Pence" sign on its property. Isn't it true that Superior owns the land immediately to the east of the soils lab? I have to look at that sign so often.
The president has, if nothing else, left us in a confused state, to where "funny" emails are forwarded around pointing out all the inconsistencies in the various pandemic strategies we have implemented, or experimented with. The humor comes in the scattershot nature. And if a simple quick "wipe" of a shopping basket handle is the difference between life and death, isn't that really kind of ridiculous?
I guess you're required to use hand sanitizer before entering the library. I love the Morris library but its rules seem onerous now, too restrictive to enjoy spending time there. We could embrace these rules if we saw uniformity, as if we could all be made to believe in them.
Inconsistency? We enjoy it when we can access businesses or facilities that are "loose." We feel relief at "stepping back in time" to the pre-pandemic experience. Like, going to Don's Cafe Sunday morning, where the capacity was nearly full and you'd never guess any special circumstances were in effect. I had to sit at the counter. The mood was bright. All this is a pleasure to report. I personally liked the experience. But was it prudent? It may well not have been.
But we circulate in an environment with indecision here now, as we acknowledge that the U.S. has more than one-fourth of all Covid cases in the world. The U.S. is judged to be a disaster zone. Trump has appeared to painstakingly "do the opposite of Obama" is if that has been the point all along. This by itself would demonstrate psychological dysfunction. I'll just point out that this man, Trump, is president of the U.S. Just thought I'd mention it, in case you're not adequately attuned.
And yet we insist that so many of our young people go somewhere to attend college. As if wisdom is so essential. And yet we elect Trump and are largely not receptive to putting Obama on a pedestal. The president says things that the average person wouldn't consider. "There are those who say you can test too much." How would Trump acknowledge the disaster that his administration has become, in terms of pandemic response: "It is what it is."
Elected people are supposed to recognize a crisis in the making, and work tirelessly to prevent it. Even worse is when Trump says the virus will "just go away." It's the dream of Republicans I guess: having a problem evaporate without the need for any government commitment or expense. Haven't you figured out this is what Republicans stand for? What a rude awakening for a lot of people.
We must seriously discuss if the military will be needed to ensure proper disposition of the election results. Only nations that are on the brink would countenance such a discussion. This is America. Isn't our stability and civility underscored in high school civics classes like the ones taught by the late Andy Papke? We were a model for the world. But now Trump apparently with the support of our Superior Industries, is trying to sabotage legitimate mail-in voting overseen by the various elected secretaries of state, and he won't even rule out seeking a third term or perhaps power for life. A child could deduce why Trump would take all measures to avoid leaving office. He would almost certainly be in legal crosshairs once he leaves office.
Why did us Americans bring this situation on ourselves? We could have had a nice civil presidency under Hillary Clinton who would surely have governed like Bill. She would have called for sacrifices and short-term pain when the Covid began looming, and she'd be hated for it by a considerable segment of the U.S. population, like the people in the pews of the Morris area conservative or "evangelical" churches, although it's hard to define the latter term. I don't think it was meant to have such a political component.
"Evangelicals" might be the biggest advertisement for leaving the Christian faith. In my case, I don't know where else I'd go.
Trump said just on Monday that he moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem "for the evangelicals." He even said "Christians are more excited by that than Jewish people." What an incredibly asinine comment. In the final analysis, Jews are just a means to an end for these most rabid "Christians." Jews merely help fulfill prophecy. That's their utility.
After my breakfast at Don's Sunday - an uplifting experience despite the worry - I might consider going over to First Lutheran Church for a parking lot service. I was too late on Sunday. But I heard later that the turnout was very small for such a nice summer morning, and the tech for the online totally broke down. We are treated to a 40-second video of Deb Mahoney warming up on keyboard, and some people drifting by. I feel insulted that this would even be presented as the online representation for the day.
Church without real fellowship is hopeless. We crowd into restaurants and thus far have dodged the bullet, I think. But there's a sign on the First Lutheran doors: "If parking lot service is cancelled, do not enter building." The word "not" is underlined. "This means you!" I'm just kidding with that. If I were to go inside, I suppose someone might say "can't you read?" That's the line I'd expect from the old cartoons.
"Do not feed the bears."
Church is all about fellowship. You can be a Christian without belonging to a church. But we're looking ahead to such a long winter, aren't we. Who knows what kind of disaster might be awaiting us? Could UMM's activities feed into that? It is a scenario we cannot rub out, in spite of our conditioned optimism. UMM might be whistling past the graveyard. Actually UMM is right next to a graveyard!
Here's a question I'm weighing: When the hiatus from high school football is over, will fewer boys be interested in playing it? Maybe the sport will fade away and then we'll wonder with great consternation, why we ever supported it.
Please visit my podcast
"Church and demographics" is the title of my "Morris Mojo" podcast post for today. It is inspired by a column written by our ELCA presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton. I invite you to listen:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Church-and-demographics-eiaptt
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
We cannot count on the best outcome, much as we'd like the reality to reflect the always-rising stock market. These are two different things, incidentally, and it is possible to be a skeptic about the markets.
But in-person school? Is this something we should welcome here in Morris? Does it just reflect our impulse for denial of harsh facts? You have probably seen the headlines about University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill reversing from in-person classes. How much of a harbinger might we recognize here?
Optimism is nice. It has generally served us well over the recent past. So optimistic are we, we drift toward politicians who seem to believe we hardly need government, we hardly need the Post Office etc. Which reminds me: I need to check today if the collection box by the public library is still there. These have been disappearing all over as Trump - which he admits - wants to kill the potential for mail-in voting.
Not that he doesn't have other ideas in his bag of tricks. A headline this morning has Trump thinking he may deserve a third term because he was "spied upon." And we thought there was enough fear over a second Trump term.
Trump's failure on the pandemic is easy to document. Back in October - seems another whole epoch - the U.S. was judged very well-positioned to deal with a health crisis like the one that is ravaging.
Obama when president talked elaborately about preparedness. But of course, Trump and his mesmerized legions cannot say one good word about anything that the classy Obama did.
Was Obama not the epitome of proper decorum as president? How could he have done better in that regard? And do we even have to argue the decorum point in connection to Trump? Well, I'd probably have to. You see, this is Morris MN, where we support Republican state lawmakers and our most important local industry has a blue "Trump/Pence" sign on its property. Isn't it true that Superior owns the land immediately to the east of the soils lab? I have to look at that sign so often.
The president has, if nothing else, left us in a confused state, to where "funny" emails are forwarded around pointing out all the inconsistencies in the various pandemic strategies we have implemented, or experimented with. The humor comes in the scattershot nature. And if a simple quick "wipe" of a shopping basket handle is the difference between life and death, isn't that really kind of ridiculous?
I guess you're required to use hand sanitizer before entering the library. I love the Morris library but its rules seem onerous now, too restrictive to enjoy spending time there. We could embrace these rules if we saw uniformity, as if we could all be made to believe in them.
Inconsistency? We enjoy it when we can access businesses or facilities that are "loose." We feel relief at "stepping back in time" to the pre-pandemic experience. Like, going to Don's Cafe Sunday morning, where the capacity was nearly full and you'd never guess any special circumstances were in effect. I had to sit at the counter. The mood was bright. All this is a pleasure to report. I personally liked the experience. But was it prudent? It may well not have been.
But we circulate in an environment with indecision here now, as we acknowledge that the U.S. has more than one-fourth of all Covid cases in the world. The U.S. is judged to be a disaster zone. Trump has appeared to painstakingly "do the opposite of Obama" is if that has been the point all along. This by itself would demonstrate psychological dysfunction. I'll just point out that this man, Trump, is president of the U.S. Just thought I'd mention it, in case you're not adequately attuned.
And yet we insist that so many of our young people go somewhere to attend college. As if wisdom is so essential. And yet we elect Trump and are largely not receptive to putting Obama on a pedestal. The president says things that the average person wouldn't consider. "There are those who say you can test too much." How would Trump acknowledge the disaster that his administration has become, in terms of pandemic response: "It is what it is."
Elected people are supposed to recognize a crisis in the making, and work tirelessly to prevent it. Even worse is when Trump says the virus will "just go away." It's the dream of Republicans I guess: having a problem evaporate without the need for any government commitment or expense. Haven't you figured out this is what Republicans stand for? What a rude awakening for a lot of people.
We must seriously discuss if the military will be needed to ensure proper disposition of the election results. Only nations that are on the brink would countenance such a discussion. This is America. Isn't our stability and civility underscored in high school civics classes like the ones taught by the late Andy Papke? We were a model for the world. But now Trump apparently with the support of our Superior Industries, is trying to sabotage legitimate mail-in voting overseen by the various elected secretaries of state, and he won't even rule out seeking a third term or perhaps power for life. A child could deduce why Trump would take all measures to avoid leaving office. He would almost certainly be in legal crosshairs once he leaves office.
Why did us Americans bring this situation on ourselves? We could have had a nice civil presidency under Hillary Clinton who would surely have governed like Bill. She would have called for sacrifices and short-term pain when the Covid began looming, and she'd be hated for it by a considerable segment of the U.S. population, like the people in the pews of the Morris area conservative or "evangelical" churches, although it's hard to define the latter term. I don't think it was meant to have such a political component.
"Evangelicals" might be the biggest advertisement for leaving the Christian faith. In my case, I don't know where else I'd go.
Trump said just on Monday that he moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem "for the evangelicals." He even said "Christians are more excited by that than Jewish people." What an incredibly asinine comment. In the final analysis, Jews are just a means to an end for these most rabid "Christians." Jews merely help fulfill prophecy. That's their utility.
Church without real fellowship is hopeless. We crowd into restaurants and thus far have dodged the bullet, I think. But there's a sign on the First Lutheran doors: "If parking lot service is cancelled, do not enter building." The word "not" is underlined. "This means you!" I'm just kidding with that. If I were to go inside, I suppose someone might say "can't you read?" That's the line I'd expect from the old cartoons.
"Do not feed the bears."
Church is all about fellowship. You can be a Christian without belonging to a church. But we're looking ahead to such a long winter, aren't we. Who knows what kind of disaster might be awaiting us? Could UMM's activities feed into that? It is a scenario we cannot rub out, in spite of our conditioned optimism. UMM might be whistling past the graveyard. Actually UMM is right next to a graveyard!
Here's a question I'm weighing: When the hiatus from high school football is over, will fewer boys be interested in playing it? Maybe the sport will fade away and then we'll wonder with great consternation, why we ever supported it.
Please visit my podcast
"Church and demographics" is the title of my "Morris Mojo" podcast post for today. It is inspired by a column written by our ELCA presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton. I invite you to listen:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Church-and-demographics-eiaptt
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Sunday, August 16, 2020
"It Happened in Flatbush" was in Brooklyn
Our Twins beat the vaunted Atlanta - psst, Braves - in the '91 Fall Classic. Boy, starting to seem a long time ago. The Atlanta nickname is of course an example of how we must show more sensitivity with such things.
I'm reminded of this whole episode when learning background with the 1942 movie "It Happened in Flatbush." I watched the whole movie recently and was not aware that "Dodgers" was never used. It was just "Brooklyn," and of course in this case we're not dealing with racial or cultural sensitivity. Hollywood had to respect a stipulation that the movie not replicate or suggest reminders of incidents through Dodgers history. Strange.
The movie opted to navigate accordingly, with many moviegoers, for sure, not even noticing. I just automatically equate Brooklyn with "Dodgers." And, how many people know the basis for the nickname? Well, nothing racial or ethnic about it, but it is tied to the Brooklyn way of life. We're talking streetcars. People had to be aware of these and be prepared to "dodge."
Doesn't seem relevant to where the team plays in Los Angeles now, just as "Lakers" isn't relative to L.A. The Lakers were in Minneapolis in Minnesota "The Land of 10,000 Lakes," before going west. A shame we lost them.
"It Happened in Flatbush" came out in 1942 when our nation had of course become preoccupied with World War II. It might be seen as a nice morale builder. It uses the theme of overcoming adversity, in this case the manager's haunting memory of making a costly error once.
The manager is played by the long-time "trooper" of an actor Lloyd Nolan. Perfect: He had a Brooklyn accent. Did you know that "Bugs Bunny" was an example of the Brooklyn accent? Perhaps the wisecracking personality was a reflection too. Contrast that with our Upper Midwest modesty and restraint.
Showcase for Carole Landis
Nolan's "squeeze" in this movie is the most glamorous Carole Landis. In '42 she toured with Martha Raye, Mitzi Mayfair and Kay Francis with a USO troupe in England and North Africa. Two years later she entertained soldiers in the South Pacific with Jack Benny. She spent more time visiting troops than any other actress.
 |
| Carole Landis |
The tragic end to this story comes with the actress's suicide in 1948. Her personal life was the epitome of the kind of turbulence associated with Hollywood stars. She married men like on a whim and ended up crushed by a failed overture toward Rex Harrison. The issue with Harrison was reportedly a catalyst for her self-inflicted death. Harrison did not escape suspicion in connection to the death.
Landis was a native of Fairchild WI where the library has a nice display devoted to her.
We might wonder what "Flatbush" is. I have been familiar with "It Happened in Flatbush" most of my life and couldn't have told you until recently: what the heck is Flatbush? Well, it's a neighborhood in the New York City of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1651 by Dutch colonists. It was a town before being incorporated into the City of Brooklyn.
"It Happened in Flatbush" had the alternate title "Dem Lovely Bums." The genuine Brooklyn players were in locker room scenes.
I was charmed by the matronly character actress Sara Allgood, "McAvoy," team owner at the start. She has limited time on the screen. Her character dies suddenly, opening the door for socialite character "Kathryn Baker" (Landis) to enter the picture. I thought Allgood almost stole the movie. But she gives way to Landis who one critic suggested was "too beautiful and elegant or this sort of movie." Not sure where that observation came from - the roles were all played superbly IMHO.
The authenticity of the baseball - often an issue in movies like these - is solid, as real game scenes were interspersed. The movie was a way of celebrating the 1941 pennant won by "Dem Bums." The Dodgers had a year of glory in the year that ended with the U.S. plunging into World War II. You'll remember that the Pearl Harbor bombing was in December.
The '41 summer was a time for everyone to cling to normality. "America First" died with Pearl Harbor.
Who likes the press?
Of course the movie has a newspaper writer not shown in a very good light. Wouldn't you know? The writer is "Danny Mitchell" played by Robert Armstrong, and the character exudes a "world-weary pessimism," I guess consistent with his craft. Of course this was the craft of yours truly for many years. Yes, the perch of a scribe often brings a cynical world view. The writer in the movie has a grudge.
Such rifts have been noted through baseball history. I have written a song about Rocky Colavito and in my research I learned he was a target of Joe Falls. Ted Williams in Boston had a problem with a scribe named Dave Egan. Must be something in our DNA - conflict attracts eyeballs? No comment.
"It Happened in Flatbush" has in its cast William Frawley! He loved being in baseball movies. His chief claim to fame of course was through TV with Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz. Perhaps he's equally well-known for being in "Miracle on 34th Street" where he plays the politically savvy and street smart consultant to the (elected) judge. He knows the unions!
Lloyd Nolan plays "Frank Maguire" who returns to Brooklyn to manage the team - don't say "Dodgers" - seven years after he made the costly error at shortstop. Frawley plays the crusty (of course) right-hand man to the Landis character.
The error story reflects a real-life episode from the 1941 World Series: catcher Mickey Owen committed a passed ball in Game 4 on what would have been the last out of the game. The Dodgers could have evened the Series at 2-2. Yankee Tommy Henrich ran to first safely. The Yanks mounted more success after that. They won and ultimately won the Series. Perhaps the Maguire/Owen incidents reflect what might be called the "Bill Buckner syndrome." Tough to shake that, impossible.
But Nolan exudes resolve and optimism through adversity to get his Brooklyn team - ahem, don't say "Dodgers" - the pennant. He kisses Landis along the way. Wow!
Frawley plays "Sam Sloan" who influences Baker (Landis) to support Maguire (Nolan). Baker was the niece of "McAvoy." The Dodgers' real manager at the time was Leo Durocher. BTW Durocher's third wife was actress Laraine Day.
Nolan "punches out" his adversary writer at one point. That reminds me of Paul Douglas in "Angels in the Outfield" and his exasperation with a radio guy.
"It Happened in Flatbush" has a tone typical of several "light" baseball movies of the time, "Angels" being one (and a favorite of mine, and of "Ike" Eisenhower's). Other examples are "It Happens Every Spring" and "The Kid From Left Field." Delightful as these movies are, it is abundantly sad they present a racial separation world. Movies made before Jackie Robinson are probably unforgivable. Should they be blackballed? Sent to the dumpster? Probably.
However, this fate would scrub "It Happened in Flatbush." The many fine creative people with this movie deserve better. Movies could not escape the prevailing societal templates.
The Yankees and Dodgers met seven times in the World Series from 1941-56 with the Dodgers winning only once, in 1955. Despite the '55 top-of-the-world success, the Dodgers were not long for Brooklyn. In fact they drew a meager crowd for their last game in "Flatbush" in 1957. A little bewildering. They played at Ebbets Field.
The real-life 1941 Dodgers had as a slugger Dolph Camilli who slugged 34 homers and drove in 120 runs. He was the National League MVP. Top pitchers were Kirby Higbe and Whitlow Wyatt.
Impressive in many roles
Critics liked Lloyd Nolan but he was relegated to 'B' movies. He was the title character in the "Michael Shayne" detective series. Most of his films were light entertainment with an emphasis on action. I remember him well from the 1957 movie "Peyton Place" in which he played the good guy doctor, taking questions from an adversarial Lorne Greene. Yes, hard to believe but Greene as a "heavy." He would endear us in TV's "Bonanza."
Nolan's doctor character used the delicate terminology "inducing a miscarriage" rather than say "abortion." He performed this with a girl who had been raped by a relative. The courtroom turnout became sympathetic to him and the girl. My generation still remembers Nolan from the TV series "Julia" from 1968 to '71, a significant series as it had a black woman in the lead role.
Nolan was a long-time cigar and pipe smoker who died of lung cancer in 1985. He was 83. Surely he charmed us in "It Happened In Flatbush."
William Frawley's final film appearance was in the 1962 baseball movie "Safe at Home." Did he ever have to vary his acting technique?
At the same time I am posting this, I have a post about the problem of old baseball movies from the racial segregation days. You may click on the permalink and thanks:
http://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2020/08/can-old-baseball-movies-still-pass.html
Visit my podcast from Morris MN
My podcast is called "Morris Mojo" and today I share about the world champion Brooklyn Dodgers of 1955, the year I was born! Strange how it was only two years later they completed play in Brooklyn and moved west. Please click on permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/1955-Brooklyn-Dodgers-ei809o
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
 |
| Why do these things happen? |
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Now the Florida governor befuddles us
So this morning there is a headline out of Florida where the governor compares the opening of regular school to the killing of Osama bin Laden. He's a Republican. Did the Republicans even want to give much credit to Obama for getting bin Laden? At the time, they probably resented how Obama had stolen some thunder from George W. Bush.
George W. Bush? At present he along with Dick Cheney's daughter Liz have largely fallen out of favor with what purports to be the GOP. How to characterize the GOP of today? It would tax my grasp of the language to try to characterize anymore. I'm weary. But with time on my hands I still try to shout from the proverbial rooftop.
Doesn't do much good here in Morris MN. Heard a couple of older guys this morning talking in typical sympathetic terms about the president, one of them saying "he gets criticized no matter what he does." It was said in a head-shaking way. I too would say the criticism is legitimate but for different reasons. The criticism really is legitimate.
But we're past exchanging views based on legitimate criticism. Let's see, "the train has left the station?" Something like that. I mean, much of the media really has done its job and revealed the dangerous nature of the Trump presidency - the danger of ignorance and paranoia - for months on end. And the beat goes on.
We're getting news of a very real slowdown with the Postal Service. Mail voting aside, a lot of people and businesses really do depend on this government service, and that's what it is: a service, i.e. the people pay taxes to support it and then the service delivers. Basic enough to grasp, isn't it?
Republicans have always been rather reflexive with their skepticism of such things, but generally it has been rhetoric. It is true that GOPers don't want people to like government, and I'd agree there are times when largesse must be attacked - it's essential. The problem now is that the president and his growing number of influential apologists surrounding him are literally trying to apply all the rhetoric. They ask "why can't the Postal Service make a profit?" It would be nice if the profit motive solved everything. Markets are essential in a healthy society but government is still needed for essential services. What about the largesse in the military? GOPers not so vigilant about that because they have to tap into their John Wayne side. They get many of their supporters eating out of their hands. And when Trump berates a reporter at a press conference for wearing a mask - teasing about being "politically correct" - it has such reach with a large element of the American public.
The Republican governor of Florida grandstands about regular school re-opening. It's the thrust by GOPers to make life seem "normal" and maybe we can look the other way re. the toll of the pandemic. "Normal" school would put people in a more comfortable frame of mind for continuing to keep so many Republicans like Trump in power.
We are truly not out of the woods with the pandemic. If we were to get some sort of sudden miracle, wonderful, we could have church bells ringing across the land. As of this day there are pervasive question marks, one of these attached to the uncertainty surrounding any potential vaccine. As Trump's desperation grows, so does the risk for our whole society, exponentially.
It seems rather naked now: Trump and his supporters wanting the rug to get pulled from under the Postal Service around November. Foil mail-in voting.
I probably don't need to vote because my one Democratic voice would be so overwhelmed by all the red staters who populate where we live. So you guys, don't worry, I'll stay out of your way and you can keep waving your pom poms for your hero Republicans, guys like Congressman Ted Yoho who called Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a "fucking bitch" in a recent encounter.
Doesn't seem like the kind of language I would expect for a hero to the likes of the local conservative church members, the Apostolics, the Good Shepherd crowd and various others. And they can keep waving their pom poms for us. State Representative Jeff Backer who talks about "liberal homosexual money" and puts his imprimatur on language like "leaping lesbians."
So don't worry all you Republicans of the year 2020, I probably will not even vote. I have not arranged to get a mail-in ballot. Simply asking for one might put a target on my forehead with a preponderance of the local folks, all the Apostolics etc. You associate with such class now, a president who pays hush money to a porn star etc. The Florida governor talks about the necessity of real school, yet he spouts ideas like his own education was a disaster. So, where has our education system really gotten us?
Don't all of you rely on the Postal Service on a daily basis for aspects of your lives? Don't you take it for granted in fact? To assail the U.S. Postal Service is really just a rhetorical thing, isn't it? A little therapeutic "venting" sometimes? Which isn't always pointless.
Oh, I have always conceded that conservatives can make excellent points sometimes. They get in line with Trump on criticizing endless Mideast wars - right on. But when George W. Bush was in power, they got right in line with the jingoism, waving the pom poms, cheering for the "Fox and Friends" morning crew that fed the beast.
Today it's all different? Today George W. Bush and Liz Cheney are irrelevant to them, maybe even adversaries to them. There is no logic, no consistency, no morals What has become of us? Ah Bartleby, ah humanity!
I worry about UMM retiree Jim Carlson sitting down in Florida where the virus has ravaged.
Should UMM open?
My podcast entry for today, Aug. 13, reminds of the concerns and potential dangers faced by college towns. Hey, that's us. IMHO the regular activity should be delayed, but that's not the plan here. You may click on permalink below for my "Morris Mojo" podcast:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Should-UMM-open-ei3nlv
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
George W. Bush? At present he along with Dick Cheney's daughter Liz have largely fallen out of favor with what purports to be the GOP. How to characterize the GOP of today? It would tax my grasp of the language to try to characterize anymore. I'm weary. But with time on my hands I still try to shout from the proverbial rooftop.
Doesn't do much good here in Morris MN. Heard a couple of older guys this morning talking in typical sympathetic terms about the president, one of them saying "he gets criticized no matter what he does." It was said in a head-shaking way. I too would say the criticism is legitimate but for different reasons. The criticism really is legitimate.
But we're past exchanging views based on legitimate criticism. Let's see, "the train has left the station?" Something like that. I mean, much of the media really has done its job and revealed the dangerous nature of the Trump presidency - the danger of ignorance and paranoia - for months on end. And the beat goes on.
We're getting news of a very real slowdown with the Postal Service. Mail voting aside, a lot of people and businesses really do depend on this government service, and that's what it is: a service, i.e. the people pay taxes to support it and then the service delivers. Basic enough to grasp, isn't it?
Republicans have always been rather reflexive with their skepticism of such things, but generally it has been rhetoric. It is true that GOPers don't want people to like government, and I'd agree there are times when largesse must be attacked - it's essential. The problem now is that the president and his growing number of influential apologists surrounding him are literally trying to apply all the rhetoric. They ask "why can't the Postal Service make a profit?" It would be nice if the profit motive solved everything. Markets are essential in a healthy society but government is still needed for essential services. What about the largesse in the military? GOPers not so vigilant about that because they have to tap into their John Wayne side. They get many of their supporters eating out of their hands. And when Trump berates a reporter at a press conference for wearing a mask - teasing about being "politically correct" - it has such reach with a large element of the American public.
The Republican governor of Florida grandstands about regular school re-opening. It's the thrust by GOPers to make life seem "normal" and maybe we can look the other way re. the toll of the pandemic. "Normal" school would put people in a more comfortable frame of mind for continuing to keep so many Republicans like Trump in power.
We are truly not out of the woods with the pandemic. If we were to get some sort of sudden miracle, wonderful, we could have church bells ringing across the land. As of this day there are pervasive question marks, one of these attached to the uncertainty surrounding any potential vaccine. As Trump's desperation grows, so does the risk for our whole society, exponentially.
It seems rather naked now: Trump and his supporters wanting the rug to get pulled from under the Postal Service around November. Foil mail-in voting.
I probably don't need to vote because my one Democratic voice would be so overwhelmed by all the red staters who populate where we live. So you guys, don't worry, I'll stay out of your way and you can keep waving your pom poms for your hero Republicans, guys like Congressman Ted Yoho who called Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a "fucking bitch" in a recent encounter.
Doesn't seem like the kind of language I would expect for a hero to the likes of the local conservative church members, the Apostolics, the Good Shepherd crowd and various others. And they can keep waving their pom poms for us. State Representative Jeff Backer who talks about "liberal homosexual money" and puts his imprimatur on language like "leaping lesbians."
So don't worry all you Republicans of the year 2020, I probably will not even vote. I have not arranged to get a mail-in ballot. Simply asking for one might put a target on my forehead with a preponderance of the local folks, all the Apostolics etc. You associate with such class now, a president who pays hush money to a porn star etc. The Florida governor talks about the necessity of real school, yet he spouts ideas like his own education was a disaster. So, where has our education system really gotten us?
Don't all of you rely on the Postal Service on a daily basis for aspects of your lives? Don't you take it for granted in fact? To assail the U.S. Postal Service is really just a rhetorical thing, isn't it? A little therapeutic "venting" sometimes? Which isn't always pointless.
Oh, I have always conceded that conservatives can make excellent points sometimes. They get in line with Trump on criticizing endless Mideast wars - right on. But when George W. Bush was in power, they got right in line with the jingoism, waving the pom poms, cheering for the "Fox and Friends" morning crew that fed the beast.
Today it's all different? Today George W. Bush and Liz Cheney are irrelevant to them, maybe even adversaries to them. There is no logic, no consistency, no morals What has become of us? Ah Bartleby, ah humanity!
I worry about UMM retiree Jim Carlson sitting down in Florida where the virus has ravaged.
Should UMM open?
My podcast entry for today, Aug. 13, reminds of the concerns and potential dangers faced by college towns. Hey, that's us. IMHO the regular activity should be delayed, but that's not the plan here. You may click on permalink below for my "Morris Mojo" podcast:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Should-UMM-open-ei3nlv
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Stating the obvious: it drones on
A whole cottage industry has grown up with journalists and pundits incessantly pointing out the crudeness and absurdity of the Trump presidency. The Trump crowd comes forward with the usual blather about "fake news." But, writers have found almost endless grist in what the president does and says every day. Yes, every day including Sunday when the president might "tweet" in the morning.
The president makes mistakes in handling the language that would have gotten me poked fun at. That's politics: someone with a wave of popularity behind him gets every benefit of the doubt. Simple enough to grasp, but in Trump's case it extends to extremes that becomes downright disturbing.
You might say I'm part of the cottage industry but I am no longer compensated. I left the commercial media with some traits of PTSD although not at a level that required professional attention. The vise closed on me in ways you might expect, a combination of new factors and some old. The "new" had to do with the nature of the trendy and impersonal corporate ownership. That company gave up on Morris and allowed a more sensible and feeling business to move in. Not sure I care much about the local paper anymore - the pandemic has separated me from it. I'd normally see it in public places.
The "cottage industry" thought emerged in my head this morning because of op-eds by Max Boot and George Conway. Writers like these can make a name for themselves in the age of Trump. These are writers who simply use their rapier-like minds to deconstruct Trump. And, they do so in such an obvious manner. There is no sensible rebuttal to what they argue.
The obvious conclusion is that our crisis with Trump should be in the process of remediation or correction. In the absence of that, the cottage industry of writers/critics continues and swells. A quiet and competent presidency would leave so many of the pundit-writers grasping to keep their place. Grasp to get noticed. So the pregnant irony here is that even though their writing is like a firebell in the night, the writers have this symbiotic relationship with the status quo.
A while back I read an op-ed by Conway in which he wrote "stock and trade." Caught my attention, because in my writing background, I have had to clarify if it's "in" or "and," and it's "in." I point it out because I'm certain I'd be poked fun at, if I got something wrong like this in my writing in the extremely micro world of Morris MN.
I picked up pretty severe political baggage in my newspaper career due to troubled waters with the Morris school district, particularly its teachers. Or, maybe the problem was with the leaders higher up because they became timid or got intimidated by school staff. The teachers union could be a vicious political influence. The waters seem calm today by comparison.
I'm the proverbial guy who "knows where all the bodies are buried."
We had school administrators who all seemed to be walking on eggshells in the early '90s. It's amazing the situation was so delicate. Administrators got shifted around. There was one, initials R.H., who in my opinion became the consummate bureaucratic type who might spend most of his time standing next to a copy machine. And, the state of Minnesota tried "flattering" us by suggesting he was on some high-level committee doing important state work.
Hah! The work might have been important, maybe. But, as the late counselor Don Fellows told me once in a candid way: "There are highly-paid people in St. Paul who are supposed to be doing that."
The aberrant Beltway
So, if I were to type "stock in trade" it had better be with "in" instead of "and." But big-name guy George Conway in the Washington D.C. Beltway gets slack, just like Rudy Giuliani gets slack for acting in a way that wouldn't even be countenanced in our Morris MN legal community. Just as, we wouldn't want someone with Donald Trump's deportment to be our mayor. But the guy can blather on as president, feeding this cottage industry of punditry endlessly.
Heaven help all those people if our government in D.C. just quietly deliberated on matters pertaining to the public interest. Incidentally, this is the purpose of government. It is not to be some ridiculous circus for us to gawk at. Giuliani behaves sometimes like he belongs in a straitjacket.
Me, Brian Williams, if I'm writing in the commercial media here in Flyoverland, I'd better write "stock in trade" and not "and."
Speaking of school, do we really want in-person classes to resume to any extent? Do we want to see the influx of UMM students? We are heading into a time of year when we'll have to start living with indoor air. Our time of denial, when we can have screen windows open all over the place, is nigh over.
My church is acting conflicted on how much indoor activity, if any, is going to be permitted. Our local restaurants are certainly not on the same page. I went to Don's this morning where there is an effort, at least, to adhere to the mask thing. Signs are up. There is another restaurant that acts as if the mask rule doesn't exist, really. I visited that restaurant yesterday and there were even a couple cops in there. No attention paid to non-mask wearers as they entered/exited. I guess this isn't to point fingers - I don't want my next order to be burned there - but the objectionable thing right now is the confusion.
Joe Lembcke, RIP
I haven't even gotten to my best example. I was shocked to see the video of the Joe Lembcke funeral. It was sad for us to lose Joe who graduated from Morris High School in 1971. Friends/family would insist that a full-fledged funeral was necessary for such a wonderful person. Which isn't the point of course. The rules exist to protect everyone including the innocent bystanders including kids and the very elderly.
Herman Cain thought he could ignore the rules. He died. He literally gave his life for Donald Trump, so Trump could blather and behave like Hitler at a Tulsa OK rally. America, what has become of you? There is no point even arguing with Trump's supporters. I walked past a Trump bumper sticker as I entered DeToy's Saturday morning. The sentiment is so prevailing. What does this say about our education system?
There was mendacity when I was young too, the way the government tried defending the Vietnam war. Too wrongs do not make a right, knaves.
Kamala Harris, thumbs-up
News this afternoon: Kamala Harris of California as VP nominee. I'm proud to remind that I endorsed Kamala for president way back on September 6 of 2017. This post was on my "Morris of Course" site. The permalink:
https://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2017/09/kamala-harris-of-califorina-for.html
Invitation to my podcast
Audio is not my raison d'etre but I'm learning. My August 11 entry is entitled "Our 'old' problems: not so big?" So I look at the little issues on our minds pre-pandemic, and now they don't seem so critical, do they. I have the license to go off on tangents! Here is the permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Our-old-problems-not-so-big-ei0l0n
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
The president makes mistakes in handling the language that would have gotten me poked fun at. That's politics: someone with a wave of popularity behind him gets every benefit of the doubt. Simple enough to grasp, but in Trump's case it extends to extremes that becomes downright disturbing.
You might say I'm part of the cottage industry but I am no longer compensated. I left the commercial media with some traits of PTSD although not at a level that required professional attention. The vise closed on me in ways you might expect, a combination of new factors and some old. The "new" had to do with the nature of the trendy and impersonal corporate ownership. That company gave up on Morris and allowed a more sensible and feeling business to move in. Not sure I care much about the local paper anymore - the pandemic has separated me from it. I'd normally see it in public places.
The "cottage industry" thought emerged in my head this morning because of op-eds by Max Boot and George Conway. Writers like these can make a name for themselves in the age of Trump. These are writers who simply use their rapier-like minds to deconstruct Trump. And, they do so in such an obvious manner. There is no sensible rebuttal to what they argue.
The obvious conclusion is that our crisis with Trump should be in the process of remediation or correction. In the absence of that, the cottage industry of writers/critics continues and swells. A quiet and competent presidency would leave so many of the pundit-writers grasping to keep their place. Grasp to get noticed. So the pregnant irony here is that even though their writing is like a firebell in the night, the writers have this symbiotic relationship with the status quo.
A while back I read an op-ed by Conway in which he wrote "stock and trade." Caught my attention, because in my writing background, I have had to clarify if it's "in" or "and," and it's "in." I point it out because I'm certain I'd be poked fun at, if I got something wrong like this in my writing in the extremely micro world of Morris MN.
I picked up pretty severe political baggage in my newspaper career due to troubled waters with the Morris school district, particularly its teachers. Or, maybe the problem was with the leaders higher up because they became timid or got intimidated by school staff. The teachers union could be a vicious political influence. The waters seem calm today by comparison.
I'm the proverbial guy who "knows where all the bodies are buried."
We had school administrators who all seemed to be walking on eggshells in the early '90s. It's amazing the situation was so delicate. Administrators got shifted around. There was one, initials R.H., who in my opinion became the consummate bureaucratic type who might spend most of his time standing next to a copy machine. And, the state of Minnesota tried "flattering" us by suggesting he was on some high-level committee doing important state work.
Hah! The work might have been important, maybe. But, as the late counselor Don Fellows told me once in a candid way: "There are highly-paid people in St. Paul who are supposed to be doing that."
The aberrant Beltway
So, if I were to type "stock in trade" it had better be with "in" instead of "and." But big-name guy George Conway in the Washington D.C. Beltway gets slack, just like Rudy Giuliani gets slack for acting in a way that wouldn't even be countenanced in our Morris MN legal community. Just as, we wouldn't want someone with Donald Trump's deportment to be our mayor. But the guy can blather on as president, feeding this cottage industry of punditry endlessly.
Heaven help all those people if our government in D.C. just quietly deliberated on matters pertaining to the public interest. Incidentally, this is the purpose of government. It is not to be some ridiculous circus for us to gawk at. Giuliani behaves sometimes like he belongs in a straitjacket.
Me, Brian Williams, if I'm writing in the commercial media here in Flyoverland, I'd better write "stock in trade" and not "and."
My church is acting conflicted on how much indoor activity, if any, is going to be permitted. Our local restaurants are certainly not on the same page. I went to Don's this morning where there is an effort, at least, to adhere to the mask thing. Signs are up. There is another restaurant that acts as if the mask rule doesn't exist, really. I visited that restaurant yesterday and there were even a couple cops in there. No attention paid to non-mask wearers as they entered/exited. I guess this isn't to point fingers - I don't want my next order to be burned there - but the objectionable thing right now is the confusion.
Joe Lembcke, RIP
I haven't even gotten to my best example. I was shocked to see the video of the Joe Lembcke funeral. It was sad for us to lose Joe who graduated from Morris High School in 1971. Friends/family would insist that a full-fledged funeral was necessary for such a wonderful person. Which isn't the point of course. The rules exist to protect everyone including the innocent bystanders including kids and the very elderly.
Herman Cain thought he could ignore the rules. He died. He literally gave his life for Donald Trump, so Trump could blather and behave like Hitler at a Tulsa OK rally. America, what has become of you? There is no point even arguing with Trump's supporters. I walked past a Trump bumper sticker as I entered DeToy's Saturday morning. The sentiment is so prevailing. What does this say about our education system?
There was mendacity when I was young too, the way the government tried defending the Vietnam war. Too wrongs do not make a right, knaves.
Kamala Harris, thumbs-up
News this afternoon: Kamala Harris of California as VP nominee. I'm proud to remind that I endorsed Kamala for president way back on September 6 of 2017. This post was on my "Morris of Course" site. The permalink:
https://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2017/09/kamala-harris-of-califorina-for.html
Invitation to my podcast
Audio is not my raison d'etre but I'm learning. My August 11 entry is entitled "Our 'old' problems: not so big?" So I look at the little issues on our minds pre-pandemic, and now they don't seem so critical, do they. I have the license to go off on tangents! Here is the permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Our-old-problems-not-so-big-ei0l0n
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Saturday, August 8, 2020
Will some changes be permanent?
Haven't you wondered: might some of our behavior and thinking be changing permanently? Are we re-thinking how some of our institutions operate? The institutions have been clinging to hope that they can hang on to some semblance of their normal way of doing things. A big reason is that so many of the people who work in these institutions have a vested interest in the standard way.
Even before the pandemic, I suggested often that we not defer so automatically to the bricks-and-mortar system of education. There was reason to question so much of our standard or legacy systems. "Legacy" means holdover. And these things can reach an expiration date.
The curtailment of so many of our standard systems will certainly make us wonder about funding them. So far, the sheer shock of the pandemic adjustment has put budget questions on the back burner. So many more immediate things to have to deal with. I think with time, as we receive new tax news about what we owe, we might say "whoa" and ask questions.
Institutions are hanging on like our local library with highly restrictive rules. The library typically has lots of special events. Can it have any now? The library is a highly cherished asset under normal circumstances. I'd be the last to push for any austerity then. But our world of right now is so drastically different.
Kids can learn "remotely." Well of course they can, but the big pregnant question staring at us is: should we still pump tax dollars into these institutions like before? If fall school sports is going to be shoe-horned into spring, can we justify funding all of that stuff as if normal life continued?
Aren't these quite pressing questions? And I'm not the type to rail about how we pay too much taxes. There are many people out there who are inclined that way, and surely there will be a crescendo of those voices soon, won't there be?
Do kids need their regular teachers at all, if they are at home learning remotely? Part of the teaching faculty's job is to supervise kids and apply discipline in the building throughout the day. Remote learning completely eliminates that responsibility. A few weeks ago I saw the news item about UMM hiring a new assistant football coach. If there is no football season, what will this person do and will he get paid for doing it?
Schools as we speak are retreating from initial announcements about how they'd try to resume with some normalcy; reality is intervening, as if we should feel surprised by that. There was an announcement from Princeton University yesterday (Friday): on-campus stuff nixed. The Mid-American Conference just this morning announced it is nixing football for fall.
The Minnesota High School League announced just a few days ago the cancellation of football and volleyball for autumn. I will wager that when we get into September, and so many local families feel the pain of emptiness, they will become irate in a way they have delayed until now.
It has been somewhat easy to delay our anger because 1) the pandemic is still a rather new phenomenon, and 2) summer is such a slow time of year, we accept the relative idleness. The start of a new school year is like a sugar rush for so many people, even many people with no kids in school. I have felt it all my life.
The odds are high for a "second wave" of the virus. Dr. Fauci said "inevitable" a while back. Then, poor Dr. Fauci got pressured to politically backpedal a little. He revised his comment to "it doesn't have to be inevitable" or something like that, and I would interpret this as conforming to our present-day instincts of feeling optimistic about everything. The stock market never goes down, right? It might plunge on a given day, naturally, but we learned it always bounces back, within days even, and the pattern is so set now the media has stopped paying attention when it does plunge.
Of course it is the Federal Reserve acting as puppetmaster with the stock market, as if with magic incantations or something like that. Seriously, the Fed's perverse actions have drawn lots of skepticism and there could really be hell to pay, maybe hyper-inflation. Have we all forgotten how scary inflation is? It's actually happening now but it's not "hyper" yet. When it's "hyper" you'll know it.
I have made a permanent change in my lifestyle by realizing I can cut my own hair. My hair obviously doesn't have to look like a "pro" cut it. If Dave Evenson was still here I'd still go to him, just because I enjoyed seeing him. And, by visiting him I might pick up some "local news nuggets," heh heh. Just like the Leslie Nielsen character in "Police Squad" and how he'd visit the "shoeshine guy." The shoeshine guy would just want a little extra tip. Dave had a sign in his shop: "Tipping isn't a city in China."
I miss seeing Dave and Yvonne in church. Our church will have an outdoor service tomorrow (Sunday). But as with so many other institutions, autumn will bring a shock: no more in-person fellowship with church AT ALL. It hasn't sunk in yet. The sheer pleasantness of summer keeps it from sinking in, knaves. Property taxes will make us start asking some hard questions. It is not unreasonable.
Please visit my podcast
"A fleeting time of year" is the title for my August 8 "Morris Mojo" podcast from Northridge Drive. Such a pleasant time of year but, well, transitory. I invite you to click on permalink below. You will learn it is against the law to tease a skunk in Minnesota! (We know how that would turn out.)
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/A-fleeting-time-of-year-ehs400
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Even before the pandemic, I suggested often that we not defer so automatically to the bricks-and-mortar system of education. There was reason to question so much of our standard or legacy systems. "Legacy" means holdover. And these things can reach an expiration date.
The curtailment of so many of our standard systems will certainly make us wonder about funding them. So far, the sheer shock of the pandemic adjustment has put budget questions on the back burner. So many more immediate things to have to deal with. I think with time, as we receive new tax news about what we owe, we might say "whoa" and ask questions.
Institutions are hanging on like our local library with highly restrictive rules. The library typically has lots of special events. Can it have any now? The library is a highly cherished asset under normal circumstances. I'd be the last to push for any austerity then. But our world of right now is so drastically different.
Kids can learn "remotely." Well of course they can, but the big pregnant question staring at us is: should we still pump tax dollars into these institutions like before? If fall school sports is going to be shoe-horned into spring, can we justify funding all of that stuff as if normal life continued?
Aren't these quite pressing questions? And I'm not the type to rail about how we pay too much taxes. There are many people out there who are inclined that way, and surely there will be a crescendo of those voices soon, won't there be?
Do kids need their regular teachers at all, if they are at home learning remotely? Part of the teaching faculty's job is to supervise kids and apply discipline in the building throughout the day. Remote learning completely eliminates that responsibility. A few weeks ago I saw the news item about UMM hiring a new assistant football coach. If there is no football season, what will this person do and will he get paid for doing it?
Schools as we speak are retreating from initial announcements about how they'd try to resume with some normalcy; reality is intervening, as if we should feel surprised by that. There was an announcement from Princeton University yesterday (Friday): on-campus stuff nixed. The Mid-American Conference just this morning announced it is nixing football for fall.
The Minnesota High School League announced just a few days ago the cancellation of football and volleyball for autumn. I will wager that when we get into September, and so many local families feel the pain of emptiness, they will become irate in a way they have delayed until now.
It has been somewhat easy to delay our anger because 1) the pandemic is still a rather new phenomenon, and 2) summer is such a slow time of year, we accept the relative idleness. The start of a new school year is like a sugar rush for so many people, even many people with no kids in school. I have felt it all my life.
The odds are high for a "second wave" of the virus. Dr. Fauci said "inevitable" a while back. Then, poor Dr. Fauci got pressured to politically backpedal a little. He revised his comment to "it doesn't have to be inevitable" or something like that, and I would interpret this as conforming to our present-day instincts of feeling optimistic about everything. The stock market never goes down, right? It might plunge on a given day, naturally, but we learned it always bounces back, within days even, and the pattern is so set now the media has stopped paying attention when it does plunge.
Of course it is the Federal Reserve acting as puppetmaster with the stock market, as if with magic incantations or something like that. Seriously, the Fed's perverse actions have drawn lots of skepticism and there could really be hell to pay, maybe hyper-inflation. Have we all forgotten how scary inflation is? It's actually happening now but it's not "hyper" yet. When it's "hyper" you'll know it.
I have made a permanent change in my lifestyle by realizing I can cut my own hair. My hair obviously doesn't have to look like a "pro" cut it. If Dave Evenson was still here I'd still go to him, just because I enjoyed seeing him. And, by visiting him I might pick up some "local news nuggets," heh heh. Just like the Leslie Nielsen character in "Police Squad" and how he'd visit the "shoeshine guy." The shoeshine guy would just want a little extra tip. Dave had a sign in his shop: "Tipping isn't a city in China."
I miss seeing Dave and Yvonne in church. Our church will have an outdoor service tomorrow (Sunday). But as with so many other institutions, autumn will bring a shock: no more in-person fellowship with church AT ALL. It hasn't sunk in yet. The sheer pleasantness of summer keeps it from sinking in, knaves. Property taxes will make us start asking some hard questions. It is not unreasonable.
Please visit my podcast
"A fleeting time of year" is the title for my August 8 "Morris Mojo" podcast from Northridge Drive. Such a pleasant time of year but, well, transitory. I invite you to click on permalink below. You will learn it is against the law to tease a skunk in Minnesota! (We know how that would turn out.)
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/A-fleeting-time-of-year-ehs400
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Friday, August 7, 2020
PR and "messaging" often odious
Any person who has worked in the media can recognize the worst kind of public relations. It's the kind of PR deliberately orchestrated to minimize or obscure a disturbing public topic. It's designed to protect the image of people in a position to address such problems. To say it "deflects" is often to put it generously.
Sometimes when you suggest outright lying, it's a turn-off for a lot of people. Talk about "lies" and people often just think you're disgruntled. People in the media have to watch their backs for how they are perceived. Obviously it affects our credibility. I say "our" because I still consider myself an active media person. I was in the corporate media for 27 years.
Veterans in the profession can easily develop a tendency to suspect B.S. in public figures' statements. Usually those figures are astute enough to not make it obvious that full-fledged PR has taken over. There is a textbook approach to such things.
When people in positions of responsibility, along with their subservient minions, talk openly about "messaging," they are crossing the line into pure PR. Media people are inclined to feel revulsed. We have learned to be careful about acknowledging this feeling, obvious as the feeling may seem to us. We can be so close to the machinations of power. We see all the incentives and self-interest. We are paid to be observers. We do not have to be a party to it.
But many of us feel restraint. We fear what the people in power could literally do to us. We need a foundation for professional survival just like everyone. And believe me, the people in power can definitely put a target on your forehead. I experienced this on a quite micro level once.
Our school district had been through a spate of well-deserved controversy. I almost felt like saying "what took you so long?" to a group of insurgents that had come forward. A key representative of that group assumed that my sentiment matched theirs, because he came to my office one day and launched a conversation based on this assumption.
An assertive complainer about local public school issues might be written off as being "fringe," perhaps someone disgruntled about his own kid not getting the lead for the school musical, something like that. Or most commonly, disgruntlement over certain sports teams losing so much. For the record, we did have sports teams losing then. It can happen. As a close observer for years, I knew there were underlying cultural issues in the school district. And it was these issues coming to the fore in the minds of those with grievances.
The person who came to my office, incidentally, was Merlin Beyer. Looking back, quite obviously this conflict should not have been allowed to become a big deal. It could have been suppressed with more responsible leadership from the top, maybe. I say "maybe" because school staff had a lot of latitude for asserting themselves and frankly protecting their narrowest interests. Well, like maximum job security (like for coaches) and a minimum of pressure to have to deal with.
Few of us have the luxury of evading real pressure in our occupation. So we learn to fulfill our obligations with a maximum of focus, with the assumption we face accountability. If you go back 30-35 years, you'd notice greater empowerment for school district employees. They really did have the power to fend off critics.
The really onerous part of that, was that they often applied pretty base tactics. I mean even being hard on certain kids whose parents might not "tow the line" with the teachers. Oh, the teachers would deny that vigorously.
I had a pretty independent-thinking friend on the school staff who confirmed my suspicions. We talked about a family where the mother was pretty opinionated and even ended up on the school board. My friend felt her kids had some negative consequences of that. So, would teachers really vent their wrath in such a way? I think most of us, if plumbing the recesses of our most cynical thoughts, would readily say "yes." The words of my school staff friend: "They say they don't do that but they do."
I mentioned Merlin Beyer by name so since I'm name-dropping, I'll report the name of my school staff friend: Dave Holman. Dave could be pretty candid when around friends. He was/is a political actor. He probably overestimates his potential for electability. But, nothing wrong with exercising your rights in this sphere. It's called "being in the arena."
I'd like to re-visit the PR angle, because as time passed in our turbulent times, there was a new school administrator who was widely seen as being tasked with remedying or at least smoothing over certain problems. Oh heck, let's emphasize "smoothing over."
Wally Behm was a former administrator who probably should just have been enjoying retirement. But he stayed more involved and interested than he needed to be. I'm no one to talk: for a long time after leaving the Morris paper, I had a hard time truly "moving on." I regret that I could not detach better. Finally a former co-worker, who herself got laid off, said "Brian, I think you should let it go." She added: "Newspapers aren't big business anymore." Papers have retreated considerably since she and I shared our communication. She was laid off because of Forum Communications moving the ad composition work to Detroit Lakes. Forum Communications has since given up on Morris.
Behm, now deceased and hopefully more detached in heaven, was never shy about school district matters or politics. So one day I asked about this hotshot new administrator. I asked him if this new dynamic soul had a particular "mandate." And if so, was it based on remedying real shortcomings? We can never assume that. Asked about the mandate, Behm said "quiet!" That was it. In other words, pull whatever levers are needed to just tamp down the community unrest. Just push for "quiet," an aim that I took to mean "by any means necessary," in other words to just get people to shut the f--k up.
Media people understand full well how local public officials become motivated by such things. In deference to them, they might have very limited latitude for addressing any ills. It's not like a private business. Hell, in a private business there might be a merciless housecleaning. Unions can muddy things up. Oh, and another big factor is the network of personal friends that a school staff will cultivate. So, "quiet" was the aim.
I was even dislodged from some of the sportswriting beats I had done. If the motive was to get me tossed out of my profession, which I'm quite certain is true, it failed. The custodian and van driver for the Sun Tribune phased into retirement and I took over 100 percent of that. Yes, "menial" work but I loved it. I loved how it was structured. You begin your work at a certain time and it wraps up at a certain time. Only minor variations.
It was so refreshing after the unstable nature of news department work where it seemed "your work is never done." That quote is from Seth Schmidt, Morris native who also went into newspapers. Seth and I played French horn in school band. He was from a quite dynamic family - Morris needs more of those.
The worst kind of PR at the macro level has an example in the response to the Flint MI water crisis. The governor's office nakedly came forward and said certain "messaging" was needed about their work. "Nothing to see here," I guess. The governor was Rick Snyder, a Republican of course. Michigan has Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, a real hero, as the governor now.
Yes, "messaging," because Republicans don't want people to like government - it is a defining feature of the party - so in the absence of dynamic action, they'll get very pushy with "messaging" - damn them - and they'll turn their Howitzer on people like me, the press. Republican Donald Trump says "fake news" regularly.
It is disgusting how Trump tries putting a smiley face on how the pandemic is being handled across America. It's PR and messaging at the most "macro" level with devastating consequences. It will start hitting home soon as we notice there is no high school football or volleyball. This could have been avoided.
High school sports are a big part of the social lives of so many people. It helps the winter seem shorter. It can be criticized for being shallow. I personally have railed against the sport of football for the obvious health/safety reasons for the players. But we have not fashioned a perfect world for ourselves, have we. When autumn truly sets in, and so many of us notice how our lives have become so bereft of normal entertainment and diversions - my - we'll start developing real anger toward Trump and his horrible sycophants and enablers. And we'll ask: "What took us so long?"
Biden is inadequate. We need a Democratic nominee who will really "take off the gloves" vs. Trump, to just hammer mercilessly at him and his ignorance, to say that no slack will be cut as far as criminal prosecutions once the fat ignoramus leaves office.
I think pressure will start to mount for a more assertive, vigorous Democratic nominee. I have had a "Kamala" bumper sticker on my car for some time. Don't let Trump's PR or messaging create a fog, please. I have been through this kind of rodeo before. And I was never "fake news."
My podcast message for today
Today (August 7) my "Morris Mojo" podcast is based on the announcement of high school football and volleyball being upended for the 2020 fall. Nuts! Our process of adjusting continues. I invite you to click on permalink below:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/No-football--volleyball--alas-ehqsq8
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Sometimes when you suggest outright lying, it's a turn-off for a lot of people. Talk about "lies" and people often just think you're disgruntled. People in the media have to watch their backs for how they are perceived. Obviously it affects our credibility. I say "our" because I still consider myself an active media person. I was in the corporate media for 27 years.
Veterans in the profession can easily develop a tendency to suspect B.S. in public figures' statements. Usually those figures are astute enough to not make it obvious that full-fledged PR has taken over. There is a textbook approach to such things.
When people in positions of responsibility, along with their subservient minions, talk openly about "messaging," they are crossing the line into pure PR. Media people are inclined to feel revulsed. We have learned to be careful about acknowledging this feeling, obvious as the feeling may seem to us. We can be so close to the machinations of power. We see all the incentives and self-interest. We are paid to be observers. We do not have to be a party to it.
But many of us feel restraint. We fear what the people in power could literally do to us. We need a foundation for professional survival just like everyone. And believe me, the people in power can definitely put a target on your forehead. I experienced this on a quite micro level once.
Our school district had been through a spate of well-deserved controversy. I almost felt like saying "what took you so long?" to a group of insurgents that had come forward. A key representative of that group assumed that my sentiment matched theirs, because he came to my office one day and launched a conversation based on this assumption.
An assertive complainer about local public school issues might be written off as being "fringe," perhaps someone disgruntled about his own kid not getting the lead for the school musical, something like that. Or most commonly, disgruntlement over certain sports teams losing so much. For the record, we did have sports teams losing then. It can happen. As a close observer for years, I knew there were underlying cultural issues in the school district. And it was these issues coming to the fore in the minds of those with grievances.
The person who came to my office, incidentally, was Merlin Beyer. Looking back, quite obviously this conflict should not have been allowed to become a big deal. It could have been suppressed with more responsible leadership from the top, maybe. I say "maybe" because school staff had a lot of latitude for asserting themselves and frankly protecting their narrowest interests. Well, like maximum job security (like for coaches) and a minimum of pressure to have to deal with.
Few of us have the luxury of evading real pressure in our occupation. So we learn to fulfill our obligations with a maximum of focus, with the assumption we face accountability. If you go back 30-35 years, you'd notice greater empowerment for school district employees. They really did have the power to fend off critics.
The really onerous part of that, was that they often applied pretty base tactics. I mean even being hard on certain kids whose parents might not "tow the line" with the teachers. Oh, the teachers would deny that vigorously.
I had a pretty independent-thinking friend on the school staff who confirmed my suspicions. We talked about a family where the mother was pretty opinionated and even ended up on the school board. My friend felt her kids had some negative consequences of that. So, would teachers really vent their wrath in such a way? I think most of us, if plumbing the recesses of our most cynical thoughts, would readily say "yes." The words of my school staff friend: "They say they don't do that but they do."
I mentioned Merlin Beyer by name so since I'm name-dropping, I'll report the name of my school staff friend: Dave Holman. Dave could be pretty candid when around friends. He was/is a political actor. He probably overestimates his potential for electability. But, nothing wrong with exercising your rights in this sphere. It's called "being in the arena."
I'd like to re-visit the PR angle, because as time passed in our turbulent times, there was a new school administrator who was widely seen as being tasked with remedying or at least smoothing over certain problems. Oh heck, let's emphasize "smoothing over."
Wally Behm was a former administrator who probably should just have been enjoying retirement. But he stayed more involved and interested than he needed to be. I'm no one to talk: for a long time after leaving the Morris paper, I had a hard time truly "moving on." I regret that I could not detach better. Finally a former co-worker, who herself got laid off, said "Brian, I think you should let it go." She added: "Newspapers aren't big business anymore." Papers have retreated considerably since she and I shared our communication. She was laid off because of Forum Communications moving the ad composition work to Detroit Lakes. Forum Communications has since given up on Morris.
Behm, now deceased and hopefully more detached in heaven, was never shy about school district matters or politics. So one day I asked about this hotshot new administrator. I asked him if this new dynamic soul had a particular "mandate." And if so, was it based on remedying real shortcomings? We can never assume that. Asked about the mandate, Behm said "quiet!" That was it. In other words, pull whatever levers are needed to just tamp down the community unrest. Just push for "quiet," an aim that I took to mean "by any means necessary," in other words to just get people to shut the f--k up.
Media people understand full well how local public officials become motivated by such things. In deference to them, they might have very limited latitude for addressing any ills. It's not like a private business. Hell, in a private business there might be a merciless housecleaning. Unions can muddy things up. Oh, and another big factor is the network of personal friends that a school staff will cultivate. So, "quiet" was the aim.
I was even dislodged from some of the sportswriting beats I had done. If the motive was to get me tossed out of my profession, which I'm quite certain is true, it failed. The custodian and van driver for the Sun Tribune phased into retirement and I took over 100 percent of that. Yes, "menial" work but I loved it. I loved how it was structured. You begin your work at a certain time and it wraps up at a certain time. Only minor variations.
It was so refreshing after the unstable nature of news department work where it seemed "your work is never done." That quote is from Seth Schmidt, Morris native who also went into newspapers. Seth and I played French horn in school band. He was from a quite dynamic family - Morris needs more of those.
The worst kind of PR at the macro level has an example in the response to the Flint MI water crisis. The governor's office nakedly came forward and said certain "messaging" was needed about their work. "Nothing to see here," I guess. The governor was Rick Snyder, a Republican of course. Michigan has Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, a real hero, as the governor now.
Yes, "messaging," because Republicans don't want people to like government - it is a defining feature of the party - so in the absence of dynamic action, they'll get very pushy with "messaging" - damn them - and they'll turn their Howitzer on people like me, the press. Republican Donald Trump says "fake news" regularly.
It is disgusting how Trump tries putting a smiley face on how the pandemic is being handled across America. It's PR and messaging at the most "macro" level with devastating consequences. It will start hitting home soon as we notice there is no high school football or volleyball. This could have been avoided.
High school sports are a big part of the social lives of so many people. It helps the winter seem shorter. It can be criticized for being shallow. I personally have railed against the sport of football for the obvious health/safety reasons for the players. But we have not fashioned a perfect world for ourselves, have we. When autumn truly sets in, and so many of us notice how our lives have become so bereft of normal entertainment and diversions - my - we'll start developing real anger toward Trump and his horrible sycophants and enablers. And we'll ask: "What took us so long?"
Biden is inadequate. We need a Democratic nominee who will really "take off the gloves" vs. Trump, to just hammer mercilessly at him and his ignorance, to say that no slack will be cut as far as criminal prosecutions once the fat ignoramus leaves office.
I think pressure will start to mount for a more assertive, vigorous Democratic nominee. I have had a "Kamala" bumper sticker on my car for some time. Don't let Trump's PR or messaging create a fog, please. I have been through this kind of rodeo before. And I was never "fake news."
My podcast message for today
Today (August 7) my "Morris Mojo" podcast is based on the announcement of high school football and volleyball being upended for the 2020 fall. Nuts! Our process of adjusting continues. I invite you to click on permalink below:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/No-football--volleyball--alas-ehqsq8
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
The problem of immediate gratification
We have heard that Donald Trump hesitated in making a bold immediate move vs. the pandemic due to his fear of a stock market drop. There is something deeper to consider here. You can criticize Trump's thinking on the face of it, i.e. he should have prioritized a basic caring for human life. But the stock market fixation illustrates how we have gotten carried away seeking the short-term fix or "rush."
The media's long-time strong attention on the stock market is a factor. Some people think I put too much attention on media behavior. The media pushes narratives that political people can seize upon. They can seize upon it using fear. Fear hovers in our thoughts more than we wish to acknowledge.
Trump and his people were betting on a stock market that could at least be perceived as favorable. Of course it's not favorable in an over-arching way. We can argue forever about trickle-down. I would suggest that Reagan's regime did things necessary to fuel personal initiative more. But that crowd could never apply the brakes.
So we end up now with a president who seems merely a caricature of what they promote. He seizes on the rhetoric and the imagery. He uses fear to fend off the forces that ought to be gathering outside the palace gates. The forces may be starting to gather anyway. But Trump may have enough boiling oil to buy time. Through the election? Can we be sure his fear-mongering and blatantly misleading statements about mail-in voting will not work?
No one can feel certain about Trump's foundation evaporating under him. Kellyanne Conway is willing to live with the personal shame of having her own teen daughter Claudia calling her out in incisive and brutally honest terms. But Kellyanne ventures on, as if this president is somehow worth it.
The charlatans around Trump will not withdraw until conditions get substantially worse. Can we not see what is at stake here? It's human lives.
What would Jesus Christ say about the disregard so many of us have, about basic human values, caring for each other?
It is actually easier to disregard the stock market now because - have you noticed? - the media has actually backed off from much of the daily focus. I was suspicious for years as I resisted getting drawn into what I thought was a stock market mania. Done with mirrors?
"The masses" may pay only limited attention to cable TV news but I'd bet many opinion leaders do. People consume it out of curiosity because at the very least it's a barometer. You can disregard a lot of the pure chaff. But as Jonathan Alter has pointed out, this media institution - still strong in the face of "cord-cutting" - puts forward topics that "leach" into the national conversation.
For years we'd see the little green or red arrows at bottom-right on our TV screen. Plus, a number showing the extent of an "up" or "down" direction, as if the move on a particular day had so much import. Politicians I'm sure saw an offshoot for their own fortunes. And in Trump's case, since he clearly represents the political crowd that doesn't believe in direct government help for people, he saw the stock market position as inextricably linked to how he'd fare. Frankly it was everything.
So as the pandemic first presented itself, you might say Trump understandably held off on bold pronouncements or actions. Most likely there would be a shock to the markets.
Part of the problem here is that the masses of "retail" investors out there, e.g. the gullible souls pushed into a 401K - make money only when the market goes up. Markets are meant to go up and down if allowed to work properly. And believe me, there are lots of players on Wall Street who know how to make money when markets go down. Or, if there's inflation. Or, if any prolonged trend develops. It's a world that the common folk really ought not feel comfortable in. In fact, we may conclude someday we were being manipulated.
The stock market news on TV was just too heavy-handed, too juiced and frankly too phony. The line between news and entertainment has of course blurred. "News" changed permanently when it showed it could be a profit source. Previous to that it was a public service and was in fact mandated by the FCC.
I grew up in a time when business news was boring, put in front of us only in an obligatory way. Wall Street seemed a distant place which is probably how it should be, save for the big wheeler-dealers. If you're my age and grew up in a small town, you knew the type of people who might have money in stocks.
I got steered into some sort of non-FDIC investment retirement fund when I was with Forum Communications, even though I expressly indicated I didn't want it.
Let's get psychological
I am taking the long way around the barn in the post of today. That's because my main point is about deferral of gratification. The long-time stock market fixation, lifted by the profit-motivated media - watch those Charles Schwab commercials - forces too much attention on today's news. The alternative would be long-term plans that serve people's interests better.
Long-term plans would call for contingencies vs. a terrible virus that would prioritize extinguishing the virus. So in the long term, this would actually serve our economic best interests. The huge problem is that we can't stand the short-term pain. Or to re-think that, maybe it's our national leaders who are so terribly averse to any short-term hit. The broad population would probably grasp the proper wisdom.
But of course, so many of us have money in the markets in some way. So maybe the best course of action will just elude us. And after prolonged disaster, we'll start waking up because we're really not that stupid. The German people are anything but stupid. But look at their unbridled calamity in the mid-20th Century. General George Patton thought the German people were essentially victims. The facts do in fact suggest otherwise: they chose their course.
Trot out the old saying about history repeating itself. And a child shall lead them, lead them out of the abyss. Well, just look at Claudia Conway.
Let's emphasize: deferral of gratification is considered a model for mature, wise behavior. Immediate gratification is associated with many poor people. Deferred or delayed gratification describes the process of resisting the temptation of an immediate reward in preference for a later reward. Ever heard of the "marshmallow experiment?" It illustrates nicely.
Donald Trump looks like he eats a lot of marshmallows along with his junk food. Would that we could just stop paying attention to him.
"The Marshmallow Experiment"
My podcast episode for today, Aug. 11, focuses on "the marshmallow experiment" as a model for understanding delayed gratification. Please click on permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/The-Marshmallow-Experiment-ehm5k4
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
The media's long-time strong attention on the stock market is a factor. Some people think I put too much attention on media behavior. The media pushes narratives that political people can seize upon. They can seize upon it using fear. Fear hovers in our thoughts more than we wish to acknowledge.
Trump and his people were betting on a stock market that could at least be perceived as favorable. Of course it's not favorable in an over-arching way. We can argue forever about trickle-down. I would suggest that Reagan's regime did things necessary to fuel personal initiative more. But that crowd could never apply the brakes.
So we end up now with a president who seems merely a caricature of what they promote. He seizes on the rhetoric and the imagery. He uses fear to fend off the forces that ought to be gathering outside the palace gates. The forces may be starting to gather anyway. But Trump may have enough boiling oil to buy time. Through the election? Can we be sure his fear-mongering and blatantly misleading statements about mail-in voting will not work?
 |
| Claudia Conway |
The charlatans around Trump will not withdraw until conditions get substantially worse. Can we not see what is at stake here? It's human lives.
What would Jesus Christ say about the disregard so many of us have, about basic human values, caring for each other?
It is actually easier to disregard the stock market now because - have you noticed? - the media has actually backed off from much of the daily focus. I was suspicious for years as I resisted getting drawn into what I thought was a stock market mania. Done with mirrors?
"The masses" may pay only limited attention to cable TV news but I'd bet many opinion leaders do. People consume it out of curiosity because at the very least it's a barometer. You can disregard a lot of the pure chaff. But as Jonathan Alter has pointed out, this media institution - still strong in the face of "cord-cutting" - puts forward topics that "leach" into the national conversation.
For years we'd see the little green or red arrows at bottom-right on our TV screen. Plus, a number showing the extent of an "up" or "down" direction, as if the move on a particular day had so much import. Politicians I'm sure saw an offshoot for their own fortunes. And in Trump's case, since he clearly represents the political crowd that doesn't believe in direct government help for people, he saw the stock market position as inextricably linked to how he'd fare. Frankly it was everything.
So as the pandemic first presented itself, you might say Trump understandably held off on bold pronouncements or actions. Most likely there would be a shock to the markets.
Part of the problem here is that the masses of "retail" investors out there, e.g. the gullible souls pushed into a 401K - make money only when the market goes up. Markets are meant to go up and down if allowed to work properly. And believe me, there are lots of players on Wall Street who know how to make money when markets go down. Or, if there's inflation. Or, if any prolonged trend develops. It's a world that the common folk really ought not feel comfortable in. In fact, we may conclude someday we were being manipulated.
The stock market news on TV was just too heavy-handed, too juiced and frankly too phony. The line between news and entertainment has of course blurred. "News" changed permanently when it showed it could be a profit source. Previous to that it was a public service and was in fact mandated by the FCC.
I grew up in a time when business news was boring, put in front of us only in an obligatory way. Wall Street seemed a distant place which is probably how it should be, save for the big wheeler-dealers. If you're my age and grew up in a small town, you knew the type of people who might have money in stocks.
I got steered into some sort of non-FDIC investment retirement fund when I was with Forum Communications, even though I expressly indicated I didn't want it.
Let's get psychological
I am taking the long way around the barn in the post of today. That's because my main point is about deferral of gratification. The long-time stock market fixation, lifted by the profit-motivated media - watch those Charles Schwab commercials - forces too much attention on today's news. The alternative would be long-term plans that serve people's interests better.
Long-term plans would call for contingencies vs. a terrible virus that would prioritize extinguishing the virus. So in the long term, this would actually serve our economic best interests. The huge problem is that we can't stand the short-term pain. Or to re-think that, maybe it's our national leaders who are so terribly averse to any short-term hit. The broad population would probably grasp the proper wisdom.
But of course, so many of us have money in the markets in some way. So maybe the best course of action will just elude us. And after prolonged disaster, we'll start waking up because we're really not that stupid. The German people are anything but stupid. But look at their unbridled calamity in the mid-20th Century. General George Patton thought the German people were essentially victims. The facts do in fact suggest otherwise: they chose their course.
Trot out the old saying about history repeating itself. And a child shall lead them, lead them out of the abyss. Well, just look at Claudia Conway.
Let's emphasize: deferral of gratification is considered a model for mature, wise behavior. Immediate gratification is associated with many poor people. Deferred or delayed gratification describes the process of resisting the temptation of an immediate reward in preference for a later reward. Ever heard of the "marshmallow experiment?" It illustrates nicely.
Donald Trump looks like he eats a lot of marshmallows along with his junk food. Would that we could just stop paying attention to him.
"The Marshmallow Experiment"
My podcast episode for today, Aug. 11, focuses on "the marshmallow experiment" as a model for understanding delayed gratification. Please click on permalink:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/The-Marshmallow-Experiment-ehm5k4
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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