First, "the eyes have it"
Yours truly will have to rest his eyes at some point to see if that helps. Helps with my eyesight which has been declining. I practice long-form journalism online which is increasingly unusual to see. So many paragraphs piled one on top of the other. It was once very acceptable and common.
It's too quiet
Change is a constant. And with that, let us take a look at our institution of higher learning here in Morris. I'll quote again a fellow I heard one morning in the restaurant: "I don't see UMM students around any more. They used to be all over the place."
Not only were students plentiful, they had such an energetic and carefree approach to life. Today with the cost of education being what it is, I imagine they have to prove to themselves every day that the commitment is worth it.
Do the kids still get dragged through bottom-level general ed classes like "sociology 101?" Back when I was young, I think the profs themselves would sort of laugh about such stuff. Nothing is worthy of being laughed at today, not with the cost of higher ed. "Sociology 101" had better yield some valuable , measurable results. Well good luck with that.
"Sociology 101" was always taught by profs with a left wing political orientation. Which is bad? I never liked what I considered to be "paternalistic liberalism" that was sort of fab in the 1970s.
Today? I couldn't be more disturbed by what hovers over us in the form of Trump. We will learn the hard way that while Republicans can often make very good arguments based on principle - and are a force for minimalizing largesse in government = they cannot govern. They cannot bear the main mantle of power. Again I'll quote my college friend Brad from the Iron Range: "Republicans don't care about people."
So right now we get the news of one of those town halls where people are showing up to vent about the consequences of all the government cuts being applied in slash-and-burn fashion by DOGE. To express worry about this sinister-seeming Elon Musk of the Nazi salute. And don't tell me that it isn't meant to at least mimic the autocratic threat of the 1930s.
People vent at the town halls, yes. It can be forceful and dramatic. So much of government on the chopping block now. Many people losing their jobs because of all this, and do you really believe they all had little or no purpose? I would hope that nearly all of them had a useful purpose.
People cry out in the town halls and through their online platforms. And this morning I read how a Republican lawmaker responded to these folks. So utterly predictable: "God has a plan for you." Reminds of when there's a mass shooting somewhere and Republicans trot out the "thoughts and prayers" line.
Some of this can be amusing at first. But the "burn everything down" approach begins to look really scary as it develops momentum.
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| At inflection point? |
And heaven help us here in our little Morris if we had lost UMM - I mean lost UMM overnight - if a Federal judge had not rescued us by contradicting a Trump executive order. An order to wipe out all "DEI."
That's literally what it was. I mean for virtually all schools. And don't we have about the most pro-DEI school in the country here with UMM?
Imagine the scramble here, or actually at the Twin Cities campus, to try to adjust in the face of what DJT attempted to foist on us. I learned of the judge's intervention on Saturday. And what if that judge had not acted? What if the ruling had fallen into the lap of Judge Cannon or others like her? And that may be coming as MAGA stretches its legs and enjoys the power and privilege of government.
It's not even a conundrum. Because a conundrum involves mystery.
Could the Feds pull the plug on a whole lot of Federal $ for Minnesota if we insisted that UMM continue as it now exists? Well, I'm sure the central U administration would have to be sensitive about this because there's $ at stake.
People's personal opinions of Trump would not matter. He is consolidating power behind his regime each passing day. Tariffs? Deportations? Perhaps taking over the Federal Reserve to hijack interest rates (lower). So then we'll get significantly more inflation? Until what? Do you even want to think about it?
Maybe the health of our UMM will become a minor concern. Maybe we won't even care if the campus becomes abandoned and sits there like the Appleton prison. I think there's an ever-increasing likelihood of this.
If you object to all that is happening, you must ask how we came to elect our current congressperson. She seems most well-established in the position. And she is 100 percent up-front pro-Trump and MAGA. If this is what y'all want, well fine, go ahead and talk it up.
Looking for facts
Regarding UMM, I heard in just the past few days from a well-placed source that the chancellor answers to the head of the Crookston campus. I heard strange news reports a while back that pointed to this but then I thought it was overblown. I guess it was not overblown. The Crookston head is obviously going to put the interests of her own campus over ours.
And what does this mean? When central U administration thinks it's fine for Crookston to have oversight over Morris? It means something. Everything means something.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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