I have a staunchly Republican friend who grew up in a Catholic family, and this friend has not been very charitable with his thoughts about Pope Francis. That is how strong the lust for devotion to Donald Trump is. It overcomes one's home base of religious devotion.
And there has been a spiritual dimension to the MAGA loyalists. I have found this scary but I am unable to do anything about it. In referring to my old friend I probably should use the past tense. As in, I HAD a friend. It is the reality that is upon us.
And so now on this Sunday of late winter or early spring, we observe how it took a Federal judge to lift the sword of Damocles that was hovering over our UMN-Morris for several days. What would we do without such judges? Not that we can always count on judges, heavens. And if we cannot, what happens when the dike suddenly breaks?
As may have already happened: Judge Cannon in Florida made the ruling to toss the "docs" case on specious grounds. Oh, Merrick Garland doesn't know the law? Well of course he does. He actually had a longstanding reputation as a conservative which is why Barack Obama thought Garland would fly as a Supreme Court nominee. Mitch McConnell said no.
And now we hear our God from on high - i.e. Donald Trump - making disparaging comments about McConnell. DJT questions whether McConnell ever really had polio as a child. So McConnell made it up? Has DJT ever engaged in prevarication?
I have told my friends "beware false prophets." Mostly it falls on deaf ears. I cannot explain it. Shall I even try?
MAGA people would not even read what I have to write today. And if they were forced to, they would issue a stream of ad hominem attacks. They'd use the kind of words that would get you sent to the principal's office in school, or at least that would have been the case when I was in school. They listen to nobody but their MAGA opinion leaders. Like from "talk radio." That endless droning-on of such godawful political rhetoric.
It is Sunday and I shall try to hold my head high, if you do not mind. I will attend the church that is arguably the most "liberal" in Stevens County. That would be First Lutheran in Morris, now without a pastor just like the other ELCA "liberal" church of Faith Lutheran. What is to become of us?
Whither UMM?
To what degree do we depend on UMM for our vitality? Can Morris still be described as a "company town" based on UMM? Or has this shifted to Superior/Westmor? It would be nice to have the best of both worlds of course.
But UMM slipped a few notches as a result of DJT chasing off the foreign students. Michael Lackey will be happy to tell you about the consequences of this. He will readily inform you that the foreign students were UMM's "cash cow."
UMM has at least survived. But in the past week, an absolute sword of Damocles emerged for UMM. It doesn't get more stressful than this: DJT issuing an "executive order" to ban all "DEI."
Yesterday (Saturday) I finally caught the news flash that a Federal judge stepped in to address this abomination. And no, I am not a fan of all things DEI, to be sure. But DJT's pronouncement was on the face of it totally flawed because of its vagueness. How would college education even begin to sort out how to respond to this?
"DEI" on all sorts of levels - some obvious and some far less so - has spring up at all institutions in our age of diversity-consciousness. It is clear that DJT wishes to abandon all of that. Or let me put it in different terms. I think this gets to the heart of the matter: DJT wants to wipe out all publicly-funded education.
Make no mistake, he wants all of that gone. He sets the tone from the top of the government. And that is nothing to shake a stick at. Well-known people one by one have been complying and capitulating to Trump because quite simply they have to. They have to, in order to take care of their own interests. To look out for themselves which is an irresistible human impulse. So ABC News disgorges $15 million to DJT. No rational basis for doing that. But people feel immense pressure.
And don't tell me the top administration of our U of M are not incredibly nervous about the precedent that was set by our president seeking to wipe out DEI, even if a judge issued a temporary reprieve. Next time it could be a judge like Judge Cannon. Look out for the Federalist Society judges. They could well have allowed DJT to march forward.
With what consequences for our U of M-Morris? Our U of M-Morris which was once held up as "the jewel in the crown?" Right now our campus sits here as a possible hindrance to the interests of the whole U system. And that is because, quite obviously, we have allowed DEI to virtually take over our campus purpose. The institution is unapologetic. The web searches related to our campus make it wholly clear.
So my God, what if we had not gotten the reprieve from the judge over the weekend? Seriously, might the U have had to consider closing our campus down, I mean immediately? Within 24 hours? Try to immediately remove all evidence of our offending DEI commitment? Take down signs, clean up the language on the web?
To be replaced by what? Maybe with nothing in the short term. So our campus would be sitting there like the Appleton prison I guess. I have read that the toilets have to keep getting flushed there.
Remember the rumors early in covid about how the Appleton prison was going to be transformed into this big regional covid treatment center? Boy, that sure got erased.
Godspeed Pope Francis, but it would seem he will soon meet his Lord God.
-Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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