"Gay devil worshipers" on campus now?

UMM has been the cause of some embarrassing headlines through the years. None of this has stood in the way of UMM essentially keeping its "jewel in the crown" status. Enrollment numbers don't seem affected. What are we to make of the embarrassing stuff? Maybe we should dismiss it like we dismiss an uncle who has fits.
Is it possible that a pocket of gay devil worshipers is now developing on campus?

There was a time when I thought people associated with UMM were becoming too strident in the gay rights cause. All social rights movements get going with baby steps. Gay rights has proceeded with the usual fits and starts. One senses an underlying momentum that is not going to be stopped, just blunted now and then. We have some southern governors causing problems. The corporate world is pushing back against them. Maybe we need a major political realignment in this country that quarantines the South. Hey, hasn't that been the norm in the history of the U.S.? Regressive Southern interests coalesce and then they lose, lose, lose. All the Dixiecrat Party ever did was lose.
I was not pleased seeing a gay rights demonstration on the UMM campus that had a booth with a poster-size picture of Eleanor Roosevelt on the side. Did Eleanor Roosevelt ever proclaim she was gay? Would she have wanted the public to know about it? Could we even assume it was true? Shouldn't people associated with UMM apply some scholarly standards to this?
One bit of infamy from UMM's past, lest you need reminding, was the two biological males named king and queen for UMM's Homecoming. I showed up as media to take a photo of them before the start of the parade, and I was unfazed. I didn't act like I was taken aback at all. I immediately sensed what had happened. I knew such a scenario could happen here.
Eventually UMM cancelled Homecoming royalty completely, not admitting any particular embarrassment about the episode with the two men. I think UMM just reasoned that Homecoming royalty were anachronistic. It's fluffy tradition. It's harmless and it probably should have continued. We just needed the students to go along with the fluff. They couldn't be trusted to do that.
And then in the past couple of years, we learned we couldn't trust students to put out a reasonable student publication. Oh, the University Register is quite fine. It reflects UMM's basic ethos. But UMM allowed a purportedly conservative group to come along and have all its whining for their own paper granted. But then of course they abused it. We got "NorthStar."
Normally I'm a fan of alternative campus publications. But NorthStar seemed to have a fundamental purpose of hurting people and even trying to hurt UMM itself. Much of it was basic nonsense, such as a headline wondering if Mussolini was overrated or underrated. In other words, we either appreciated Il Duce too much or not enough. He ended up having his body hung up on meat hooks and mutilated.
The NorthStar creators, who I guess had nothing better to do with their time, used "satire" as a cover explanation for all it did.
The other day I brought up the subject of this new Satan group with a student acquaintance of mine. At first she laughed. Then she made a face. She then tried to dismiss the whole thing as possible "satire."
Where is all this "satire" taking us in terms of taste? If the point is to make a political statement, well then my goodness, make it, and I don't care if you somehow do it in a nuanced way. Indirect means of communication is in fact a trait of well-educated people, sometimes to a fault. We have irony, sarcasm and parody.
When I acquired a copy of Mad Magazine in my youth, it was obvious "satire." No label needed.
The satire we see emanating from UMM is dangerous. I have wondered if I have generational problems trying to relate to today's young people. Maybe I'm clueless and I just cannot penetrate what they're trying to do and say. 

My generation was rebellious. But we had causes like the Viet Nam war and civil rights.
The self-described conservatives behind these oddball campus publications today don't seem to be pursuing anything righteous. They put on "affirmative action bake sales" that end up with police intervening.
The NorthStar had access to campus video surveillance to catch people taking more than one copy. In order to go after these "thieves" on legal terms, they tried arguing they were charging $5 a copy after your first free copy. Does anyone think the supposed $5 charge was anything other than a ploy to try to catch people who might be trying to remove papers from campus?
I know of at least one instance where a UMM faculty member removed copies of the University Register from campus. Student papers and controversy are well-known acquaintances. Sometimes a paper will get in the vortex of controversy in connection with printing the name of an alleged sexual assault victim.
Nevertheless, the campus should have but one student news/opinion publication, and if it strikes you as "liberal," well so what? College students have historically been liberal. Many of them moderate as they get older, as they acquire assets, but I would hope they still want kids to have access to clean, safe drinking water. I'm starting to wonder.
The new gay/Satan thing on the UMM campus has a purpose of combating conservatism. Why not just combat it with well-articulated ideas? Just saying.
A campus-wide email announced that the new "gay devil worshipers" were coming out of the woodwork to combat an alleged uprising of conservative voices on campus. Was the idea to be just as silly as "NorthStar?"
I think here is where UMM's new chancellor might start intervening. Reason can triumph after initial confusion. 

By way of background, let me share about a conversation I had with a former Morris Public Library director. The computer department at the library was new. How quaint! You'd get shown how you could call up "Amazon.com." Amazing! I discussed with Rita Mulcahy the rash of incidents mainly in the Twin Cities where perverts were coming to the library to do, well you know what. Eventually librarians threw up their arms and said "well, we have free speech, we have the First Amendment." This got modified, Ms. Mulcahy said, when a new line of reasoning took over: "It wasn't a free speech issue, it was a patron behavior issue."
I think UMM's new chancellor should put his foot down, saying "UMM has an amazing variety of political and philosophical ideas, but we must govern the ways the adherents present the ideas so as to appear mature and responsible." It's a behavior issue, not a free expression issue. In the meantime we have the "gay devil worshipers" providing a new bizarre chapter in the history of our University of Minnesota-Morris campus, one that makes the rest of us want to wash our hands.
 

Addendum: The proper spelling is "worshipers" and not "worshippers," and "worshiping" not "worshipping," according to some quick research I did. I was inclined to go with the two p's at first. My research indicated that many people opt for the two p's but that technically it's incorrect. Oh, I also learned that "Satan" should be capitalized.
 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Please listen to my song about Target Field

The new major league baseball season is underway. A big deal is always made of opening day. So much so, it seems many journalists feel obligated to use capital letters: "Opening Day." Fine, enjoy your Opening Day. I think the importance is symbolic. It's like a rite of spring, a signal that summer isn't far off.
In terms of actual importance, well, consider that a major league baseball season is made up of 162 games. It's quite the opposite of NFL football where each game can have appreciable importance. Is it still 16 games or have they expanded to 18? Either way it's a small number compared to baseball. I am at a stage in my life where I don't wish to pay any attention to football.
Our Minnesota Twins have their home at the still-new Target Field. I am certain it is a wonderful experience to watch a game there. In 2010, ESPN The Magazine ranked Target Field as the No. 1 baseball stadium experience in North America. Given that, it's entirely apt that I have written a song celebrating the experience there. My song is called "When I'm at Target Field." It has a swinging rhythmic feel and the idea is to exude joy.
I write all this having not visited Target Field myself, yet. I'm a homebody at this stage of my life, as most of you know.
My song was recorded at the Nashville TN studio of Frank Michels. "Franklin" is his formal name. The Nashville musical community is wonderful. I invite you to listen to my song by clicking on the YouTube link below. Thanks to Brent Gulsvig of Gulsvig Productions, Starbuck MN, for getting the song online.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVBHGwDaDkk
 
Target Field hosted the 2014 Major League All-Star Game. I can remember it was a big deal back in 1965 when we got the All-Star Game here. Remember, we weren't even big league back in 1960. Minnesota ended up falling totally in love with big league baseball. It has been quite the fulfilling marriage, to where we now have a stadium judged the best in North America.
Our Target Field accommodates just under 40,000 fans. It's in the warehouse district west of downtown Minneapolis. It's a "neutral" park that was built not to favor either hitting or pitching. But as it turned out, pitching seems to have gotten the upper hand. Our previous stadiums were known to be friendly to hitters.
The original home, of course, was Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington. One of my top missions as a blog writer has been to keep alive memories of the old "Met." I have written a song/paean about the Met, not recorded yet, that has this chorus:
 

We called it the Met

Without it we could never be big league

It rose up like a castle on the plains

We always heard the jets

And yet it seemed so soothing and serene

People came from far to see the games
  

I'd like to think that's very descriptive. We must never let go of our memories of the Met. It was an open-air stadium that was not engineered in any special way to ward off the cold. Target Field is quite the opposite that way.
I feel old when I realize I gave journalistic coverage to the efforts to plan the Metrodome, a.k.a. "The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome." Democrats were more popular back then.
Supposedly the Dome was a breakthrough, a way to ensure that big league sports would stay here. Part of that argument was that a roof was needed to completely insulate us from the elements. Of course it was just a sales job. Just like a sales job emerged again to persuade us that we really needed a good open-air park. Bert Blyleven said of baseball at the Dome, toward the end: "That's not baseball." He would never have said that during the drive to get the Dome built.
Truth be told, fans can simply get bored with a sports venue. But we had better embrace Target Field, because I can't see the day when we feel that has to be replaced. As for football, I can see the day when this sport simply fades away and disappears. Football is likely to have its last bastion in the U.S. Southeast. It will become a sport with a low image, played by men largely from challenged backgrounds.
Metropolitan Stadium had a fascinating chapter in hosting the Minnesota Kicks soccer team. It was a phenomenon in its prime. My generation went wild over it. I never attended a Kicks game. The Met's final years saw my generation begin to diss the Twins as entertainment. It was sad to observe. The cure for that was the new Metrodome, which seemed to give the Twins a shiny-new image again, just like in '61.
Here's a question: What if the Twins had stayed in the second division for a long time in the 1960s? It could have happened. Would Minnesotans have had enough patience? I think the reason we brought back Bill Musselman to coach the Timberwolves was that the powers-that-be in this state realized we couldn't have a typical losing expansion team. We needed some spark right away. We did get it. But the Timberwolves may have picked up a jinx that rears its ugly head still today. We needed some higher draft picks early-on. Those early years were so frustrating: There would be four can't-miss prospects in the NBA draft and we'd draft fifth.
At any rate, our state seems still quite attached to our Minnesota Twins. We played the 2016 season opener. Now, just 161 more games to go. Play ball!

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Beef with restaurant ends up in the paper?

A taco salad

So, we are reduced now to having a newspaper in Morris that publishes a letter to the editor from someone who merely thought he had a bad restaurant experience. The first thing we all try to do is figure out which restaurant. I only scanned the letter so I missed a helpful clue. The restaurant could not have been my favorite: DeToy's.
DeToy's is where all those men in their 50s and 60s congregate in early morning, some playing cards, some loudly talking up Donald Trump. I do believe this is Trump's demographic. Are we as a society reduced to talking about abortion again, like we've been transported back in time 40 or 50 years? We as a society decided it was Neanderthal to try to prohibit abortion.
Maybe abortion is something we simply wish wouldn't happen. If that's the case, let's blame God for giving us the kind of human anatomy we have. Don't you often think sex is more trouble than it's worth? My theory in weighing this is that we are a hybrid species: a combination of Earth primates and space aliens. Thus we have the mysteries and tragedy of our sexual inclinations and the requirements of the reproduction process.
So, the restaurant getting bashed in the letter to the editor was not DeToy's. If you were a restaurant owner, would you want this letter writer as a customer? He has been a high-profile person imploring us on all sorts of things. He had chutzpah in putting forward a cemetery sound system, as a "gesture for our community" so people visiting the cemetery might find "solace." That was his catch-all word for trying to make his gesture seem blessed. We might find "solace," although I have a hard time grasping what that means. Some cheesy bells music is hardly going to provide warm feelings for yours truly. It merely annoys people who are in the vicinity of the cemetery - annoys them greatly.
It was like pulling teeth, but the chimes finally got removed, taken to Arizona, I understand.
Are visitors even welcome at our local cemetery? Actually it's two separate cemeteries, isn't it? There's the non-Catholic part and the hallowed Catholic section, the latter untainted by people who have fallen away from that church, and where you'll see that "baby" tombstone which is a blatant political statement on a controversial issue - clearly not suitable where gentle people come to "find solace." Right, Ted?
There is a sign at one of the entrances to the cemetery that says "no trespassing." Words have definitions. Our legal system is built on precise definitions. Am I "trespassing" if I simply enter cemetery grounds to pay attention to headstones of friends and family and remember them? Do you have to be visiting a family burial site, or is a "friend" good enough? I like observing Skip Sherstad's place of burial. Skip (Steven) and I grew up in the same neighborhood.
If "trespassing" isn't the proper word for that sign, the sign should be removed and milder language inserted. It's still not clear to me how to park when visiting the cemetery. I have been asking for answers on this from more than one cemetery official. They refuse to answer, not even to say "buzz off, asshole." The road through the cemetery is one lane. Maybe it's not even meant for mourners. If it isn't, and if we have to walk in from outside, then you'd have to say the cemetery is not handicapped accessible. That's not cool in the year 2016. I emailed a cemetery person asking for clarification on this matter. No answer. No clicking on "reply" to extend the courtesy of a response.
They appear to brush aside this issue. Yet they had no problem for years facilitating Ted Storck's aim of having that chime music float around east Morris including the UMM campus, where grievances did come forward. Now Ted Storck has issues with a downtown restaurant, allegedly because of a sub-par taco salad. I'm reminded of those Bozos who call 9-1-1 when McDonald's screws up an order. All restaurants have occasional problems with consistency.
We have all had issues with a Morris business at one time or another. I have, but I'm not going to bother you with the details because it's too deep in the weeds.
We can be sure we live in a little town when the local paper finds it fit to print a mundane rant about a restaurant experience. Be sure to stop by the local filling station and discuss this matter with Gomer and Goober. Run it past Floyd the barber. A topic like this should start and end in the barber shop (or, the old days, the shoeshine stand).

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Easter a less innocuous holiday than Christmas

"Have a nice day."

Christianity was a universal when I was a kid. Non-Christians seemed like a barely detectable novelty in the population. Christianity was, as they say, the "default" approach. Everyone joined in with the traditional Christmas songs at Christmas.
Christmas is a pretty easy holiday to accept for everyone, regardless of actual religious affiliation. It's just a happy time. We celebrate family and (hoped for) peace in the world, although the peace stuff rang rather hollow when I was a kid. Viet Nam was a specter intruding on our lives. It was a reminder that mankind can get embroiled in the most awful things.
The Iraq war (or invasion) was only a minor reminder, but don't use the word "minor" around those who lost loved ones.
Are public schools past the phase where they felt they had to recognize all religions at Christmas? Not that I'm against recognizing other religions, but Christmas ended up seeming like it stood for nothing. Maybe the public schools should have just continued with their usual business and not acknowledged it at all.
I covered a Christmas program at the old elementary auditorium where "Kwanzaa" was treated like a big deal. "Hanukkah" too. "Kwanzaa" did not start in Africa. Didn't it start out as a deliberate stab at Christianity? Even if it started out that way, I learned that its supporters backed off and wanted everyone to feel fulfilled at Christmas. I hear less and less about "Kwanzaa." The media used to give it lots of obligatory attention. I sense that no more.
Easter is a whole different kettle of fish. It is harder to be passive and just accept Easter, if you happen to be a non-Christian. Whereas Christmas can seem like a one-size-fits-all happy time, no for Easter. (Nowadays they say "one size fits most.")
Easter is by definition unhappy, at least in the weeks leading up to the actual day. The Lent season puts so much attention on the actual torture inflicted on the Savior. Didn't Mel Gibson make a movie that actually seemed caricature when it came to the violence done toward Jesus? I find all this an odd way to celebrate a religion which like all religions should present the best and most uplifting aspects of human nature.
How the heck can we really know what happened back in that ancient time? As a kid I got painfully logical in trying to assess Christianity: I asked whether all human beings on Earth prior to the crucifixion had to go to hell, because Christ hadn't "died for their sins" yet. So, the first people receiving a pass to heaven were those shortly after Christ's death who decided to "accept him as their personal savior?"
I found that principle so hard to try to internalize. I haven't figured it out yet. I can understand the ideal of trying to live a good life and treat people humanely and with love. But fervent Christians are the first to say those ideals are meaningless - they'll be angry saying this - and that all that matters is "accepting Christ as your personal savior." (I'm reminded of George W. Bush talking about "personal accounts" - privatizing Social Security.)
Christ "rose from the dead" after being crucified. Certain people claimed this, true. But people can have all sorts of hardened political or philosophical agendas. Facts can be massaged to support these.
I had a first cousin who, after years of being the so-called evangelical type, stepped away from that and, of all things, converted to Judaism. He had a Jewish funeral. This was my father's nephew. He reportedly said of Christianity, at the time of his disillusionment: "I don't understand it." Why don't more people take off their blinders and be frank like this?
We are scared into Christianity by thoughts of "burning in hell." It's a cruel way to try to coax kids into the faith. It can make you sullen with your outlook.
It doesn't help to hear that extended story of how the Savior was literally tortured leading up to his crucifixion. I didn't see the Mel Gibson movie. I read that no human being could have actually survived the punishment inflicted on Christ in the movie.
Christmas I can stomach because it's a time of joy for all. We do hear about that decree for the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem - infants under two years of age. It's part of the (albeit horrific) backstory we can overlook.
Why these macabre elements in the most prominent Christian holidays? They are not conducive to having kids grow up in the most humanistic, uplifting frame of mind. Death and torture. Threats of going to hell. Are these really the proper underpinnings of a faith that is supposed to bring out the best in us?
Maybe Christianity isn't supposed to bring out the best in us. Christianity should have been invoked to try to get us out of the Viet Nam war, or to show restraint relative to Iraq. Christians don't seem much interested in basic humanistic ideals, though. "Evangelicals" are squarely associated with the "conservative" political identity, the hard right, where pronouncements about "national security" and neutralizing America's supposed enemies are so strident. My mere use of the word "humanistic" would make them dismiss me as "liberal." Right, Ted Cruz?
Maybe the violence in the basic Christian stories, themselves somehow influence people to be so gloomy and to embrace the harshest remedies.
John Lennon got in trouble for seeming to diss Christianity. He also wrote "all you need is love." I think I know what approach I'm partial too.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Listen to my song re. Flint MI water crisis

Heaven help us all. Lord, we have sinned. How obscene can our devotion to the private sector become?

A few months after the Michigan governor removed Flint from its standard fresh water, the corporate big shots of GM went to him and complained that the Flint River water was causing their car parts to corrode. The Republican governor was appalled to hear that GM property was being damaged. He went through the rather involved process, with a cost of $440,000, to get GM hooked back up to Lake Huron water. The rest of Flint stayed on the Flint River water. The children of Flint drank lead-filled water. The GM factory was a higher priority.

It's a perfect template for understanding the GOP philosophy about things. At least it's clear to me. If it were clear to everyone, I would expect the Democrats to have a dominating position. They of course do not, and in fact they appear forced on the defensive a lot. Again, heaven help all of us.

I have written a song inspired by the Flint MI water crisis. It's called "Michigan, We Need You to Win Again." I invite you to listen by clicking on this YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkQxDaQ7L28

 

The song was recorded at the Nashville TN studio of Bob Angello. Brent Gulsvig of Gulsvig Productions, Starbuck MN, got the song online for me. Thanks guys. The song is inspired by tragedy but it seeks to project inspiration. No one likes a song that is all sad.

When I was a kid, Michigan was still in its primacy with car manufacturing. My song suggests the state should seek to occupy a high rung in our national consciousness again. How? I'm not sure. America is a place where there is always a wellspring of hope, or should be.

A fun element of my song is a reference to "cars with fins." Detroit's heyday included a chapter with that quite frivolous element, but we loved it. The final frame in the YouTube presentation shows a grand "car with fins." The word "fins" popped into my head because it rhymes with "Michigan." Both words are in the chorus.

Much of my song pines for a time when car travel wasn't just taken for granted, it was a grand adventure like on "Route 66." The Interstate Highway system, pushed by President Eisenhower (actually a "national defense" measure), makes long-distance travel routine. In the Route 66 days it was an adventure, maybe even like traveling through the galaxy in the Starship Enterprise. Along Route 66 you'd find mom and pop restaurants rather than the predictable franchises of today.

Were the old days better? Arguably not. There is much more pressure on the car industry today to build sturdy, reliable and long-lasting cars. There were rumors of "planned obsolescence" in the old days. Today you can easily buy a car to last the rest of your life, so you don't have to build rapport with some "car salesman" with whom to do business every four years or so.

Why have local car salesmen anyway? Why can't we just order our cars directly from the factory? Tesla has wanted to bypass the dealer system, a system that seems as American as apple pie - stale apple pie. And if cars today can last a lifetime, why is it necessary for local dealers to buy so much advertising in the media, like in our local weekly "Canary?" We do not need to see those constant full-page ads for Gesswein Motors, Milbank SD, with that smiling photo of the owner, a typical WASP-ish looking man who can connect with the maximum number of customers. Clean-cut and presumably with no body odor etc. Surely a regular church-goer (preferably Protestant).

If you have been in Flint MI any time from April 2014 to today, and you've consumed the water, eaten food cooked with it, washed your clothes in it, taken a shower, brushed your teeth or eaten vegetables from someone's garden, you have been exposed to and ingested its toxins.

Someday there will be a funeral for Governor Snyder, and some choice words ought to be the following: "May God have mercy on your soul."

Heaven help all of us if we don't put pressure on all public officials to put human welfare first and corporate profit second. But the signs right now don't appear good. The baby boom generation which exuded such idealism when young has retreated the other way. Today it roots for the stock market, which is fine if we can still have our ideals.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Let's enshrine Vic Power in memories

(twins daily image)

The summer of 1962 was a most charmed time in Minnesota. Two years earlier we had no big league baseball at all. We had the Millers, a very dubious consolation prize. Jim Bouton once wrote that the biggest jump in baseball was between Triple-A and the majors. He added "the minor leagues are all very minor."

We had the football Gophers in Minnesota. We thumped our chest over that, but very little else.
We had to pinch ourselves to see if we were dreaming when big league ball came here for 1961. Our new Minnesota Twins had a losing campaign but we were excited.
With Sam Mele pulling the levers, we came up with a contending team in 1962. If you could put aside the Cold War and the Cuban missile scare - OK we really couldn't put that aside - it was our "summer of love" with our Twins and their home of Metropolitan Stadium, then considered state of the art. We finished in second place behind the dynastic Yankees with Mickey Mantle. Second place was the stratosphere.
And, who was voted the team MVP? It was none other than Vic Power. Vic ought to be remembered better by Minnesota Twins fans. He was not only a superior first baseman with his glove, he was flashy and flamboyant. He was a mature ballplayer in our young infield. Obviously he was a stabilizing influence for the likes of Zoilo Versalles, and not only that, he batted a quite fine .290, supplying his usual dose of "frozen ropes." What an exciting player he could be! Jim McRoberts of Morris well remembers.
I was seven years old in 1962. My father Ralph took the UMM men's chorus to Seattle for the World's Fair. John F. Kennedy had to cancel out for the closing ceremonies of the Fair, reportedly due to being ill, but that was just a cover story: He had to deal with the Cuban missile crisis. Remember the old joke about "kiss your ass goodbye?" Well fortunately it didn't happen.
The '62 Twins team carved out a special niche in team history. It's an underrated team in my view. Only one team per league made the post-season in those days. We had to be thrilled just challenging the Yankees. Here in Minnesota. Here in what Steve Cannon called the "tundra."
Vic Power was a man of color from Puerto Rico. That nation had no real racial issues. Welcome to America! Here, Power had to get oriented to a climate with plenty of racial issues and tension, especially when he had a stint in Philadelphia with the Athletics.
I remember reading that Vic liked getting his food in grocery stores so as not to have to deal with segregationist practices in restaurants. He'd buy lots of salami and bananas, he said.
Power often fielded the ball with one hand. The style was a trademark of his. Fielding one-handed actually increases your reach. His style influenced others at the first base position. Power also had a sharp wit and a dark deadpan humor. He played for several teams in his career. We most appreciate that he came to Minnesota. Hope he was able to go walleye fishing! He struck out only 247 times in 6,046 career at-bats. He helped groom a young Tony Oliva.
Today I have a poem I wish to share with you, honoring the great Vic Power. Here it is:

 
He came from that island land

Where a man was just a man

Never in a pigeon hole

Where your color spelled your role
 

Yes, Nirvana it did seem

Color-blind and so serene

Territory, not a state

No room there for racial hate
 

As a young man he could see

Where he'd fetch his destiny

Puerto Rico had its charms

but he'd have to go afar
 

Milk and honey was that place

Even if you felt your race

Mr. Power had black skin

He'd be challenged to fit in
 

Meanwhile he would feed his urge

With the San Juan Senators

Learning baseball with its skills

Moving forward with sheer will
 

Parking by the first base bag

He was quite the gifted lad

Fielding grounders hot and fast

In the role where he was cast
 

A Yankees scout with roving eyes

Fixed upon this diamond prize

Making sure he'd get his due

Signing with a big-time crew
 

Here in North America

Victor would display his glove

Playing first like it's an art

To this game he gave his heart
 

First he joined the minor leagues

'Cause he had to plant his seeds

That's the lot for all young guys

Yearning to complete their climb
 

Drummondville was where he went

That meek burg was in Quebec

Four years after World War II

Baseball had a growing mood
 

Victor thrived and rode the wave

With the Sky Chiefs he was great

Syracuse was where they played

In the good ol' USA
 

Now he was a mere stone's throw

From the most prestigious show

Playing fine in Triple-A

Now he sought the big league game
 

Oh, but he would toil more

Showing patience with that chore

Hitting liners with the Blues

Kansas City's baseball crew
 

K.C. of the minor leagues

Gave Vic Power room to breathe

So he hit like on a tear

Posting stats beyond compare
 

Doubles, triples off his bat

Got the notice of the fans

So they wondered why this guy

Could not rise, be big-time
 

On and on his bat did smoke

Could he get the Yankees' vote?

Could he cross that big league grass

Joining with that famous cast?
 

Yes the theory crossed our lips

Vic's black skin was a hindrance

Baseball had Neanderthals

Pulling levers in those walls
 

Yankees had a cautious stance

As they guarded their big dance

Vic was not reserved enough

He had too much flamboyance
 

Power dated light-skinned dames

Such a faux pas for that game

It's so quaint to conjure up

How our nation wouldn't budge
 

Yankees courted baby steps

Integration, no not yet

Not in its more proper form

Let's talk "token," just the norm
 

Elston Howard was the man

He was hand-picked by the brass

To put on a proper show

As the Yankees' first Negro
 

We can weigh the might-have-beens

Had Vic Power helped them win

Frozen ropes to thrill the fans

Fielding grounders with one hand
 

What if New York kept the faith

Keeping Victor in his gait?

Wouldn't he look prim and right

Putting on those grand pinstripes?
 

But the story would not fly

Never meant to crystallize

Yankees dealt him in a trade

To a less high-profile place
 

Philly was his new backyard

Racial tensions looming large

Puerto Rico seemed so pure

Next to Philly's daunting brew
 

Hotels, restaurants made their case

To discrim-nate based on race

So bizarre, such ignorance

When we should push excellence
 

Life in U.S. plodded on

Slowly shedding what was wrong

Victor's team moved to the west

Now in K.C., whole new test
 

Year was nineteen fifty-five

Eisenhower's eight-year ride

Rock n' roll was on the fringe

As Athletics sought their wins
 

Power was phenomenal

Hitting like an angry bull

Second in the batting race

Everyone now knew his name
 

Then he joined the Indians

Helping Cleveland roll up wins

He was so adaptable

Earning cheers, never dull

 

With the Twins he kept that pace

Helping them to second place

Minnesota felt the love

So enamored with his glove
 

Twins were in their second year

When Vic Power earned those cheers

They made sure the Yankees felt

Pressure from the vast corn belt
 

His Gold Gloves made us aware

Of a fielding skill so rare

He was chosen an All-Star

Like a golfer under par
 

He could surely savor all

Accolades earned in baseball

Still to make it really right

Let's discard the racial strife
 

© Copyright 2016 Brian R. Williams

New London-Spicer girls runner-up in MN 'AA'

PEM 72, NL-Spicer 42

The headline in the Willmar paper was "NLS falls hard in title game." The subhead was: "Wildcats have more turnovers than field goals in 30-point loss to No. 1 Plainview-Elgin-Millville."
I would not have been so blunt writing this material. The New London-Spicer girls basketball team made the state championship game. It's the stratosphere, the truly elite level. Morris Area Chokio Alberta fans needn't be concerned about how they're perceived at that level. The Tigers cash in their chips pretty early in the post-season.
Congratulations to the Wildcats of New London-Spicer, coached by Mike Dreier, now basking in the position of runner-up in state. Granted, their last game saw them fade. We're asking a lot of these student-athletes. The Wildcats won a very close game vs. Sauk Centre the day before in the semis.
The Willmar paper article's first sentence today (Monday) said that PEM "hammered" New London-Spicer. I think some of my critics in Morris would not have appreciated such language if I were covering the Tigers this way.
The Bulldogs of PEM are deservedly in the No. 1 spot in Minnesota AA. The Bulldogs came out of the starting chute strong with the game's first ten points. The score stood 16-3 at one point. Halftime arrived with the score 39-14. The final score: 72-42.
Emmaline Polson, junior center for the Bulldogs, scored 22 points and grabbed ten rebounds, and according to the West Central Tribune, "equaled the Wildcats' 14 halftime points by herself." My, such detailed analysis. Let's keep rubbing it in, guys.
New London-Spicer made just three of 17 shot tries from 3-point range. Alyssa Fredrick had all three makes.
Coach Dreier said of the foe: "They have size, they're physical, they've got an (NCAA) Division I point guard running their offense from the high post, and they also have shooting everywhere." That guard of note is Sarah Hart who's headed to St. Bonaventure University. She's a finalist for the Ms. Basketball award in Minnesota. She had 13 points in the Saturday game.
Jason Melbostad was Dreier's coaching opponent. Melbostad saw Hart as the key for overcoming an NL-Spicer zone defense that was so effective in previous state games. Hart had the savvy to get the ball inside where PEM could score.
It's quite logical to think the Wildcats were drained some by having to play a game so soon after the Sauk Centre game. Coach Dreier saw fatigue, indeed, as a likely factor. Dreier was in his 16th state tournament appearance.
"For a team that finished third in our conference, this is amazing," the coach commented to the media. "My mood isn't any worse because of this loss."
PEM finishes the season 31-1 while NL-Spicer can look back on 25-7 numbers.
Megan Thorson finished with 13 points in the title game. The NL-S scoring list continues as follows: Alyssa Fredrick (9), Brooke Beuning (6), Erin Tebben (4), Morgan Swenson (4), Shea Oman (2), Kabrie Weber (2) and Michelle Johnson (2). Tebben and Swenson each had seven rebounds, followed by Thorson with six. Weber had one assist, and Thorson had one steal.
Hart was not the leading PEM scorer - that distinction went to Polson with her 22 points. Hart scored 13 points and Hayley Dessner ten. Then we have Chloe Holtz (7), Tessa Hubbard (6), Baighley Standinger (5), Morgan Shindelar (4), Heidi Wolf (3) and Jalysa Cutting (2).
Three Bulldogs each made one 3-pointer: Hubbard, Standinger and Hart. Polson had ten rebounds followed by Dessner with six and Hart with five. Hart dished out seven assists.
 

We're in Easter season

I associated Easter with the Easter Bunny and chocolate bunnies when I was a child.
I remember an editorial cartoon that had Ken Starr, harasser of Bill Clinton, listening through a door as Clinton spoke affectionately in a way that made Starr think another tryst was happening. "Bunny!" Clinton intoned. But this was no young friend, rather it was Bill's chocolate bunny for Easter! Willie's Super Valu has a good supply of chocolate bunnies available, I'm sure.
Of course, when we go to church leading up to Easter, the tone is not so innocent and fun. We hear the awful details of how Christ was treated leading up to the (alleged) crucifixion. How do we know this wasn't some tall tale built up through the years, maybe fashioned to promote some political ends? What? Politics as a basis for embellishment or fabrication? I'm astounded (not really).
The sheer misery and gruesome details begin chafing on me. Does it matter that Christ was tortured first? Why the emphasis on this in Lent services? Even if it happened, why the emphasis? Why not just dwell on the final (alleged) act: the murder of God's (alleged) son. Did you know that the story of the virgin birth came about because of a bad translation?
I know I'm sounding like an atheist and maybe that's because I am. I sure wouldn't mind a chocolate bunny or two, though.
I am puzzled why the Lutherans of this community are expected to go to the Catholic church for the Good Friday service. This is a church that has a policy of not offering communion to non-Catholics at funerals. At least this was their policy in the past. There was a controversy at the time of the funeral for Rit Eul: someone was turned away for communion. There were letters to the editor in the paper. I'm sure Rit would never have wanted any unpleasantness in connection with his funeral.
And now, the Catholics want us all to come over? I think it's strange.
The Catholics can have their own services, since they promote such exclusivity. I have no objection to Catholic bingo. We had a priest here not that long ago who was into child porn. The Catholics have also given us that "baby" tombstone at the cemetery - not the sort of thing Lutherans would agree to.
Again, let's all just enjoy our chocolate bunnies!

- Brian Williams - morris minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com