Books may never let us go?

Is all this necessary?

Parents of the boomers must have viewed television as a total enhancement to their lives. They grew up without it. No TV? And heavens, no other electronic media? Well, radio. People went to our old Carnegie Library in Morris and checked out "books." Thus they could be enriched and entertained. 

So books were really a "thing." They aren't today? 

Sometimes I wonder as I browse past the bookcases of new stuff at our Morris library: "Who reads all these?" 

Shall I assume that people really do? If it's yes, then I guess kudos to our culture of today. I'm surprised people still have an adequate attention span for a book. Remember that books are marketed as a product. Books need sheer length to be marketed as such. 

When people read books as a totally free-will decision, that's fine, even exemplary. I look at a lot of the non-fiction stuff and I think: "Man, this stuff must be padded." Remember that these books are made to be sold. We can assume they have superfluous material. 

The alternative? Well it's to learn from material online. As much as some highbrow types would decry the online world for being unreliable, superficial, sketchy and whatever, a discerning eye can identify many sources of knowledge that will expand you. This is in contrast to a book you might buy or check out from a library, which might sit around your home for quite a while, while you have so many other things to do. 

What are the odds that a thick non-fiction book from the library is going to be consumed in total? Of course I cannot speak for others. I cannot assume my own judgment is typical. Maybe an appreciable number of people really do digest the entirety of a very involved tome. I could only say "congratulations" to them. 

Only on rare occasions have I read a fairly involved book cover to cover. When I do, I rave about it, talk it up to others. It's interesting: In situations where this has happened, I will quickly try to locate another book on the same subject. I just assume that the page-turning quality of the first book will spill over to the others. I can think of two examples from my background, the outcome the same: I barely touched the succeeding book. I'll go through a few pages, yes, before it dawns on me "this book is a bore." It's so easy then to find something better to do. 

My observation about this is a testament to those authors who wrote the first book I consumed: They had a distinctive quality not easily repeated. It's as if the other books are written by pretenders. 

I say "with a discerning eye" one can tap the online world for considerable enrichment. So I feel I have the necessary intuition to choose wisely, to trust source material. The Internet really has become more of a meritocracy over time. The most meritorious stuff becomes easiest to find. 

Someday some very interesting histories of the Internet will be written. It was such a novelty in its earliest days. In its nascent form it was often described as a "swamp." It attracted people weaving conspiracies, snake oil salesmen. As if those interests are not still represented! Well they are. But with time, most of us have developed a feel for reacting properly, to know what is likely to have merit. 

There's always a gamble in consuming material from books and media. 

Andy Rooney

You remember Andy Rooney? A gimlet eye, yes, and a dated perspective frankly - a little misogyny, for example. He saw World War II up close. He said the war effort tended to be portrayed in our history books as having been so organized. He said in reality it was a "mess." Why was it so? Think a little: In a war, the two sides are always trying to deceive each other. The enemy may be evil but probably not stupid. Trial and error reigns. 

So let's tie Mr. Rooney in with the world of book publishing. The man with the gimlet eye talked about farm subsidies as he led in. "Paying farmers not to grow stuff." Of course it goes deeper than that - if it didn't, we might assail our political leaders as idiots. Rooney segued to the book publishing business. The video for one of his "60 Minutes" segments showed a bookstore, probably in a mall, full of all kinds of books. So Mr. Rooney cleverly asked "how many of these books have you read?" 

Could leave one speechless. So he concluded: "Maybe we should pay people not to write books." 

Now I shift my attention to the harried American college student of my generation, generally speaking the 1970s. If you're like me you can recall books to buy that were way too windy, overdone. This very quality led to the "speed reading" fad which purported to teach young people how to survive these reading tasks, by learning to glean the important stuff. 

Sheer speed should never be a goal when you set out to read something, n'est-ce pas? A person should always soak in the material which if well-written reflected a labor of love by the author. What's the hurry? Well the answer is obvious: The sheer volume of reading presented by books was too burdensome. 

So I'll ask the obvious question: Why couldn't authors condense more? Get to the (expletive) point? Well I'll attempt to answer this question. Two salient points I shall make. Number one, book publishing is a racket - well, a business, and you know how that is. Stuff has to be priced so it seems worth it. Make the book a little thicker. Any author can B.S. more. 

Second, college classes were themselves "rackets" to an extent: teachers striving to impress the world with the difficulty of their courses, their challenging nature. This being done partly so professors could show their own importance, the need to keep them employed, the need to grant them tenure. 

The Internet has done a lot to chop down that whole culture. And I don't think it is done yet. I walk into our Morris library and continue to see rows of new books that make me wonder: "Who reads all this stuff?" 

I learned more from the Wikipedia entry for Jesus Christ than I ever learned in my catechism assignments from church.

Andy Rooney with so many books! Look at that!

 

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

Breezy expressions on long-ago grads

We were all the same, '73

We had a guest minister in church recently who talked about how, after your 50th anniversary as a high school class, you'd schedule reunions more often. Maybe every two or three years even. It's unpleasant to mention the reason: greater likelihood of classmates passing away. 

The 50-year reunion comes at a strange time. It's strange because high school memories have become so remote. They are so lost in time, beneath a haze. We might have become such completely different people. Many of us have learned so much from life, we don't like to be reminded of when we were less capable, less aware. And oh my goodness, each generation can have its traits. 

The nature of the public school system can change in dramatic ways over time. This can be deemed almost unbelievable. Today kids can stay relaxed about their limitations or problems. Understand? I never heard terms like "ADHD," "bipolar" or "autism" when I was young. While these things may be very real, they may be hung on kids sometimes who have basic character issues. A whole industry of counselors and medications kicks in. 

Any system can go astray or be abused. That includes the public education system from when I was young. We did not have the crazy quilt of psych. issues or "behavior meds." What we had was unreasonable pressure to perform in "academics." 

A public education system was bequeathed to us by the folks who had won World War II. These people really did believe in "big government." They believed in it because of the basic fact that big government is needed for success in a world war. How else would this be accomplished? 

Today we can consider the big government monopoly with public education to have all sorts of problems. Any kind of monopoly displays these problems. The great libertarian John Stossel said they get "ossified." I guess that's how I got "ossified" added to my vocabulary. 

I remember some of the sweet Auxiliary members with the veterans service organizations of the 1980s. They carried the WWII legacy with them. I remember them promoting proclamations about our U.S. education system as if it was an extension of our national defense. 

I found nearly all of my school experiences after the sixth grade to be miserable. People who were around me then would say I seemed lost. "Futility" would best describe. All kids are different. In my case, I was above average as a student with basic reading, writing and arithmetic. I felt comfortable up through the sixth grade. I think sixth grade teacher Marion Beck began noticing some potential for difficulty, though. 

Then in the seventh grade we entered the "prison" environment where we'd go from room to room during the day, following the signal of a "bell" that would ring. You'd better not be even a few seconds late for a class. As if your world would come crashing down if you missed a few minutes. 

The evening host on KFI Radio/Los Angeles explained once why schools were so hung up on "taking attendance." The counting of heads was so essential, explained Tim Conway Jr., because it was needed to get state money. Money explains nearly everything, n'est-ce pas? A war ends because the losing side runs out of money. 

So I got dragged through "academics." What a miserable exercise. Why so miserable for me and I'm sure others? Well the "big government" model was in full force, and our leaders had determined that we needed to "beat the Russians" (i.e. Soviet Union). We looked up in the sky and saw "Sputnik," and then felt we had to about lose our minds. Instead we should have been keeping our eye on the "military industrial complex." But we didn't. 

We are so flawed as human beings, so incongruous sometimes. I mean, consider the people who are today's "MAGA." They have decided they are totally against foreign wars. But the very same type of people in the 1960s were "hard hats" and wanted to literally beat up the peaceniks who had become agitated by the Vietnam war. 

So I went through my childhood following the Vietnam war and then the protests, daily. All of that was pointless. The protests should not have existed because the war should not have existed. But there it was before our eyes: the tragedy and pathos. The backdrop for my generation as we slogged through our public school experience. 

Today we can seem happy - that is because we are so unshackled from all of that. Look at any photo of Class of '73 alumni from anywhere and they look so breezy and relaxed. That's strictly from today's perspective. I'm amused looking at these photos and realizing that all these people went through the same stuff. We all felt the same stimuli. We all had schoolteachers who were such ogres. Ditto with school administrators. 

As the enrollment number dropped through the years, and as the legacy of WWII faded, we got "helicopter parents" who really insisted that school facilitate the lives of young people. School also should be made enjoyable a greater share of the time. Stop terrorizing the kids with "grades." The grading system of that earlier time was onerous, to trot out just one word I could use to describe. 

Teachers actually had to follow a quota whereby a certain percentage of 'C' grades were necessary. So lessons, quizzes and tests were clearly designed to get the proper distribution of grades. 

Misery? Well, the fathers of the boomers had been through misery in military service. They probably came to think this kind of sacrifice was necessary in life. Remember, whenever a WWII veteran was talking about the virtue of "fighting for the good guys," there's a good chance that veteran never saw direct combat himself. How different the assessment of war would be, from a young man who didn't make it. Those souls are silenced forever. Maybe that young man jumped out of a plane with a parachute and the parachute didn't open. Think of the families who lost sons in such a manner. 

War is necessary? Well we sure learned from Vietnam that war is not necessary. Today the MAGA people profess anti-war simply because their leader tells them to. They will do whatever Trump says. For sure he's coming back to win his party's nomination and then quite likely the presidency. And then God help all of us. The Republican Party could have stopped this. The failure is on them. 

 

Hindsight

How nice if my generation could have gotten "life skills" instruction in school. I began noticing in the '80s or '90s about how such formal instruction had begun. 

Instead we had boring and difficult "textbooks" thrust at us. Total misery. It's 50 years later and now it's so easy to forget about the misery, to pose for our reunion photo with that carefree glimmer in our eyes. It's almost as if we have the world by the tail, just to look at our expressions. But many of us have dark stories we could tell. 

 

Weigh the "what if"

I never stop imagining what might have happened to me, had I just decided to walk out of the school building, like in ninth grade, and just head to my wonderful family home. I could escape the abject misery of school. Do some reading on my own, develop my own schedule some, instead of being ruled by the infernal "bell" going off. Or to take a quiz where only a handful of 'A' grades would be given, even if the teacher had to painstakingly construct a scheme to make it so. 

I'm sure our former teachers would readily admit to having gone through such contortions. Had I walked out of school, would I have even made it home? Would a cop intercept me in a hostile and confrontational way? After all, the school needed my "state aid money." F--k that.

Here's a photo I took in 1983 for the MHS ten-year.

 

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

Some of us stay here for Labor Day

"Welcome" or "See ya later?"

It is Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend. Might we suggest that our Morris has a "destitute" air? That those of us who choose to remain here are sort of forlorn? That those of us in church Sunday morning would be merely a hardy sprinkling? "Troopers" as it were? I imagine that even the ministers would prefer "getting out of Dodge" at this time. 

Perhaps it's all the churches can do to just get the doors open on Sunday morning. People walk in yawning. The truly active and mainstream crowd of this community will surely be elsewhere. 

A prime destination - you guessed it - is "the lake." It is enough to just say "the lake." "Going to the lake." The impulse is cited by some as why we no longer have Prairie Pioneer Days in Morris. We need community leaders to stick around some, basically to "give a rip." But we have struck out on that. 

So right now as I write this on a beautiful early fall day, totally summer-like, we are in the quintessential holiday weekend for "getting away." High school football had to be played Thursday in order to allow the flock of people to "get out of here" shortly thereafter. 

For better or worse I am one of the destitute folks. I can write about all this without being unhappy. Heck, I'm happy. Is that OK? So as tumbleweeds blow across the place, figuratively speaking, I peruse online news which so readily reminds us that Donald Trump and his whole phenomenon stays in our faces. 

People who are public servants should recognize quickly when they have "gone over the line" with certain behavior. It's not like we have to "lock them up" the way Trump and many of his followers suggest should be done to some of their skeptics. 

Public service requires a certain amount of selflessness. And if you really are caught doing something inappropriate or just plain wrong, our legal system really likes when you can come forward and show humility, apologize some, just acknowledge the plain facts. My God, it should not be a heavy lift. 

The Trump people have been found to do such egregious things. We here in Morris would not allow someone like Rudy Giuliani to be an attorney for our city or county government or school board. Well-documented drunkenness along with issues of aging would preclude it. But Giuliani is attorney for the president of the United States. 

Maybe we have difficulty developing logic on this because the "Beltway" seems such a different world. We read about some of the craziness and maybe just want to smile or chuckle about it. But there are ramifications that really do affect our lives. 

Look at the consequences of the three Federalist Society Supreme Court justices. The Federalist Society is up in the clouds with its principles, principles which on paper are interesting just like the whole "libertarian" school of thought. The problem is when we allow these people to get real power. And we have begun allowing that. 

There is a chance that, as we speak, the women of America are resolving to simply elect Democrats to get the course reversed - "Roe vs. Wade" could thus be codified. 

It is impossible to predict the future. Democrats can develop warts just like Republicans, it's just that we at present cannot imagine Democrats getting a grip with power again. I assure you the possibility exists. Even in the Dakotas? Well yes. People over there might get tired of being so knee-jerk in line with the people living south of the Mason-Dixon Line. We are supposed to exude more class up here in the Upper Midwest. 

None of this is to say I could personally not get tired of Democrats having a lot of power. Remember how people felt when Ronald Reagan got elected? I see one Republican candidate who is a potential reincarnation of "the Gipper" and that is Asa Hutchinson. Right now during Labor Day weekend 2023, Mr. Hutchinson looks like an afterthought in the Republican "race." How wonderful if the media could be covering a nice conventional presidential campaign. 

Under the right circumstances I could actually vote Republican in some races. But these aren't your father's Republicans. Give them a chance and they'll burn the whole house down. 

 

Michelle Fischbach

Gone astray here?

We in Western Minnesota are represented by a congressperson who was right in with the Trump crowd around January 6, 2021. She bought into all that. She voted against certifying the election results. Which would have meant what, had her side (with Ted Cruz) won? Did Ms. Fischbach even explain what process would kick in if the election results were not to be accepted? Does she not know what Trump's whole modus operandi is? 

Why is it that someone like me knows all this and she doesn't? Trump of course never accepts a resolution of anything that has him on the short end. So he's always prepared with his stable of "lawyers" like Giuliani to just gum up the works with legal maneuvers. Employ whatever maneuvers to just delay. Delay until the last dog is hung. Trump accept defeat? Well of course not. 

Fischbach probably felt an impulse to go along with that because she identified as Republican? But can't she think a little independently, to just tap the Judeo-Christian ethic and reach a conclusion logically? This is the only way you can sleep at night, Ms. Fischbach, to know you simply did the right thing. Getting voted out of office would not be the end of the world. 

We are in a district that supported Collin Peterson for a very long time. So your district is not a hopeless case, Ms. Fischbach. Had you been heroic on Jan. 6, along with a clear plurality of your GOP brethren, you could have set the tone for the peaceful, placid transfer of power that we all deserved. Republicans would have preserved considerable power anyway. 

But you wanted Trump to take over in the spirit of a dictator. Is being "Republican" that important to you, Ms. Fischbach? To put it ahead of your conscience? Because I really truly believe you have one. Ted Cruz would be incongruous up here in Minnesota, way north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

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

"Biden economy" seems pretty good here

Friday morning leading into a holiday weekend. What are we really supposed to be celebrating for Labor Day? It's a cute little gesture to America's working people. The reward is the opportunity to get away from work a little. There are no formal programs to recognize the holiday, quite unlike Memorial Day. 

Memorial Day and Labor Day are the "bookend" holidays for summer. Summer comes and then it goes, giving way to the long slog over the cold weather months. The current weekend is a last fling when we find weather's nice. A mild fall would just be a bonus. We feel comforted with the start of high school fall sports, that's for sure. 

Coming back from breakfast this morning, I noticed once again the apparent vitality of the local economy. I was on bike. I have to pause crossing the highway as vehicles are so numerous. The big trucks rumble by. So my point is that the economy must be humming if so many vehicles are proceeding along our roadways. 

I also notice a fair amount of construction activity: additions to buildings etc. I see opulent new homes going up east of the townhome development just off the bypass. This is east of town as you get out close to the river. Congrats to the people who are moving ahead with such homes. Not sure I'd need such fancy digs. To each their own. 

 

Those outdoor steps

Sometimes I walk, ride bike and get into a contemplative state. I notice how some of the above-average homes have an outdoor stairway that leads up to a deck. Impressive to be sure. But I don't think I've ever seen a person walking up or down such steps! Do people plan their homes beyond satisfying their real needs? Does some of this fall into a "vanity" realm? It's a theory and whatever the case, we all have the right to plan our amenities. 

So I repeat that the economic situation would appear to be quite good here in Stevens County. I bring this up partly because we read of polls that show people disapprove of the "Biden economy." 

I suggest we form our opinions of the "macro" scene on vague notions of what we like and dislike. So it's not really based on the micro factors of how we are doing. People consume conservative media that is so colored with anti-Democratic Party sentiment. 

I will lose readers the second I bring up the name "Trump." I have a friend who I consider to be fairly close, who says he just disengages when I go in that direction. What a wonderful world we would have, if I felt no need to broach the subject. Were this person named Trump to be disqualified from running again, what a sigh of relief we would all breathe. He'd still be in the news because of the behavior he showed as our real national leader. I had a hard time getting that out. 

I am astounded that I was "wise" to Trump and his profound crookedness so long ago while the people around me either didn't notice or ate out of the man's hand. The man co-opted what appeared to be a plurality of the nation's churchgoers. Oddly and sadly, much of that grip remains to this day. 

Daily there are headlines about the plethora of legal consequences coming down on Trump and his people. I assure you that people by their nature gravitate to power. So, if Trump gets a grip on national power again - hardly a remote chance of that - surely he'll get a circle of loyal people around him. Trump went through various chiefs of staff until he found the ultimate toady in Mark Meadows. We can assume that Meadows had the very common human trait of wanting to be totally loyal to his superior. 

Even Nazi Germany had a "justice" system, something to hold the nation together albeit with consummate evil intent. Trump would do likewise. An extreme comparison? Well, no. Trump while in power cited the "loyalty" of Hitler's generals as if that was an exemplary trait. I stated the obvious in a comment posted to Yahoo News: No American president should ever cite anything connected to Nazi Germany as exemplary. 

Just to repeat, Trump did, and then he had to be corrected by John Kelly who noted that Hitler's generals tried to kill him. Also, Hitler established the SS largely to keep an eye on the generals. You can easily look up how many of his own generals Hitler had killed. 

I already knew all this background and who am I? Merely a resident of Flyoverland with all the pull of a grain of sand on a vast beach. I could look at Trump being advised by Rudy Giuliani and proclaim "that's ridiculous." We are learning more about how Giuliani was drunk while involved in assisting Trump. This compounded issues related to Giuliani's sheer age, as we are most clearly seeing with Mitch McConnell too. 

McConnell should be held to account for the Supreme Court justices who tipped the scales against "Roe." McConnell made recommendations re. this to Trump. And so the women of America are dealing with the consequences. 

The drumbeat of headlines about the Trump crowd will continue right through Labor Day weekend. We can get the impression that the law is slowly but surely catching up to the people who were either all-in or just clueless about what was going on. So we can feel heartened by current developments. But to use the tired Yogi Berra quote, "it's not over until it's over." 

So I must continue writing despite being that "grain of said." It's good for my basic conscience. The worsening headlines for the Trump crowd can maybe be understood in a fundamental way. So I posted the following to Yahoo News a couple days ago:

 

If it seems like there is a wave of judgments going against Trump and associates, I'd like to offer the explanation that America's legal system is based on the Judeo-Christian ethic, tell the truth, treat others like you want to be treated. And if our system ever drifts away from that, America as we've known it is gone.

 

Mitch McConnell

The McConnell phenomenon bubbles up at the same time as the legal developments with Trump. Surely you know that the Senate minority leader presents bona fide health issues. He's 81 and that's fine in and of itself. People all over the world are seeing these news clips of McConnell "freezing" and being unable to say any more, before he gets whisked away. Most recently it happened when he was asked about running again in 2026. 

Please, do we really have to weigh that question? There are people always wanting to give the benefit of the doubt to Republicans. So some people said McConnell was just unsure about how to answer that particular question. Let's hear a loud "whatever!" 

So I posted the following comment to Yahoo News. I share some responses to my comment after that. Thanks for reading.

 

I'm not sure the question was significant. Mitch's family and others who care about him need to be concerned now about how he'll be remembered. Has this crossed Mitch's own mind? Is he aware of how the media responds to these episodes? He should enter into comfortable retirement.

K.M. responded:

Exactly. I get that the money is good. The POWER!!!. . .but there is a time to just retire and go enjoy what is left of your life. Don't worry, there are plenty of others whom will step in and make the rest of us miserable, Mitch. lol. All these people need to stop. Biden, Trump, Nancy go to Mcdonald's and enjoy a cheese burger and coffee.

 

"Dreamspinner Cheryl" responded:

Moscow Mitch won't be remembered as anything but corrupt and evil, no matter how he goes out.

 

From Vickie:

Trouble is, nobody truly cares about Mitch the man, only Mitch the power monger.

 

"GoDems" chimed it:

NOPE. Mitch is proud of his title as The Grim Reaper and Supreme Court Packer and so are his family. As long as he was Senate majority leader, every bill that arrived in the Senate for a vote that would better America, died in his vast graveyard of bills. His only goal was to kneecap the Dem agenda, to own the Libs, even if it hurt the entire nation.

From Adrian:

He's a Republican. What mind?

 

Deborah gives shout-out:

well said Brian

 

 

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

Media's fawning attitude re. football

(wday image)

A nip in the air this morning to signal the obvious: the warmth of summer is winding down. We might feel mildly disconsolate about that. Perhaps it's worse in this late-summer because of the indelible memories of last year's winter: its persistence. I mean, well into what we consider spring. 

How long was our interscholastic softball season last "spring?" Were any games played before May? I don't take notes. And I know that when Memorial Day weekend arrives, the high school post-season games are already on. There is only one day of home post-season softball for the Tigers: the "sub-section." Pretty sure I'm right on that. After that the drift southward begins, as seems to happen for all our teams now. If we do advance in any sort of decent way, the action ends up at Southwest State of Marshall. I consider that to be a hassle of a driving distance. 

I remember when far more of the post-season action was here in Morris like at the UMM facility. (It used to be called the "P.E. Center.") Mobs of loud and maybe obnoxious fans showing excess emotions, plus ear-splitting pep band music, you know the whole motif. I went along with all that as a newspaper person because, well, it was school activities. By definition we're supposed to cheer such stuff. 

Privately I held reservations and would guess others did too. Like maybe parents of kids who weren't born with particular athletic gifts, but who might do well in other endeavors, endeavors that don't cause the news media to do cartwheels continually. 

Last night (Tuesday) I was listening to WDAY Radio out of Fargo. The programming was the epitome of obsession with the sport of football and obsessing over the young men who play it. We come to expect this fawning attitude so much. The on-air hosts went on and on, mainly talking about the major North Dakota teams. There was a time when I might say "small college" but it's not small any more. 

Football has unfortunately spread its wings and grown. Grown to be more of a sacred cow for us than ever. I am not exaggerating, as I base this on the tone of all the on-air talk from the radio Tuesday night. I can't blame the radio station or its on-air hosts. Not really. They reflect the societal values. They give us what we want. 

I once deluded myself into thinking all high school sports activities were worthy of such focused attention with emotions attached. I'd get in arguments with people. My perspective was one of never having played football myself. 

WDAY left the impression Tuesday that the football athletes must be placed on a pedestal. They talked about the moral value of setting such high goals. Like, for a player to achieve the highest competitive level: Division I football as opposed to lower. But the radio guys can fawn just as much over the lower levels when that's called for. So, our most venerable young people are those who choose to play sports, especially football. Well, one cannot help but get that impression. 

Football! It did not used to have such a lofty place. In fact, society seemed more conscious in a previous time of its violence and barbarity. The problem is that when the tech behind TV advanced to where we got a really high-quality color picture for appreciating football, people steadily went nuts over the sport. They decided it was just too much fun to watch. They'd put aside any concerns. 

Just how does a young man display his virtue as a result of being big and fast and determined to overwhelm guys on the other side who may not be quite as big and fast? Why do we as a society consider this to be so exemplary? I mean we really do. 

I'm sure that the on-air guys with WDAY believe all their own lingo. Society as a whole gets lulled into thinking the "student-athletes" wearing shoulder pads are an absolute ideal among our youth. 

We ought to view them as victims. We already know about the "injuries" that so regularly happen to sideline players. The public has little realization about the real pain of such injuries, and certainly can overlook the long-term consequences of same. 

There was a time when society actively encouraged young men to "suck it up" and show resilience and bravery or whatever and just "get back out there." Macho manliness or whatever. We have progressed beyond that. But we are way short of taking the necessary measures to protect these young people. 

The best measure would probably be to eliminate interscholastic football. You laugh. Well, society did eventually eliminate smoking in public places. It can be done! But we have become so invested in football. We in Morris want to keep "selling" our Big Cat Stadium. These things represent investments. Boys notice the fawning attention by radio and other media toward football. They notice how they might become heroes. They might still be influenced by the old ethos about how a "real man" might play through an injury. 

Allow yourself to get too beat up, and you might find yourself wearing an adult diaper by when you're in your 50s. Cognitive decline and maybe even premature death. But you will have done your part helping entertain us all. So we're obsessed on the short-term fun. The fans observe as if they're just observing a pinball session: no danger for the player obviously. Then we just withdraw from it, get on with the regular aspects of our lives. 

The players experience the finite period of time where there's adulation for them, requests from the media for interviews with them. On and on. It's perpetual. Football has zero tangible benefits for society. It is brutal and disturbing. But try mixing those thoughts in while listening to the evening of football talk on WDAY. It's an opiate. 

We must start thinking harder about this. All of our cheers from the stands just keep the players going through pain. The consequences in many cases to be felt later. You know who really needs to wake up? The parents.

 

Addendum: So how long is the high school softball season exactly? With a lousy spring as we've experienced of late, not very long at all. Maybe hardly more than a month? I'm not including the post-season where there is only a minimal guarantee of games. 

Maybe the season is just one month? Man, compare that to the winter season. 

And we invest in these spring sports that are designed to be outside. We invested in the Morris "softball complex" which I have assailed from Day 1. I still think the fans are getting totally short shrift out there. How much was the newest of the fields used this past spring/summer? I had concerns that batters there would be facing the sun too much. Was this borne out? 

When I was with the newspaper I could get more answers. Now I'm forced more into speculation. 

Maybe the interests of the fans just don't rate? The school board used OPM, other people's money. They listened to a UMM administrator. Oh those administrators.

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

Our public school "nomenclature"

The new high school sports season always requires a little re-orientation. Get the cobwebs out, pay attention. For example, remember that MACA tennis is actually "MACA/WCA tennis." So it all stands for "Morris Area Chokio Alberta West Central Area." Which is not the way people would want to identify it as a routine matter. 

IMHO some of these strung-out school names or abbreviations should maybe be put aside? A new approach for terminology?

I have suggested in the past that maybe the area-wide schools just be identified with the name of the town where the high school is located. I suppose that many years ago there were town pride issues that would bubble up. In an earlier time there were more mom and pop businesses. That lent itself to greater provincialism. Actually I think the contrast with today is marked. 

Today I don't think anyone would much care. Today so many businesses merely have "managers" - e.g. bank branch managers - who answer to people elsewhere, maybe a long ways away. Compare that to when the local bank presidents were such paternalistic local icons! I have heard people say the new way is better. 

Let's simply refer to our local tennis team as "MACA/WCA." Some people will need a reminder what "WCA" stands for. Actually "West Central Area" is kind of a presumptious name because that school certainly does not cover all of West Central Minnesota! Far from it. But life goes on - we adapt as we always must. 

My newspaper career extends back to when I wrote about the Hoffman-Kensington Patriots who did great things in football. I interviewed their coach Keith Swanson some. Quite exciting times. But times change. Rural Minnesoa became depopulated to an extent. It used to be that every little town had its own football and basketball teams. Nothing stays the same. 

I heard someone at a public forum say once that "UMM would not be created today," based on the depopulation trend. Isn't it true that when UMM first came into existence, it was primarily to serve this immediate area of the state? 

I'm happy with UMM students from wherever they come from. Chicago suburbs? Fine with me. But this was not how UMM was minted. 

 

Echoes of PPD

The welcome picnic for the new UMM year was held Monday night at East Side Park. Reminded me of how the park looked during the old Prairie Pioner Days. Why do we have to say "old?" Talk about times changing. 

Morris was not even able to save face as it retreated from the old midsummer festival. I still can't believe that it happened. I openly promoted PPD at the start, was thus guilty of some "media bias." I had that tag placed on me at times. Our public school went through spasms of mediocrity in the 1980s, and I was not a patient soul about it. Crucify me? Eventually that probably happened. It happened long after the school problems were essentially solved. 

I had picked up baggage. So when certain people saw an opening to criticize me, it was full-throttle. This becomes relevant when looking back at the UMM goalpost incident of 2005. If you need reminding, a student was killed. Various people thought afterward that I was the issue. That was a red herring. I would argue that I was faultless anyway. 

But when political-type biases enter the picture, people can get so crazy. I found that local people who were associated with the so-called "academia" could be like wild dogs going on the attack. When people are that defensive, I think it should tell you something. And my God, they could be mean.

The public school teachers union was a catalyst in the profound discomfort. You had to bend over backward and kiss their whatever just to be considered as objective or unbiased. I could not do that. 

My newspaper career lasted 27 years anyway. Unfortunate that it had to end when it did. The company that owned the paper when I left gave up on this community anyway. A very well-placed source informed me that Forum Communications was going to close the Morris paper. It's so easy to believe that. An unfeeling non-local business at least, with non-local ownership. The ownership is always the key - they hold all the cards. 

Sue Dieter

I have a theory that the paper's manager - I won't say "publisher" - at the time, Sue Dieter, knew about the closure intentions and kept it to herself. Then the word may have spread among Morris community leaders about what was afoot. And then, resentment may have built toward Sue. 

Someone told me that after I left the paper, Sue told the staff that things would be better with me gone. So after years of putting aside commitments that I might have made in my private or personal life, so as to fulfill obligations for the paper, everything just crashed and burned. I'm sure many of us can tell sob stores from our lives. Largely we keep this stuff under wraps. 

Sue was at the UMM welcome picnic. Seems she gets larger every time I see her. Her hiring at UMM just added to the bureaucracy out there IMHO. The institution should invest in programs and people and not in administration, bureaucracy or PR. The institution ought to be able to sell itself. Maybe it can't. 

I will say the food was good at the picnic. I commented to Erin Christensen that there ought to be some entertainment from the Killoran stage. My mind is way too busy for this town, isn't it? The city should tear that thing down - it costs the city $ to maintain it, and it gets almost zero use. Look at the aluminum bleachers around it too. What is all that there for? The Morris Community Church used to have services there in the warm weather months. That was nice. Then the Morris Community church went kaput. 

Will the overall town of Morris fare better? Will UMM fare better? I'm not sure.

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

MACA cross country, tennis get in swing

How wonderful to see signs of high school athletics getting going again! I was out for a walk along the biking/walking trail Monday when some young people came running along. As their numbers grew I realized this must be the high school cross country team. 

I shouted out an inquiry about that as several passed by, and heard "yes" in response. I got off the trail and onto the grass in order to give these kids maximum room. I also clapped my hands and shared some encouraging words. At one point I said "the harder you work out, the less pain you will feel!" 

This is a wonderful sport for self-starters. You are so in control of how you progress. You can set up your own personal regimen for the whole summer. Without anyone being aware, you could show up for the first meet and win it! Neat. 

I'm pretty sure it was Monday when I saw those runners - I note that because I do not think Tuesday would have been advisable. It was terribly hot and humid yesterday. I took a walk anyway. It is going to be a long winter. I can accept the sweltering heat now. Runners need to be careful of course. 

Toward the end of the runners I observed, here comes coach Dale Henrich on bicycle. Morris has traditionally hosted a big start-of-season meet at the golf course. 

When I sampled this sport in high school, I don't think "athletic shoes" even existed! We wore "tennis shoes" that were probably not well suited. As we wore them for other things, they were probably worn. We didn't know better. True athletic shoes would have cost more than our parents would accept. Parents of the boomers had much more limited standards for spending money. They would faint at the cost of athletic shoes today. I guess people just use credit cards today? 

I'm happy of course that the kids of today have resources. Anything to help the kids. I am offering a little $ infusion to the music department as they consider their hoped-for trip to New Orleans. I have let Wanda know the figure of $500. I'd be happy to slide up to $1000 if that helps. 

A friend shared with me the concern that the MAHS band has gotten "so small." That accurate? I go to concerts but I'd hesitate to judge. This community does not like it when I judge about things. Doesn't matter that I'm right, I guess. Maybe Wanda sets such high standards, it can be kind of a disincentive to participate? There is a lot to be said for high standards. But. . . 

Maybe she'll be mad at me if she becomes aware of this blog post. It is not nice to have Wanda mad at you.

 

Tennis

We have some bona fide start-of-season competition to review on this Wednesday! Tennis always gets going early. The MACA/WCA tennis coach is my neighbor Britney House who I always think of as Britney Greenwaldt. I have never forgotten the spelling of her first name. 

Unfortunately the news coming out of the meet vs. Osakis is not positive. Osakis hosted a triangular. The Tigers were defeated 0-7. 

Cate Kehoe vied at first singles and fell to Madeline Anderson 5-8. Let's note that Osakis is known as the "Silver Streaks." I can never remember if that's one word or two. 

Chloe Zimmel, my occasional server at DeToy's Restaurant, played at second singles and was defeated by Bella Weisser, 2-8. (I am astute enough to know that the correct term is "server " and not "waitress.") 

At third singles it was Lilia Asmus wielding the racket for the orange and black. Asmus fell to Brenna Moen 1-8. 

The fourth singles competitors both had the first name "Ava." Osakis' Ava Drevlow defeated Ava Breuer 8-1. Not a pretty picture for MACA/WCA in the singles division. Maybe coach House should have her kids jog with the cross country runners? Just kidding. 

Let's take a look at doubles. Ashley Koehl and Nora Meek of MACA/WCA fell to Leah Maddock and Bria Hoffarth at the No. 1 position. Outcome was 3-8. 

Then at the No. 2 position, Grace Hauglie and Izabell Hoffman fell to Lauren Anderson and Jaclyn Dietrich, 4-8. At No. 3, Osakis' Maddi Bouldin and Lucy Glenetzke prevailed vs. Heidi Seales and Molly Wayne 8-0. 

MACA/WCA fared somewhat better in the match vs. Wadena-Deer Creek. This was a 3-4 defeat. Our doubles teams all tasted defeat. Our three wins were by singles players Cate Kehoe, Chloe Zimmel and Ava Breuer.

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