2019 UMM graduation on a gray, lousy day

Morris is easing into its slowest period of the year, now that UMM graduation is done. We have given up trying to resist the slow nature of summer here. The Chamber of Commerce has given up, saying "uncle" as it were, by cancelling Prairie Pioneer Days as a summer event. The people who find it necessary to leave town every weekend - they go to "the lake" or wherever - have won.
I know Kevin Wohlers is not comfortable with this state of affairs. I wonder how many others agree with Kevin. Long-time Morris residents know that it is hard to combat apathy here.
UMM graduation more often than not has been held on bad weather days. The 2019 graduation presented this issue in spades. It wasn't just wet, it wasn't just cold, it wasn't just windy. It was all three. I parked downtown and walked to campus. Someone joked with me that I could probably walk from home and the distance wouldn't be much different. It's nice to avoid the parking congestion. I once witnessed an argument outside the RFC involving someone who wanted to park in an RFC parking spot.

(E-Express, Morris News image)

My late mother and I were blessed more than once getting a golf cart ride. Eventually Mom became wheelchair-bound. Technically it was a "transport" which is a wheelchair with small wheels, designed for people who will be pushed around by someone else. Many people like me, caregivers, probably wonder if they should have forced their loved one into a wheelchair sooner. We feel bad about the loss of dignity our loved one might have in this position. My mother was once known for her rapid "gait" across the UMM campus. She managed the campus post office.
 
Not apt for mid-May, certainly
I felt like cussing at the weather as I walked to campus for the 2019 graduation. It was like the weather was insulting us. It seemed worse than unpleasant.
I had made the decision to watch the ceremony from a comfortable seat at the newly renovated Edson Auditorium. Just as I had avoided parking congestion, so too was I going to avoid the crunch of people at the P.E. Center.
We are blessed in Morris having an event like this where the crunch of people and cars is something we have to deal with! Such a big event, and then after it has passed, Morris seems to go into a prolonged slumber. So we must savor the moments on the day when the grads don their caps and gowns.
I observed the big screen at Edson and saw Simon Tillier direct the instrumental musicians. I'm still confused at how the Edson and Morrison names are supposed to be juxtaposed in that building. My late father directed all the early concerts at Edson when UMM was new. He was the only music faculty in UMM's first year.
Speaking of name issues, I guess the P.E. Center has a new name. Cougar Sports Center? It's appropriate but hardly much of a distinction. Usually when there is a name alteration on campus it's because of a benefactor. I guess the gym floor itself is named for James Gremmels. I think if college administrators had their way, they'd like to be relieved of the burden of name issues completely.
I have asked before: What happens when all the main features of a campus become named for someone? How to honor future benefactors? It may become a stretch.
So I'm sitting comfortably at Edson Saturday surrounded by a fair number of other people who like me felt this would be a comfortable way to go. And then there's no image on the screen. Or, I should say there was a faint image that got "frozen" there. Yes, it appeared most certain that this was one of those technical glitches.
I covered MAHS graduation one year when this happened. A production that was supposed to be shown on a big screen became no-go, obviously very embarrassing. I was near Principal George Morrow when Amy Dougherty came over to him and said "we have to re-boot it," and I guess time wouldn't permit that. In the days that followed, the story I heard was that when the choir was assembling on the risers for their part of the ceremony, a member took an errant step and pulled a cord from an outlet.

(UMM image)

I should think that in the year 2019, with tech having progressed so far, the odds of a breakdown would be much less. But it appeared to happen on Saturday at the Edson/Morrison place on campus.
I was patient for a while, seeing if the simulcast could resume. I waited what I felt was a fair period of time, then I departed, joking with the people in back that "I guess I'll go over to where it's actually happening." Which might seem very apt and desirable, but as I've noted, the P.E. Center gets crowded for this affair. People stand all along the upper concourse.
 
Mom and I visited together
The year Al Franken was here, security got a chair for Mom up on the concourse and I stood beside her. We couldn't see anything but we were happy to be there in support of the event. Franken was in his glory as a U.S. Senator at that time. We all know what happened to him since, as our culture has changed and many powerful men now must tremble as they fear what might be coming out about their past behavior. In my case, any missteps from my past would be verbal and not physical. I'm sure I have engaged in politically incorrect banter like a great many men who otherwise would appear sensitive and thoughtful.
Do we really want to erase Garrison Keillor from Minnesota history? At the same time we have monuments named for guys who owned slaves? Our evolving society can make us scratch our heads. We can be so holier than thou in how we make pronouncements now. As if we should have known the right answers all along.
I arrived at the P.E. Center Saturday and found it to be crowded as expected. I noticed some open spots down in the bleachers but decided I'd be intrusive if I went there after the ceremony was on. The concourse did not afford a good vantage point given the congestion, and besides that I'd have to stand. Quite unfortunate. Had I stayed at Edson, my plan was to stick around for the reception at Oyate. You never know who you'll run into.
As things turned out, I got discouraged because of all the circumstances and just headed back downtown to get my car and go home. I had written off graduation 2019. The weather had already put a damper on it. Eric Kaler was here but he's a lame duck UMM leader.
I was at the ceremony long enough to notice that a class speaker got disoriented. There was a pause. This was unfortunate. It's a special skill to get up in front of a large crowd. Not the type of proposition for me.
 
Thanks, but. . .
I heard later on the news that there was a graduation somewhere where some filthy rich dude, a one-percenter, appeared and pledged to pay off the grads' student debt. OK, was this a heartwarming story? On the surface it seemed crafted that way. "What a generous guy."
Well, I certainly don't feel that way. Why should the grads of a particular school, purely because of happenstance, receive such an abundant blessing relative to graduates elsewhere, the latter in a position to have to slave away and combat stress for a long time to pay off their student loans? Why should we have to pray for some benevolent angel to come along for our kid? It just makes us feel beholden to the "one percent" and I resent that. I think it's chutzpah, pretense and vanity.
We should have an equitable national system to make life more fair for all college grads and all young people, period. I don't agree with Elizabeth Warren's proposal for free college education for everyone, because I don't think college is for everyone. Far from it. But if higher education is something you think you need, the burdens on you should not be onerous.
I don't know if the simulcast at Edson got fixed before the end of the 2019 UMM graduation. The problem was bad enough that it was worthy for the administration to at least know about. Edson is a nice alternative for handicapped people. Or, even "handicapped" people like me with claustrophobia.
We'll just hope for better weather next year, and maybe Joan Gabel can come sooner rather than later.
 
Addendum: When I got home Saturday, I laid the commencement program on Mom's bed next to the 2018 commencement program.
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com