True crime story out of Idaho grips us all

I share here my annual holiday-time email I send to Rob Ebben whose pen name is Robert Dudley. He's the best-known author on the subject of the Jacob Wetterling abduction/investigation. I have enjoyed my correspondence with Rob. We write about unpleasant subjects but the idea is to find the truth. My email to Rob makes up the rest of this blog post. God's peace.

 

Hello Rob - I have my new original Christmas song here, about the legend or tradition of "Santa Lucia" or "St. Lucy" which is important at Advent-time. It's also very important to Scandinavians. Perhaps you are familiar. When I email you this time of year I usually float some thoughts on true crime matters. So you'll see that below my song link, and of course it's way too long. But I just sat down and decided to start typing. First, here's my song link for "Ballad of St. Lucy." Have a happy Thanksgiving. And Christmas!

https://youtu.be/HObvM-RYh3Q

 

The place of horrific tragedy (wikipedia image)

I usually email further into the holiday season but we've had this incredible "true crime" story fall on our lap. The sad story of the four college kids murdered in Idaho of course. Can a more compelling murder mystery possibly come before us? And so this episode is another example of how the media evolves in the Internet age. A little research on YouTube can get the algorithms pushing enough stuff at you, to occupy you for the better part of a day. 

A good thing? Well, the more attention that gets focused on a matter like this, the better for someone breaking through with an insight I suppose. A book or two to be written on this with time, naturally. That's your stock-in-trade. What might I have to offer? Anyone who delves into this subject will seek a path or two that might be original. So this morning I suddenly wondered: could this be murder-suicide with one of the four killing the other three and then himself/herself? I certainly haven't heard this idea. Absurd? Right now with no apparent resolution in sight, I'm not sure any idea should be written off as absurd. 

An outright invader would have to have aroused screams, right? This is a puzzle wrapped in a mystery. 

My second thought is this: was an unbalanced male aroused to violence because of infatuation? How to characterize the infatuation? Here's where the media treads in rough water. That's a shame because inhibitions based on cultural mores or standards must not get in the way of finding the truth. Our cultural standard now is to not "objectify" women. This is wholly commendable. But in trying to read the mind of a brutal criminal, we must seek the unvarnished truth. 

What I'm about to write here is, well, unsavory, but it jumped to the forefront of my thoughts. I saw the pictures of the two blonde girls. No one in the media dares suggest they had qualities like "gorgeous" or "knockouts" or "drop-dead blondes," but that is exactly what they were, from the perspective of a preponderance of young heterosexual males. How do I know this? I have such impulses myself for characterizing women as such, though I'm a total civil male in terms of my behavior or deportment. 

Vince Bugliosi talked about how normal people can have disturbing thoughts but they have "triggers" in their mind that prevent them from doing anything bad. He said that the people you see in prison do not have those triggers. We all fantasize about beating to a pulp some SOB boss in your work situation. We think it, we don't do it. 

Think of all the men who must drool in private when surfing the "Porn Hub" website. Publicly they'd say such behavior is unsavory. Oh hell, the private side is much different. Just think of all the thoughts floating through Bill Cosby's head all through the years. And demonstrably he set such an example for idyllic family devotion. Hell, it was his brand. So what I'm suggesting is that the two blonde girls among the victims got a guy aroused and infatuated. Perhaps the guy had some contact with them, might have tried to start a friendship. And then, got rebuffed? A year ago I think I was suggesting this scenario to you in connection to the Missy Bevers case. Actually I picked up that theory from a comment on a website - not the main article but a "comment" underneath. And seriously, you can learn more from an occasional comment like this than from a long-winded analysis. 

Dana Perino (facebook)

It was eye-opening yesterday to see a segment of the Fox News program "The Five," in which the group departed from their standard shtick of right wing politics and dove into the true crime story of Moscow, Idaho. It was eye-opening to see this group return to what I'd call rational thought, a break from the nonstop defensive talk on behalf of Donald Trump. The norm has had a drugging effect, day after day, so I'm really wondering if these people like Dana Perino were actually breathing a sigh of relief because they had a chance to depart from the usual fare. I don't see how they can feel good about themselves, what with their mission being to keep Trump propped up. So there was Jeanine Pirro of all people, suddenly sounding like the pretty sharp legal mind she must truly be, if she has "judge" credentials. So unless she has chemical dependency issues, I think she would have to relish being taken off her leash of following MAGA, viciously attacking political "progessives" all the damn time. For the first time I sat there and listened to her with interest. 

Usually if I check in on Fox News, it's just to see what they're up to. And yesterday there was this revelation that these people need not be led along on that leash constantly. They can join the rest of us in reasoned and insightful conversation. My, they are capable of it! You might say I was overjoyed! There was Jesse Watters, who I normally write off as a snake. He supplied a constructive thought although I wouldn't echo it. Rather than infatuation, Watters felt the murderer was a kid who just felt rejected socially. The kid was jealous of the "popular" four kids who were destined to be killed, Watters suggested. Such thoughts of rejection are commonplace - the kids with such thoughts do not seriously consider murder. 

I humbly suggest that my own "infatuation" theory is more credible. A boy with a crush that cannot be fulfilled can sink to the depths of disappointment. With a normal boy, of course, this simply passes. A boy with a latent psychopathic element would be the exception. So look at those two blonde girls and just be brutally honest. Using what words? Well, "babes?" Slap me, I'm just trying to hit the nail on the head. I'm acknowledging that many males do in fact gravitate to Porn Hub. It has in fact become so mainstream it has gotten parodied on "The Onion." A headline asks "are these really certified stepmothers?" That's kind of funny. 

 

Treading water?

As I type this, frustratingly little progress in the case of the Idaho murders. Perhaps there will be a new raft of podcasts and the like to be consumed later today. I am retired and I have the time to consume. Even if my thoughts are gravitating in the right direction, it won't matter. I'll just have the private satisfaction if I'm right. 

So in the last 24 hours we've heard the "stalker" angle. I believe the authorities are trying to shoot that down. But, my instincts as an old newspaper person are telling me (screaming at me) that such talk is not out of a vacuum. If it wasn't a murder-suicide and not a close acquaintance, seems to me the "stalker" label would be pretty in line. It is in fact a vague term - is it someone who has had no contact with the group, just limited contact, a casual (non-intimate) friend? Well, I think maybe a guy who felt infatuation tried to break the ice with one of the blondes and hit a dead-end. And then because of a latent violent streak, the rest is history. Or was it murder-suicide by a member of the group? It stays on the corner of my mind. As they say, too much just doesn't add up here. So the compelling nature of the mystery deepens exponentially. 

You, Rob, would be a good guy to "write the book" on this. Will something change in the next 48 hours? Who knows? 

"True crime" migrated from the main cable news channels quite some time ago. Cable news became the boxing ring, as it were, for partisan political fighting/mudslinging, ad nauseam. The Idaho case is showing that true crime can indeed "make a comeback." It has just been off in the backwaters for a time. Fox News is not married to politics, in spite of surface impressions over a long time. When Fox discovers that the new topic breaks through to a big audience, guess what? We will undoubtedly see more of it. They'll toss Trump and the MAGA crew aside, readily. 

I still can't believe I'm seeing "Judge Jeanine" in a program suddenly looking like she's "deprogrammed," that she can be straightforward and penetrating with rational views. You might say I should pinch myself to see if I'm dreaming. Yes, revelatory. 

The best scenario would be to see the murder mystery solved in short order. My sense right now is not so optimistic. Such a drastic act with four victims should have left clues that could be acted upon faster. Then we'd be seeing the "mug" of the perpetrator. We'd be discussing the consequences for that person. After so much time has already elapsed? Are we going down a road like with JonBenet Ramsey? Remember when the authorities in Colorado had that pathetic person flown to the U.S.? Remember how seriously cable news, including Greta, took that for a time? This is the same part of the media ecosystem that was mesmerized by "balloon boy" for a day or two. Someday a history will be written of cable news, that odd creature. People within that circle will not want the balloon boy story to be recounted. Or that "suspect" in the JonBenet case. Last name Carr? It has been a while. 

Will anyone in the media now "boldly go where no one has gone" and acknowledge that the blonde victims were hugely alluring in the eyes of most hetero males? That some young male somewhere would have infatuation captivate him to a tipping point? 

OK, no one likes to admit that such thoughts exist, just like most people are not going to acknowledge they are aware of Porn Hub. What a tangled web we weave. Unpleasant thoughts or politically incorrect ones need to be entertained as much as all others, maybe more so, because all that matters in a case like this is getting to the truth. You remember the struggle over many years with the Wetterling saga. And how the media decided that a blogger ought to be celebrated at the end. It just became conventional wisdom. You and I know how off-base that was, even though the blogger was a nice person with good intentions. She was not a journalist. Maybe I should say "she was not an investigator." True. But I put journalists and authors on the same plane with the best of investigators, in terms of having the laser-focued instincts. The insights into human nature. 

Well Rob, just thought I'd sit down on this day before Thanksgiving and "start typing" based on my consumption of speculation from the past day over the Idaho tragedy. 

One more thing ("Columbo")

Oh, I always have one more thought and here it is: we need to question our whole model for "college education," the idea of these beehive places called college campuses where young people congregate who lack the maturity to live safely and responsibly on their own. 

Jon Krakauer (cnn image)

I emphasized these thoughts in the book review I did of "Missoula" by Jon Krakauer. He's an eminent author best known for his climb of Mount Everest. But for "Missoula" he probed what I called the "murky topic" of acquaintance rape. Such irresponsible behavior he wrote about, e.g. a nice young girl who gets wasted at a party, "crashes" at the place and is allegedly violated by a friend. Was it consensual? When alcohol is flowing freely, how can we be certain of all the circumstances? And so I asked: why do we encourage kids to go off to these places where they are in a position to experience such things? 

Krakauer would say it doesn't matter: rape is rape. Well of course rape is heinous. But how do college-age kids initiate sexual activity with each other? Does the male ask the female "can I do such-and-such to your body now?" Well of course not. I sympathize with any girl who feels she was violated, but wouldn't a lot of these kids be better off if they'd stayed home with parents for a few years after college? Why not just go to bed early, avoid alcohol and attend church on Sunday? 

The party of four in Idaho seemed to have been "cavorting." They were "popular." The girls were "attractive." They should have avoided a lifestyle where such traits got assessed at all. Just be real, be responsible, start exploring career paths and avoid the foolishness. I went to college when these places were invaded by the boomer generation and I saw no end to the foolishness. A trademark of our generation was the "loud stereo" (record player). At least this situation has improved in our new digital world, as the quality of one's "speakers" is no issue. But in reviewing the Idaho murders news coverage, the propensity of young people to seek foolish fun seems still to be brimming. Stay home! Stay safe! Is this so hard to internalize? 

Good luck to investigators in Idaho, the U.S. state of extreme right wing politics. Is that relevant? Hell, anything could be relevant. The very future of the college in Moscow ID could be at stake. The parents might decide to keep their kids at home after Thanksgiving. A blessing in disguise, I think it could be. Kids can mine the Internet to advance themselves in all sorts of ways. Teach yourself trigonometry from YouTube. Anything is possible. 

Take a fresh, skeptical look at "college." These are legacy systems that are still good at "selling themselves." They have ties to political office-holders. Change can be glacier-like. but we hope it advances at any speed. 

Condolences to the families of the four Idaho victims. And, happy Thanksgiving weekend 2022 to all! Make way for Christmas.

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

Questionable schemes with happy-talk names

Symbol of a still-reliable service?

The Flint MI water crisis should have been followed by expression of humility from government. Instead there was an approach largely based on public relations. What? Human beings behaving out of self-interest? Fortunately there was enough penetrating journalism out there to shake out facts. Rachel Maddow was a key leader but hardly the only one. 

I do believe the ex-governor is in a legal pickle now. I remember when the state tried announcing that the National Guard was being implemented in response. What an assuring pronouncement. I remember Maddow of MSNBC revealing that the move really involved just a handful of Guardsmen who lived in Flint already. What a tangled web we can weave, eh? 

But Flint isn't the point of what I'm thinking about on this early-winter day, 2022. Looking out my picture window to the north, you'd think it was mid-January. We're not even to Thanksgiving yet. 

So for one thing, I'm thinking about our venerated old U.S. Postal Service today. I went through an episode in the last couple weeks that made me wonder if I was an exhibit for the suffering under the Post Office's retrenchment. This is a headache: we had a Republican president from 2016 to 2020. It is a defining feature of Republicans that they do not want people to like government. 

For sure there is largesse in government. 

People were much more dependent on paper mail in the pre-digital times. However, paper mail continues to be important in many ways to many people. For sure those in small business. And, Republicans are supposed to be sensitive to the needs of business, right? Isn't that a defining feature too? We see a clash of objectives: oh how Republicans would like to see the Post Office be self-sufficient and self-sustaining. You hear that rhetoric and your impulse is to say "it sounds great." Please peel below the surface of that. Please consider if the Post Office is really cut out to work like a private business. Maybe not. 

So Republicans need to weigh, however painful it might be for them, the idea that a government-subsidized competent Postal Service is really important for America. Republicans have had no problem spending money on wars. And look how they have reacted to the "farm bill" through the years. Let us wax nostalgic? The farm bill once came up against the vaunted principles of the GOP. It was big government. It was excessive. After railing over an extended time, Republicans got existential about this. "Hey, if we keep raising protestations about the farm bill, we'll lose," Republicans conceded while trying to avoid any admission about compromising principle. 

I suppose they applied sugar coating with talk about how hard-working and virtuous farmers are. It can conjure up a Normal Rockwell painting. But do you realize: the farmers of today face no risk? So it turns out the system has "over-corrected" for them. "Hey, what do you have against farmers?" Well, nothing, I would state in response to that. 

 

Worthy of "cartel" privileges?

Stirrings in print media

So now I'll move on to another subject with close relevance to my own life. It's newspapers, where I made my home for nearly 30 years. 

Everyone recognizes their own self-interest, n'est-ce pas? Everyone tries to plead poverty and desperation to a certain extent. We started hearing about 15 years ago that newspapers were on a rapid slope toward extinction. Obits were written for the business. Well, what happened? 

Not that there haven't been closures, but the print media still seems to be a staple in our lives. We have the Star Tribune of the Twin Cities, plus our local paper which purports to serve "Stevens County." 

The Stevens County name gives them an excuse to go out of their way covering Hancock. Hasn't this been a long slog of hearing complaints out and around about too much Hancock stuff in the Morris paper? Hancock did have its own paper, the Record, for which I was sportswriter for 15 years. I don't want people to forget that. Maybe I ought to be grand marshal for the July 4 parade. OK that's a light comment. Has Katie Erdman ever been grand marshal? It's an oversight if she hasn't been. 

Newspapers are looking around for special favors just like farmers have been, and just like everyone naturally does. What a tangled web that the newspaper industry is putting before us now. You are a mere child if you believe all their sheep-dip. Just like you're a child if you buy the Postal Service pronouncements about how their changes are really a grand/glorious thing. 

Trump appointed this fellow named DeJoy to do what I'd call the dirty work with the P.O. Hey, they're Republicans. They will wake up only when they realize that the business world wants no part of a "self-sufficient" Postal Service. 

 

Fast and loose talk

So what are the newspapers after? Ahem, pay attention to this proposed "Journalism Competition and Preservation Act." You might think the idea is to promote competition among newspapers? No. The effect would be to carve out a "cartel" which is un-American. Newspapers still think they're so special after such a long history when it was easier to make such an argument. 

Newspapers are after what we are all after: money. If they pull levers to get a little extra, would it really be applied toward better journalism? Could we rule out more stock buy-backs? 

A newspaper is a finite product - "x" number of pages - which tries to pretend it can be all things to all people. That's ridiculous. People interested in sports can go to places within the new media to find endless material. How often have you even bothered to read anything in the "business" section of the Star Tribune? If you really are interested in timely business coverage, would you rely on a newspaper anyway? So get your heads on straight, knaves. Do not fall for this special interest ploy. 

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act amounts to a government-sanctioned local newspaper industrial policy. What it does, is force a transfer from Big Tech to a favored industry whose revenue was eaten into by the rise of targeted online advertising. The CATO Institute argues that the proposed bill is "incompatible with free markets and voluntary, mutually beneficial negotiations." 

So don't fall for it. 

 

My adventure concludes

As for my recent experience with the U.S. Mail, I was waiting for a semi-annual interest payment from a bank. The longer you wait, the more you are forced to worry about how there may have been a Postal Service screw-up. My check arrived yesterday after a much longer wait than usual for this. 

A Postal Service slowdown? I'm smarter than the average bear, so I looked at the postmark date. Based on that, I could not blame the Post Office at all. We're talking a regional bank. The local branch evidently had nothing to do with this. I deposited the check in a different bank yesterday (Thursday), then drove immediately to the bank in question, which is in Stevens County, and withdrew all my funds. 

I'm not mad, just doing what I had to do. I put the money in a certificate of deposit special offered by one of the Morris banks - a happy ending actually. So let's keep just a little faith in the U.S. Postal Service. I have long felt the P.O. employees union was too powerful. Similarly, I think teachers unions have had way too much power. I support workers everywhere. But unions within government? That's an issue.
 

Elizabeth Raths

Chokio-Alberta kids overcome cold

I just got the heads-up about how the Chokio-Alberta band was in last night's very cold Parade of Lights in Morris. A part of me wants to congratulate them, but I'm not sure it was wise to perform under such cold conditions. But let's be glass-half-full and congratulate the C-A kids and their director Elizabeth Bartholet-Raths. She was formerly in the Morris system. Kind of a contentious situation when she left Morris. I attended just one concert where she was involved and I felt she did fine. 

Elizabeth's C-A band got a superior rating in large-group last spring. Hancock did not achieve that. Hail the Spartans! (A friend told me the Hancock parents only care about having a loud pep band.)

I photographed the Parade of Lights for the Morris Sun Tribune in a past time. I would have several leftover photos to use in our Christmas greeting edition. Newspaper work is only in my memories now. I wish it hadn't turned out that way.

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

BBE rolls along, wins in state quarter-finals

It is almost hard keeping up with the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa volleyball team. Win upon win gets accumulated. The Jaguars won yesterday (Thursday) in the state Class A quarterfinals. The next assignment is today, again at Xcel Energy Center ("the X"). 

Coach Alanna Hunter's team is coming off a win over Badger/Greenbush-Middle River (BGM). It was 3-1 success with scores as follows: 22-25, 25-20, 25-21 and 25-14. So you can see how the Jags turned on the jets after Game 1. 

Will the momentum carry over to today? The "Minnesota Scores" website tells us that today's starting time is 1 p.m. And that the opponent is Minneota. 

Thursday's success was a slight on-paper upset: BBE seeded fifth for state, BGM fourth. 

The West Central Tribune refers to today's foe as "mighty Minneota." The W/L numbers underscore that: 32-3 by the Vikings of Minneota. BBE is now 26-6. No one will be thinking about the won-lost once the first serve gets delivered in today's action. 

For the record, Minneota has the No. 1 seed. Minneota's success on Thursday was over New Life Academy of Woodbury, 3-1. The Vikings were last year's state runner-up. They will present an array of strong suits. But look out for those Jaguars! Certainly the BBE community is consumed with enthusiasm now. 

BBE wasn't taking anything for granted yesterday. BGM has the "Gators" nickname. Their coach is Stacy Dahl. BGM carried a 30-2 record into the state quarter-finals. The Gators actually aren't done yet. There is a state consolation phase. 

But the BBE Jags are still in the big show of the winner's bracket! The fan enthusiasm helps put aside thoughts about our impending winter. The wind has created a quite raw feeling yesterday and today. We're all hoping the snow holds off a while longer. But it will surely come. 

Kylie Weller was the cog in setting for the Jags Thursday. Weller came on to be the team's primary setter after the injury to Davia Szczesniak. Senior captain Allison Dingmann commented, "You can't do anything without a setter, right?" Weller was up to the challenge and then some. On Thursday she produced 57 set assists on 131 attacks, zero errors. Harley Roering and Adley Hagen each picked up one assist. BGM had a setter of note: all-stater Cassidy Dahl, senior. Dahl had 31 assists with no errors.

Ava Mueller led BBE in kills with 22 followed by Brooklyn Fischer 18, Abby Berge 12, Dingmann 5, Hagen 4 and Roering 1. Let's take a look at serve aces where we see Fischer leading the way with three. Weller batted two aces over the net, and Roering, Berge and Mueller each had one. The blocking department showcased Dingmann, Fischer, Hagen and Berge. 

In digs we see Fischer as top performer with 28. She was followed by: Berge 20, Roering 17, Weller 11, Mueller 9 and Anna Jaeger 6. 

The BGM hitting was led by Jade Reese with 13 kills. These three Gators each had a serving ace: McKenzie Dahl, Sierra Westberg and Cassidy Dahl. Dahl was in sync with setting. Hannah Bergsnev led in digs with 13.

Let's never forget the 1984 Belgrade team (by itself) that made state! But new memories are being made all the time, right Randy? Randy Olson is the newspaper guy.

They're quite the winning crew, those BBE Jaguars of 2022!

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

Maybe we should pine for porta-potties sometimes

A place to enjoy in west Morris

The headline reads "Morris residents questions accessibility to public buildings." It's on the front page of the November 1 edition. Something is wrong naturally so we might wonder: should it be "Morris resident questions" or "Morris residents question?" 

Hmmm. It's a front page headline so I don't think it's de minimis to point out. Looks like we're talking about a Morris resident, singular. And the matter at hand is public facilities. 

The SCT article points out "West Side Park." I am not aware of a park with that name. The main park of west Morris is "Wells Park." That must be the place. Looks like there are some bathroom damage questions? 

Going to the other side of the tracks, there are questions about our public library. Wheelchair accessibility? I remember the late P.J. O'Rourke talking about how all these public accommodations standards were fine in principle. But when it comes time for enforcement, the measures can get a little onerous. He talked about how all post offices have ramps, and that postal employees could be assumed to show the proper courtesy for access. No, the letter of the law or regulations would demand more. P.J. demurred. 

Am I agreeing with P.J.? Well, not lock, stock and barrel. I do believe government-enforcement regulations can cross a line to unreasonableness sometimes. Have you read the stories about the havoc caused when super-zealous people go around making use of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? 

Again, the regulations are based on sound principle. But think of the cost that might be imposed to attain perfection. Also keep in mind how government does not reason like private industry. Heaven help us if we relied on private industry completely. But let's consider the opposite extreme too. The zealousness can cause reasonable people to begin shaking their heads. 

I assure you, I have read about ADA-oriented people going on a tear. And I am truly sensitive to handicapped needs. I remember toward the end of my parents' lives, I discovered that the DMV office in Morris did not have a wheelchair ramp. I thought a place like this would have been forced into compliance long before. We got by. I was an able-bodied caregiver and able to do a lot. The DMV has since installed a ramp. 

Our city manager assures us there is insurance to cover the restroom damage at "West Side Park." Money from insurance does not grow on trees, just like money of any kind does not grow on trees. Insurance companies are not exactly fond of paying claims, just as no one likes having $ disgorged from them. And so insurance premiums go up. 

Contractors are burdened by insurance requirements. So the costs get passed on. The inflation we hear about on the news is going to make this matter more vexing. Are you contemplating home improvements? Window replacement? 

 

A motivated individual

The SCT article indicates there is an individual keeping a close eye on things in regard to handicapped needs. Again, wonderful in principle. We hope that on a practical level, everything can be handled just fine too. But if you read the article, you may have been left wondering. 

The city manager exuded some exasperation when he said "the city does not have to drop everything and pay to get it done." 

I'm not sure if the next sentence is attributed to the city manager or not: "Some projects are simply too expensive to take on, citing the $200,000 to $300,000 cost to put in new bathrooms and concession stand at Wells Park." We read earlier in the article that the bathroom "damage" was covered by insurance. 

Maybe Blaine Hill was talking about a scenario where the city would just build new. Isn't it great to build new things all the time? Look at the softball complex. That place has permanent bathrooms, right? Like Big Cat Stadium? And the stage building at East Side Park? (Yes, there really is an "East Side Park.") 

 

"Out of order"

A cautionary note: Bathrooms/urinals are delicate for long-term use. Guys have seen "out of order" signs on urinals. And to repeat: having a contractor or repair person show up is getting more concerning with cost. We're talking public facilities where public $ is at stake. Does it affect our already high property taxes? Does the state income tax play in? Just thought I'd mention that, because Republicans if elected say they'd like to scrap it. Republicans are already coming after our Social Security and Medicare. That's what they say, anyway. 

Public money has to be disgorged from the public somehow. 

So as I try to synthesize my thoughts here, I cannot help but ask: are porta-potties really so terrible? People my age can remember using full-fledged outdoor bathrooms a.k.a. outdoor johns. Maybe by today's elevated standards, it doesn't pass muster. 

Oh, I know it's unpleasant to spend a couple minutes in a porta-potty. But don't you find that it's only on rare occasions that you need to? Can't you put up with it ever so briefly? When I was young, no one talked about "hand sanitizer." Geez, it's enough to give you germophobia. Time to get real or lighten up? 

A couple years ago, the city manager went on the radio with Marshall Hoffman to explain why the city park bathrooms could not be open as early as April. I attended an MACA softball game at Wells Park a few days earlier. The varsity and JV played at Wells that day. I enjoyed being there. I did not have to "relieve myself." I would have considered porta-potties to be acceptable. Maybe the general public does not any more. 

As a rule of thumb, any system that involves water has a high probability of maintenance issues. So let's think twice about having such a high standard with so many public places, of having permanent bathrooms. 

The Killoran stage, East Side Park

While we're at it, let's question the original idea of having the Killoran stage built in the first place. The problem is obvious: it never gets used. For a few years it had a role in Prairie Pioneer Days. 

PPD as we once knew it is gone. The building sits there like a hulk all year, all through the cold winter: there it is. We're so used to seeing it, we might not think much about whether it's justified. It's part of the landscape here in Motown. I'm sure it requires city money to maintain. I saw work on the roof a couple years ago. And it has those cotton pickin' bathrooms. Facilities with water, inherently fragile. 

If Republicans dominate with today's election, taxes and government spending will be slashed all over the place. Keeping up with the ADA demands will only get more daunting. 

It is accurate to say "horror stories" have appeared in the media about the ADA allegedly being taken too far. You will find people in any community who push for these things. I don't wish to cross them, so let me say their intentions are quite sound. But I'm reminded of the William F. Buckley book from long ago: "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" 

In closing, let me recall a conversation I had with good ol' Jim McRoberts long ago. It was during the 1987 World Series. Broadcaster Al Michaels took heat for comments during commercial breaks when his words were not reaching the broad audience. Impolitic remarks, let's say. Grousing about his hotel room in the Twin Cities. So Jim remarked: "I'll bet this is a guy who grew up using an outdoor bathroom."

Addendum: So you think everything is handicapped accessible in Morris? What about the cemetery?

Addendum No. 2: Fox News has a reporter named Porter Berry. Keith Olberman referred to him as "Porta-Potty."

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

Can the America we love be preserved?

Congressman Jim Jordan (image from flickr)

Well, the mid-terms are upcoming on such-and-such a date. I'm sure it will be in all the newspapers. 

Tried checking in with the "Morning Joe" TV show this morning, but they started out talking about baseball. "Joe" is supposed to be a place for politics enthusiasts. And besides, do they not realize that hardly anyone cares about the "World Series?" 

Did you see the item the other day about how there are no African-American players in this year's Series? So amazing: there was a time when major league ball literally banned African-Americans. Today the majors would love to get them back. So "Morning Joe" started out with a light discussion on the Series, as if a whole lot of people cared, and I became chagrined. (I watch this show through YouTube.) 

There will be plenty of interesting news/talk later today. There are some big stories. We're on the doorstep of the mid-terms. The Republicans are poised to get in a very commanding position all over. And what will they do with all that power? 

America has been going through convulsions. Maybe it's hard for some to notice because change can happen slowly. There's this meme out there now that "white people" are scared, scared of losing their traditional preeminence. So this is offered to explain the more troubling behavior and rhetoric of Republicans on the national stage. 

However, are these prominent people really reflecting their "white" constituencies or are they behaving as opportunists, a common politician instinct? Whipping up fears and anxieties where otherwise the waters would be calm? Don't people of color really just want a lot of the same things as the "white" people? ("White" people are not really white.) 

Republicans are playing to the fears. Are they really being direct with us? Are they really stating what is on their minds? Republicans have a pretty consistent agenda: lower taxes, the transferring of wealth to people who are already well-off, and nixing of regulations that stand in the way of optimal profits. 

Causes in this vein are not always without merit. It is important to keep the principle of individual incentive propped up. Republicans tend to pervert this, though. They do it with rhetoric that they have found strikes a chord with a large constituency. Playing to fears is a big part of this. 

Most white people if left on their own would stay pretty calm about things. They would not retreat so much into an us-against-them mode. Politicians seeking support push buttons. Extreme rhetoric gets the attention of the media. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a household name. So if that's your thing - getting famous - you know what you have to do. 

What would my late uncle say, the bank president who showed us his Goldwater cigars back in '64, if he were to learn of the joking about the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband? Kari Lake got laughs from her audience with her light approach on this. An 82-year-old man had his skull fractured. My late uncle was a classic Republican, a person of high moral integrity and personal modesty. Conservatives used to believe in a steady flow of society without upheavals. Be good to your neighbor, care about the less-well-off, even if it means a few social welfare programs. 

But Republicans talk openly now about cutting Social Security and Medicare, about "re-sets" in Social Security or maybe even sun-setting. They retreat a little when they notice some initial pushback. But we can see clearly their stripes on this. Do not be naive. Even when my uncle Howard was alive, Republicans really wanted to "undo the New Deal." 

 

Resigned to it?

I am assuming at this time the anticipated red wave of Republicans will happen. There is a chance it will not happen. I must acknowledge reality and bang the drum to try to remind people of what Republicans are all about. Democrats up until now have retained enough power to be a check. The mid-terms could substantially change the landscape. 

Think of the power Jim Jordan would have. He comes across as such a pit bull. Can he get "real" in the end and just simmer down? If he can't, and if others like him are similarly obsessed, we might actually see a layer of extra-judicial power set up in the U.S. This way, the Republicans can bypass our standard judicial process with its judges. A judge might be pushed aside as being "biased." Anyone who is a known Democrat could be neutered away from having any influence in our justice system. 

The tone for this attitude was really set by Donald Trump. Would the extra-judicial brokers show any sensible or humane restraint? Would they follow the lead of Jordan's inflamed rhetoric? 

Again I warn you: people with a track record of being critical of Trump and by extension critical of Republicans, might find their lives are in danger. We saw the violence on Jan. 6 and again with the attack on Paul Pelosi. America may be headed into a very dark corridor.

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