Mike Miller, RIP

Mike Miller

Was surprised and saddened to learn of the death of Mike Miller recently. This is the Mike Miller who was Native American and worked as an administrator at UMM. He had the common touch. I have always like that when I see it in UMM people.
We'd talk at McDonald's sometimes, or at the entry to Willie's in the morning, back when my breakfast of choice was often a bismark and free coffee for a grand total of 65 cents. There is no free coffee at Willie's anymore. The idea of any kind of decent breakfast for 65 cents is being retired into the historical dustbin.
Back when my father and our neighbor Les Lindor were alive, they'd get together often and go to Willie's to take advantage of the free coffee and to socialize. Bless these Depression-era guys who were great for watching every penny spent, gravitating to bargains.
I don't get around nearly as much as I used to, so I don't know if Mike Miller had a decline with health issues or if his death was sudden. At any rate I'll miss him. He often showed the wisdom of a cynic, cutting through the pretense of various people and institutions when it was called for. He saw no upside in trying to engage the most extreme political conservatives on campus. He gave advice on this in a succinct way, as he told me: "Don't do it."
 
Vivid perspective on a Morris tragedy
Mike shared with me more than once some pretty specific recollections of the goalpost incident at UMM. These were not recollections that UMM-oriented people would like to see publicly shared. He said that whenever something like this happens within the University, everyone's first instinct is to make sure the U doesn't get sued. There's logic to that to be sure, still it seems cold, at least in my eyes. I didn't take notes in these conversations so I didn't report on them via my online platforms. I sometimes wondered if he'd be willing to sit down as I took actual notes, but I figured he'd have reservations. So I just left these conversations in the context of conversation between friends while sipping our "senior coffees" at McDonald's, not free but pretty reasonable.
I have my own recollections of the day in 2005 when the goalpost came down. I shared these in a blog post several years ago. I wasn't at the field when it happened and I was actually reprimanded for that by the head person at the Morris newspaper. I don't see how any of my photos of that would have been allowed to see the light of public print anyway. I got requests for any photos I might have from the national media.
I was at the game in the first half doing my usual thing. The whole first half. Seemed a reasonable commitment especially considering we covered several football teams. There were always people in this community eager to jump on me for being "lazy." Regardless of the hours I actually worked, I'd hear this tired pathetic refrain from certain people, people pulling their hair out because of certain impulsive emotions.
One letter writer in the paper criticized me openly on allegations of being "lazy." That letter from someone I had never met, prompted a complete mess. I feel sorry for my co-workers who had to get dragged into it. Most likely my career at the paper got mortal wounds from that. I left the paper in June of 2006.
When I finally got to see videotape of the goalpost incident on a fleeting basis on KSTP, I was struck by how out of control the scene really was, worse than I had thought. Kids were up on the goalpost causing it to wobble. Sam Schuman would later say in some sort of hearing somewhere - I recall reading about it online - that if he had to do it over again, he would have made a personal plea to the kids. At the time he stated that the students involved had done something "foolish." I suppose that made them feel worse about it. I should have saved the summary of the hearing from the web so I could call it up today. I wish someone had their video recorder on for the KSTP report, so that video could be preserved on YouTube. It would be both tragic and instructive, instructive on how not to let things get out of hand.
 
Can I just eat my pizza?
The incident reminded me of how I could never really set aside personal time for myself. I was at Pizza Hut that evening simply trying to enjoy supper, when I found myself being exposed to talk about the incident from a nearby table of students. Right away I guess I was supposed to put on my cape, as it were, and furiously start scribbling. Today I'm relieved of all that pressure.
It's too bad my job at the paper was an all-or-nothing proposition. I have not worked for the past 12 years. I am not happy about that but I have lost self-confidence about doing much.
I do miss seeing Mike Miller out and around just like I'll miss other old acquaintances like Sherman Waage and Bill Rickmeyer. Sherman visited us when my parents had a birthday, on behalf of our church of First Lutheran. That's the "liberal" church that allows gays to be ministers, for which I'm happy and grateful. Bill Rickmeyer is gone too. What a dedicated person to veterans' causes.
Morris will never be the same without any of these people. I hope they are all memorialized in a meaningful and permanent way online, the way I have sought to do for my parents. A gravestone accomplishes so little. We can do so much more for the memory of those people with online remembrances and photo albums.
Mike Miller RIP. He had a wonderful way of sharing about the pathos that we often observe in life!
- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com