Whither the direction of UMM, the whole USA?

We love this campus (UMM image)

Got a kick out of the guy on a podcast who said "whenever I hear a reference to the University at Morris on the news, I think "uh oh." Well, I guess the non-flattering stuff seems to pop up. At the same time we hear words like "excellence" in connection with our U all the time. Maybe it's the latter thing that prevails, thank the Lord. 

However, an occasional messy story does appear. Sometimes UMM will revive these for a discussion in the spirit of "teachable moment." I will suggest one exception to that: the goalpost incident. That was a totally dark affair that I suspect, as a matter of policy, will be buried as deep as the institution can accomplish. I won't bury it because it was important. It had ramifications for me and my career. It happened in 2005. Within a year after that I was gone from the Morris newspaper. My reflections about that whole weekend are in a post that I put up on September 9, 2010. The link:

http://ilovemorris73.blogspot.com/2010/09/goalpost-incident-was-day-of-infamy.html 

 

Today I sit over a cup of steaming instant coffee as I continue to perform as a scribe, only unattached. Unattached to corporate journalism. I ought to be bitter at UMM. I ought to be bitter at the rarefied-air professional class of people in Morris with whom I never fit in. Logic would suggest such an attitude on my part. Who would want to bathe in that?

For sure I step forward with constructive criticism at times. Maybe step over a line now and then. Such an approach was nurtured among my kind during the Vietnam and Watergate years, not that there weren't other catalysts for disruption. I'm sitting here at home at 5:30 a.m. What is the coming week going to bring in the way of headlines? 

The disruption of my younger years seemed wholly constructive, like we were going in the right direction. Seemed like the obstacle was the flat-earth folks. We didn't like seeing tens of thousands of young men die in Vietnam. The disruption of today, as I sit here pondering the new week of headlines, is coming from the folks who seem wholly regressive. It's from the people putting so much pressure on public schools and libraries, hugely emotional, sometimes with literal screaming. They are so motivated by the "woke" term coming from a strain of the media. And they promote Republicans top to bottom. 

We know who the person at the top is. And he's still at it with all his eccentricities or actual mental health infirmities. 

Kari Lake looks now like she'll win the governor race in Arizona. She kisses the ring of Donald Trump. Trump is helping her attain power. Her opponent backed out of a debate on the valid reasoning that Lake would just keep shouting and interrupting. But it's the opponent, Katie Hobbs, who is losing ground in public sentiment, or appears to be. I can only pray for a "blue wave." Don't count on it. 

 

America of 2022

See the kind of zeitgeist I am suggesting now? America has been taken over by the wave of inflammatory, anti-intellectual rhetoric. The media just stands idly by, as if to suggest it's all rather "cute." And the public becomes lemmings. The train wreck was begun by the man who lost the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election. 

Truth is dying. There was a time, believe me, when the media had balls. The Neanderthal voices tended to get sidelined then. William F. Buckley of "Firing Line" had no time for the idiot, emotional voices. But it is such voices that are today like the squeaky wheel getting the grease. 

Jeff Backer (kmrs image)

Can I ask a logical question: Isn't it absurd for one of our area state representatives, Jeff Backer, to still be taken seriously after he was one of just eight representatives, all Republican, to vote against condemning violence at the U.S. capitol? At that point, shouldn't the man just be sidelined? Put out of public view? 

But such is not the zeitgeist of today, in late October 2022, as we move up on another election. The CW is suggesting that momentum is going to the Republicans. Is this the way it is going to go indefinitely? I wonder if the new media reality is such, the regressive/emotional voices are going to stay predominant. Will they intoxicate a plurality of us? 

Backer is from Browns Valley, a fair distance from us in Morris, but could he tar all of us out here? We need responsible voices affecting public policy. Violence is always bad.

 

Our lot in Morris with the U

So here in Morris we have a publicly supported college that is hemorraging students. It has become a state news story. The dust has settled a little. It was kicked up by that Sviggum fellow. People are thrashing around in their thoughts, trying to get to the most rational reaction. 

Is bigger always better? Well I think it is. We should try to get the arrows pointing up, so we might attain the capacity of 2000 students at UMM. And I don't care if this is done with non-liberal arts majors. Ultimately the state will demand measurable/tangible outcomes here. The U is still grappling with a pretty serious deficit, right? 

We have to keep accommodating the Native American students, otherwise it will seem like another broken treaty. White man speak with forked tongue? I know the accommodations for Native Americans have made some UMMers uneasy - that's just from the $ standpoint. 

Sviggum's comments will put UMM under scrutiny. We have already heard that UMM has gone astray with non-practical areas of study that might be considered "grievance majors." I assure you, the Republicans who are getting elected to state office from out here would be totally anti all of that. Up to now they'd be inclined to weigh their words delicately. A part of them loves UMM just because it's a state asset out here in the hinterlands. But surely they would desire that UMM go in another direction. 

Did Sviggum use his words intentionally to create sort of a tempest, directing attention to the matter? Maybe he's crazy like a fox.

 

Addendum: You can throw out most of what I said here if we actually get a "blue wave." Do you suppose women will get out en masse to vote Democrat? This would be because of Trump's Supreme Court justice selections.

 

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