Trump's toxic touch felt right here in Morris

A place to be cherished

Breaking news: Supreme Court decisively strikes down affirmative action. Not sure the nation is behind this ruling. What might it mean for our UMM in terms of accommodations for Native Americans? If this arrangement reflects an old treaty, then I'm sure the treaty takes precedence. But what if not? What if it's a discretionary thing? Maybe the U won't have discretion to do this anymore. Am I assessing this correctly? I won't be like the late State Senator Charlie Berg and talk about "smoke signals."

 

I had occasion to speak with a pretty well-known UMM instructor recently. He likes to "hang out" some at Caribou Coffee - the "cafe" area across from the order counter. I like doing the same. Looks like he's working on stuff some of the time. Yours truly has no real work to do. 

Ah, remembering "work." Yesterday (Wednesday) I was given a tip from a friend that an old article that I wrote for the Morris newspaper got re-printed in this week's edition. I had an odd mixture of feelings about that, mostly sad. I ended my duties at the paper under conditions that left me no choice. 

I did not want to attend my 40-year high school reunion in 2013 because I did not want to say I was "retired." "Retired" would be the proper way of reporting my status, as opposed to the truth. I hated it when people broached my idle status with the assumption that I was retired. I kept my anger to myself. I had plenty of vigor left to do something. But sometimes life hands you lemons and you can't make lemonade. 

To the present: My UMM instructor friend is a specialist in historical fiction. He writes an occasional letter to the Morris newspaper. Too many people locally would see his submissions and be eager to assume he's an academic "lefty" who goes against the grain. Any reputation he has in that regard is really ill-deserved. 

I have given enough clues as to who this person is. I won't type his name because sometimes people get uptight with that sort of thing. Curious word, "uptight," had currency in the '60s. Young people learn it today? I recently wrote about how young people are not taught cursive handwriting. 

In talking with my instructor friend, I brought up the rather hot-button topic in connection to UMM: enrollment. Well, it has rather cascaded downward from 2017 to the present. 

"Just one of those things?" Well I don't think so. The headwinds seem real. UMM has been able to attract Native Americans here with free tuition. Of course this limits the money rolling in. And, what might have offset that at one time? Well, foreign students. 

I brought up the UMM enrollment question with my instructor friend and he responded: "(Donald) Trump got rid of the foreign students and that was our cash cow." So, our president from 2016 to 2020 is having a real "micro" effect here for our community? I mean, we really do benefit in myriad ways from having UMM here. Wouldn't you say? 

There has always been a culture clash, reflected in the term once bandied about among the UMM crowd: "townies." I always interpreted it as a "rip" of the regular townsfolk. The townsfolk who toil away at common (necessary) jobs to support their families. Meanwhile, the community could get testy at what many Republicans today would call the "woke" stuff. 

 

Hot button: gay rights

Like all broad brush terms, "woke" can get abused and misapplied. But I suppose it was a fair assessment when the gay rights push began. A sober assessment of gay rights would suggest that it's perfectly fair, reasonable. A detached legal mind would judge it such, just like there was no question that African-Americans were headed into major league baseball in 1947. Imagine the resistance to that. But it was there. 

African-Americans in recent times have lost interest in baseball, have flocked to basketball and football with their incredible talents. So I think MLB would actually want them back! Isn't that something? Irony to the hilt. 

Eleanor Roosevelt

Regarding gay rights, I thought UMM got in our faces too much with oddball crusading behavior. I remember a booth on campus promoting gay rights that had a large poster of Eleanor Roosevelt on the side. Did Eleanor Roosevelt ever disclose she was gay? And if she didn't, can we know for sure it was for reasons of cultural taboo? Those were times when personal modesty was so par for the course. There was the public and there was the private. It was sociological. You might argue unlike today, when Trump who has been found guilty in an actual legal process of sexual assault is the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination. 

As an aside, there's the payout to a porn star. And to think there was a time when the public had concern about Ronald Reagan having been divorced! 

 

Generational contrast

So UMM waved the flag for gay rights. Maybe all the "townies" just felt a need to respect the "personal modesty" credo. Don't get in our face with all that sex-related stuff. It sure went against the grain with my parents' generation. If I were to have discussed gay rights with Mom, it would have to be with the most sanitized of language. Like "codes." 

However, both my parents would have believed in equal rights. 

We have heard going way back that Trump has a history of destroying everything he touches. Despite that meme being so "out there," the man has a good chance of running the country again. I might suggest "ruining" the country. Remember, if UMM suffers because of today's Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, this is a court with three extreme members appointed by Trump. 

All politics is local? Remember that. So the foreign students were our cash cow and Trump worked to get them out of here. 

I ran the professor's comment past our new chancellor in a subsequent conversation (at Common Cup). She said it was true, no reservations or modification. I liked her straightforward answers to questions. Like when I asked: "Is there any other metric beside enrollment for judging the effectiveness of UMM?" Her answer: "no." I might have expected some hedging. 

So it comes down to enrollment and Trump has hurt that cause. It gets worse: turns out the foreign students were paying full tuition! Just yesterday, a very UMM-oriented friend of mine expanded further: the foreign students were paying "double tuition." Really? Well that was quite a plum. 

The Native Americans are entitled to a quality experience at UMM. Terrific, but they pay no tuition. So I got to thinking, if the money spigot gets restricted for UMM, yes we'll keep functioning but there would have to be negative ramifications. The students at UMM will appreciate getting their degrees to be sure, because that's what they are here for. But the quality of their experience while here could suffer, or should I say "will" suffer. 

 

Follow the money?

I would suggest that money is quite the reliable "metric." Little amenities might fade? A discipline like music might step more into the background. Music has a "frosting on the cake" quality for an education institution. My late father would say it's quite essential frosting. But we're having to get down to brass tacks now. A mere "recording" of "Pomp and Circumstance" for graduation? So, no band. 

I was there for the start of the ceremony, did not stay all the way through. A UMM friend of mine said she thought the choir did perform, but I did not see or hear any such thing. My recollection of years past tells me the choir performed before the ceremony, to set the atmosphere I guess. We remember the estimable Ken Hodgson directing for a long time. 

I encountered a UMM music faculty friend who said I was probably right: the choir was not at the graduation. I was surprised and felt let down. Certainly there was no music beforehand. A recording of "Pomp and Circumstance": Does that spell crisis? I would suggest it does.

I know, it's very "Minnesotan" to say "it's no big deal." Spare me.

 

Get serious, "townies"

A plea to you all, even those of you who were enraged by all the gay rights advocacy at one time: you must appreciate UMM. Imagine if it were gone or seriously pushed into retrenchment. Has the latter already happened? I have to wonder sometimes. 

All through the years, some friends and I might have been inclined to "critique" the music groups for the graduation. In other words, we took for granted they would be there. So I plead to you: do not take for granted anything in connection to UMM. If it fades away, we might have to work extremely hard to get it resurrected. Steve Sviggum will be the least of our problems. 

Could you all still want to vote for Trump? I rather assume the answer is "yes." I'm tired of writing on that topic. It seems I cannot enlighten anyone. There is a religious aspect to this: a huge chunk of "Christians" associate Trump with their faith. It will end up being a huge black eye for the faith. I never could have predicted this. 

Trump has been bad news on the macro level, affecting the U.S. and our standing in the world. On the micro level, his presidency with its antagonism toward foreign students could endanger Morris in an extreme way. Do you care? Actually I think a lot of the local Trump supporters do not. Anything to keep from being "woke." We've scratched off "affirmative action," pilgrims. 

 

Michelle Fischbach

A footprint in congress

We chose to elect a congressperson who would want Trump to continue as president today, to have never left the office at all. Because, Michelle Fischbach did not want the 2020 election results to be certified. She voted to "support the objections" from Ted Cruz and others. Had the insurrection been successful, think of the consequences. 

But we chose to toss out Collin Peterson who understood the Farm Bill better than anyone. Not that I'm a fan of him necessarily, but we replaced him with a wacko. Maybe we really are "East Dakota" out here. We should try to rise above that. 

Fischbach does not answer my inquiries about her statements of January 6, whether she still stands behind them. No comment? Tom Emmer voted to certify.

Liz Cheney said a couple days ago that Americans need to "stop electing idiots."

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

The imploded sub challenged media for taste

How much was danger really known?

We might peg the summer of 2023 as the summer of the imploding submarine. News value? Countless bigger tragedies happen all the time. The media can be quite far from objective in assessing lots of things. The media often tell us more about ourselves than anything. 

I remember in college, a mass communications instructor saying that big league ball teams got so much "free advertising" on the evening news broadcasts. It was the 1970s when a lot of academia pushed memes about insensitive capitalism. A fellow student who was ahead of his time, who did not buy into the faddish left-oriented thinking, spoke up and said "the reason those scores are reported is that people want to know them." 

You might say the customer is always right. 

I guess we cannot be surprised that the media got entranced by the sub topic. The fact that it was connected to the fabled Titanic made this, you might say, a slam-dunk. 

So some people were willing to pay a quarter-million bucks to go underwater and never come up again. To be in a death trap contraption. To see an old deteriorated ship at ocean's floor, pictures of which are readily available. 

You remember the movie sensation "Titanic." Several previous movies did just as good a job telling the story. The new one looked sharper because it was new of course. The one with a young David McCallum was black and white. 

A surprisingly good one was put out under the Nazi regime of WWII, if you can believe it. I had heard about that for a long time, never thought I would actually see it. Then it turned up on YouTube. There is nothing immoral about watching this movie in terms of its content. Nothing suggesting genocide. There's a German character who is the hero, of course. Part of the idea was to point finger at the excesses of U.S. capitalism - greed. Maybe such finger-pointing can be justifiable sometimes. The Titanic's captain was under pressure to get to New York City under a certain impressive timetable, the historical account goes. 

We all know that however much we all admire capitalism, it ought never negate basic good sense accentuating safety. Capitalism is nothing more than our economic system, the best one there is for ensuring an optimal quality of life. My generation began showing skepticism because we suspected our economic system fed into the unforgivable Vietnam war. Again, capitalism is merely an economic system. It recognizes the essential reality that people are motivated to work and develop systems out of their own personal desire for a comfortable life. 

But spending a quarter million to go way under water in a death trap? We ought to exercise sound basic judgment if we value our lives. We should have exercised sound judgment to make sure the U.S. would not get mired in a war like in Vietnam. I would argue that it would never happen to us today. Our new media with the countless voices and meritocracy would ensure that truth and wisdom rise to the surface. 

People climb Mount Everest. Maybe fail and end up like the dudes in the tiny underwater death trap. The big headline of this morning (Saturday) wonders if the bodies can ever be recovered. Were they just vaporized? Can we be certain their deaths were instant? 

 

This is the prize

The media and taste questions

Very often the media gets in some trouble for issues of taste related to how a tragedy like this gets covered. Oh my, there was a particular incident in connection with the sub disaster. It involved the "NewsNation" TV network. I am able to follow what is happening with TV news just by having YouTube. 

So, I learned that there was an outcry against a particular means by which NewsNation was electing to cover the tragedy. This was before we knew the ultimate fate. I mean, before the general public knew the absolute fate - apparently the U.S. Navy learned of it long before. "NewsNation" decided to put a little clock in the corner of the screen to show how much oxygen the five dudes had left. 

I'm sure the NewsNation people knew there might be some offended reaction. 

Covering tragedies is always like this. Some critics come forward in an oftentimes holier-than-thou way. I came to appreciate this in absolute spades when the goalpost incident happened in 2005 at our University of Minnesota-Morris. As a media person you can never know when a situation like this will arise. I got up on the morning of the game in question with barely a thought about UMM football. My only knowledge was that the Homecoming game was that day and I had to budget some time to be there. Beyond that I absolutely did not care at all. 

This was an extremely small-college football game. I sometimes wonder why fans are interested at all. Why don't they stay at home and watch the Division I teams play on TV? Well I can't explain all the fine points of human behavior. In my commercial media days I just had to react to those fine points. 

If a couple thousand people wanted to fill the UMM P.E. Center and create an atmosphere like pandemonium for a high school basketball game, that's just the way it was. To a large extent I just pretended to go along with the premise that these games were so hugely important. In the media we are reactive. 

The UMM goalpost incident became almost immediately uncomfortable for me because I was not there when it happened. I would later be upbraided by newspaper management for that. Stupid hindsight on the part of newspaper management of course. Everyone was thrown on their heels by the goalpost incident. An attorney later conducted a formal investigation. 

For certain, no one within UMM actually wanted something bad to happen that day. So I'm not sure why the attorney needed to roll up his sleeves. It was Charlie Glasrud. Obviously no charges ever resulted. People had to give their explanations for why they didn't think the goalpost stunt would endanger anyone. So I heard the following: "We just felt the goalpost would gradually bend over first." Even if that's what you thought previous to the incident, you had to start re-thinking real fast when the students assembled on the goalpost bars and the bars started wobbling.

 

Limited images for posterity

We all got to see video of the tragic scene just one precious time, on KSTP-TV. It is not on YouTube today. I sort of wish it was. If someone had used their VCR thing to record the KSTP report, it could be salvaged for today. I'm almost embarrassed that there was so little photo and video documentation for posterity. The deficiency underscores what an out-of-the-way place we are in Morris, maybe a little desolate. 

You think Moscow, Idaho, is desolate? The people who criticize Moscow ought not even come to Morris. We're an afterthought. Nevertheless, we have this outstanding liberal arts institution here. 

Look out, the enrollment issue here might get worse. There is no guarantee it will get better. Donald Trump chased away all the foreign students. This handicaps us. Might threaten the institution's long-term existence. I can't rule that out. So be ready to answer for that, all you Bible-toting Trump supporters of the Morris area. Be ready to deal with the economic consequences. 

Yours truly became an issue with the goalpost incident because I quoted, in the Morris newspaper, from an article on the ESPN2 website. "Websites" were still a thing in 2005 before "social media" took over so much. I got in trouble because of quoted material, so there's an irony there. 

 

Put yourselves in our shoes

Did I realize the sensitivity? Frankly no, I didn't. One thing you all must realize about the media: we are often under so much pressure to simply fill space or fill time, in other words to get the job done. My chief critic argued in print that I should have "picked up the phone" to try to obtain more. Which prompts the question: How much is the local media even obligated to provide the labor for covering things in relation to UMM? 

I remember thinking that the odds were practically nil of the UMM football coach wanting to answer his personal phone for the rest of the weekend. Obviously it was a weekend. These were the days when people actually answered their phones instead of relying on caller ID to see if it was someone they wanted to talk to. The new approach had begun by 2005 but was not fully the norm yet. Just like the Internet itself was in a rather formative state. 

 

The rest is history

The dagger as far as my career was concerned was a letter to the editor from a Morris physician, Dr. Busian. The "Dr." prefix gave his arguments weight whether they really had merit or not. 

Today I look back and feel I was in a no-win situation. In retrospect maybe I should have ignored the goalpost incident, just done whatever it took to "fill space" in the sports section. When all else fails, "fill space." The old Earl Wilson syndicated feature had the well-known purpose of being "filler" in the big city newspapers. 

Any finger-pointing relative to the goalpost incident really should have been within UMM itself. No one intended any tragedy. So I guess we're talking negligence and bad judgment. No letters to the editor appeared on that front, ironically. But yours truly got hung out to dry. Within a year after that I had been cast adrift. My departure was not a pleasant experience. 

Seemed such an unfortunate end to a career in which I had made so many sacrifices. Only a fool would think that a company is going to owe you any favors at the end. A business is an organism that ultimately looks out for its own interests, just like the company that promoted trips on the sub to see the old sunken ship. 

The Morris newspaper was owned at the time by Forum Communications. What happened to that company here? 

When I was a kid we could use our breakfast cereal "box tops" to get a little plastic submarine that we could get to actually "dive" in the bathtub. Neat.

 

Putting your life in the hands of this?

Addendum: I felt the sensational "Titanic" movie wasn't really about a historical tragedy, it was about the angst of young love. A girl is torn with her love interests. I felt the movie "Pearl Harbor" was a direct clone in this respect: a movie appealing to young girls by showing how their feelings can be jerked around. 

The earlier Titanic movies had done the job thoroughly telling the story, I felt. Any further plowing into that would just be cynical, exploitative. We are vicarious in our movie seats. We have the comfort of knowing that however painful and tragic are the events on the screen, it surely won't affect us. We breathe a sigh of relief. 

That iceberg is counting up victims still today, the way it looks. Hey you guys, you won't be able to spend any of your money if you're dead.

 

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

My late father's birthday is on "Juneteenth"

My late father Ralph E. Williams is third from left in photo of a meeting at UMM. Thanks to Erin Christensen for this photo.

 

We are hearing more about "Juneteenth" than when I was younger. It's more of an official holiday now. Still not sure to what extent it is an "official" holiday. I guess at the Federal level it is. That is a nice thing. 

The irony absolutely drips as we notice that certain high-profile political people like Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis want to keep the names of Confederate generals on forts. But that's the sort of confusing world we find ourselves inhabiting now. 

"Groundhog Day" continues - my characterization - as I awaken Monday morning to once again see some of the top headlines dealing with the tussle between Trump/Trumpism and the forces for good and for logic. The forces for good and for logic should have won by now, a long time ago in fact. Life goes on and can we hope it remains at least livable for most Americans?

Will Trump rise again to create a national complexion like what happened in Germany in the 1930s? Because surely, if he seizes power again he will never leave. So can't we all just do something about it? I plea. Does anyone listen? Maybe not. 

My late father probably had little knowledge about Juneteenth as he was growing up. He'd be proud to know today that it coincides with his birthday. Yes, today, June 19, would be my late father's birthday. He'd be 107 years old. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 96. He passed at his precious home of Northridge Drive. It's down the road from the soils lab. What's up with the dirt portion of Iowa Avenue now? That's right at the entrance to the highway. Apparently more work to be done there, but it's taking quite a while. Dirt roads do not stand up well to regular use - they get bumpy. 

We have some important people on Northridge Drive - me excluded - so you'd think the progress would be faster. You cannot drive "as the crow flies" from our neighborhood to the Morris business district. Never could. So that can be a minor inconvenience with living here. On the whole though it is wonderful. My family were very early residents in this neck of the woods. Dad purchased the lot from farmer Earn Julius. Earn wasn't just a farmer, he was on the Morris school board. He also had a strong interest in local baseball. 

I myself never heard much about "Juneteenth" through the years. Technically the reference should be "June 19th" of course. I read once that the freed slaves, having been burdened by such limited education, were using in effect broken English by saying "Juneteenth." Just trivia. 

The day is occasion to recognize and celebrate the day when enslaved African-Americans were emancipated. The holiday's resonance has grown in the last few years. Because it happens outside of the school year, I'm not sure this is the kind of holiday (yet) that would call for schools to be closed. 

A reckoning with racial justice? Legacy of slavery? But then how do we reconcile this with the pretty sizeable element in this country - "MAGA" - that is sympathetic to wanting to keep Confederate generals' names on forts? Such strange times. We are a stone's throw from absolute autocracy. We really are, so don't just shrug. 

"Groundhog Day" persists as day after day we learn of Trump's absolute criminal and autocratic intentions, and it's in our face with daily headlines. "Alice Through the Looking Glass." So bizarre. The lifting up of Juneteenth in our national consciousness is certainly a countervailing force. A sufficient countervailing force? Like "Pride Month?" 

Trump does appear to be within reach of the presidency again. What a reign of terror would surely follow. This time he'd stack the justice department totally with "his people." We could get show trials with executions. Executions perhaps televised. Think that's an absurd thought? What happened in 1930s Germany? The German people are not stupid. "It Can't Happen Here" was the name of a Sinclair Lewis book, the author's point being that it can. 

 

Invoking Don Knotts?

"Juneteenth" is the nation's youngest Federal holiday. The Emancipation Proclamation was made effective through the 13th Amendment. I smile as I recall one of the most memorable scenes of Don Knotts' acting. Know what I'm talking about? So the "Andy of Mayberry" gang was in one of their typical moments of relaxation. Someone broached the Emancipation Proclamation and this called for some elucidation by someone. Barney Fife! Yes indeed. 

It became clear that the affable Barney did not have encyclopedic knowledge. So he tried pretending that he did - typical of Barney. He said the proclamation happened at a time when a bunch of people felt the need to be "emancipated." Hence the "Emancipation Proclamation." Got it? His delivery was priceless. 

The proclamation at the time it was passed still could not be enforced in secessionist states still under Confederate control. Today with MAGA and the likes of Lindsey Graham, I have to wonder if Southern states still think they can win the Civil War. Seriously. But how to explain how totally Republican the states of North and South Dakota have become? That's a poser. 

Two years after the Proclamation, Union general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Bay, TX, with 2,000 Union troops to proclaim that more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state were free. 

"Juneteenth" today seeks to broadly observe African-American culture. Kind of remindful of "Kwanzaa" that coincides with the Christians' Christmas. 

Shall Christians continue to be proud of their faith? It is getting so much harder. The hardened "evangelicals," in other words the flat-earth people, were probably the key force in helping Donald Trump achieve power. 

Christianity may ultimately have to answer for all that has happened. 

Black people have been far more magnanimous with their Kwanzaa holiday: It started out in a rebellious way as a way of vying with Christmas, then it softened considerably. Today its adherents say "do your own thing" at that time of year, so live and let live. I have read that Kwanzaa has a strong emphasis on food. Hey, where can I sign up? Apparently Kwanzaa did not originate in Africa at all. No big deal. 

But "Juneteenth" is American, probably a day when white people ought to hang their heads some. Shame. But if you're fighting to keep the names of Confederate generals on forts - American traitors - you probably feel no shame. What hath God wrought? 

Dad, at UMM's inception

My father would be proud that his birthday coincides with a date that has significance for the eradication of discrimination in America. He was as you know the founder of UMM music. This is proclaimed on our family monument at Summit Cemetery. Also proclaimed is Dad's service in WWII with the Navy. He was lieutenant. He graduated from Glenwood High School in 1934. That was the peak of John Dillinger times. 

Also the peak of the Great Depression which had a lasting impact for Dad. He never got over appreciating every nickel or penny in his possession. He passed that sensibility on to yours truly. 

But I broke away big-time when deciding to supply funds in our family name to benefit UMM, specifically music. 

There is a fall-back or contingency for the Fund. I have told the UMM people that I'd be happy if in fact someday the $ went to benefit music at the Twin Cities campus. 

How solid is the future of UMM music? I did not anticipate the retreat when I first established the Fund. Most recently there was no band or choir for UMM graduation. What a shock. My goodness, I just took that for granted through the years. The band and choir had featured numbers during the program. Now we get a recording for "Pomp and Circumstance." Lordy. 

 

More slippage

And now I get word there will be no UMM Homecoming concert! That's just as much of a shock. Again, it's something many of us once took for granted. We can take nothing for granted in connection to UMM any more. Nothing. Enrollment drops. Yes it seems to be happening everywhere. But we were not a terribly big campus to begin with. 

I'm anxious to see what Janet Schrunk Ericksen has up her sleeve. Any magic tricks? At least we still have football. St. Cloud State gave up on that. 

So, my father probably heard little about Juneteenth when young, but I'm sure he would not have known what a "non-binary person" was. Change just sweeps over us sometimes, then we have to catch our breath. Would Dad have directed a "gay men's chorus?" Oh I think he would. Anything to celebrate the joy of music. Plus he was an accepting person. 

Our family has a black bench monument in the new portion of Summit Cemetery. You're all welcome to stop by and "sit a spell." Mom is remembered there as a "diligent worker at UMM."

Dad directs the choir at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul campus, 1950s. Yours truly was pre-school for taking some of that in. The years in St. Paul were the most precious of my life. I still remember the hill where Mom took me to go sledding.
 

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

BBE baseball finishes fourth in MN Class 'A'

Quite a year is in the books now for Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa athletics. We're finally at the end of the prep road! All the exciting action extends into mid-June. We can retire our prep sports enthusiasm until the fall. 

In the meantime, we have the more relaxed and lower-profile summer sports programs. Sometimes I'm of a mind to raise a toast to that: more relaxed and lower-profile programs. Less pressure on the media people to "snap to it" all the time! Relax and enjoy. 

In the prep sports realm we saw the BBE baseball Jaguars emerge as a surprise entrant in the state Class 'A' baseball tournament. Surprise? Well, this was a team that had a five-game losing streak in mid-May. Doesn't matter. Those Jaguars put it together for a run into the elite state action. State play was in St. Cloud. 

BBE picked up where it left off with a 2-1 win over "South Ridge." I had never before heard of "South Ridge." Have no idea what town or towns we are talking about. 

The Jags could not replicate their initial success the rest of the way. They proceeded to lose to Fosston (7-5 score) and New Ulm Cathedral (2-1). So the Jags finished their 2023 campaign No. 4 in state. Pretty lofty! Their fans had a wild ride to be sure. 

Before I continue here, a shout-out for MACA track and field athlete Lydia Fynboh. Lydia placed ninth in the state 100 meters. Congrats all! Lydia's family attends my church of First Lutheran in Morris. This coming Sunday will be our first without a pastor. The pastor we had just retired. 

 

Jaguars 2, South Ridge 1

Class 'A' state baseball unfolded at the St. Cloud field named for Joe Faber. And the Jags got past South Ridge partly on the strength of a "fake pick-off play." The West Central Tribune reported the details. It got a little involved for yours truly to really wrap my arms around. The season is over and I don't wish to work that hard now! Let me just report that this fake pickoff play was an apparently important element in the Jags' 2-1 win in the state quarter-finals. Kudos to the coaching staff on this. 

Did the Jags need to use finesse and trickery because they were unseeded in state? Their won-lost record was actually rather pedestrian, not much over .500. The May losing streak pushed it down. After the fifth consecutive loss, I doubt that any of the fans were envisioning state. This is what helps make prep sports so exciting: the surprises! Defying the odds! 

Speaking of surprises, it was BBE's No. 9 hitter in the lineup, Ryan Jensen, who drove in the two essential runs vs. South Ridge. This was with a two-out double: a ball hit over the right fielder's head. Two Jags crossed home plate, enough for the eventual win. Those two were Owen Paulson and Casey Lenarz. 

The West Central Trib reported: "South Ridge stranded seven combined runners in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings." All five of the Jags' post-season wins were achieved by a margin of two or less runs. 

South Ridge out-hit BBE 9-3. Jaguars who hit safely were Ethan Mueller, Casey Lenarz and Ryan Jensen. Tanner Shelton pitched the whole way in the winning cause. He struck out five batters. 

South Ridge's big gun at the plate was Christian Pretasky: three-for-four with a double. Pretasky took the pitching loss.

 

Fosston 7, BBE 5

Both teams flexed their run-scoring muscles in the first inning. The game was part of a quite busy Wednesday for the BBE Jaguars in St. Cloud. But would not end favorably like the South Ridge game. Alas, BBE was dealt the 7-5 defeat. This despite the fact that the Jags out-hit Fosston nicely, 13-5. But BBE committed three errors to Fosston's one. 

Talen Kampsen was handed the ball for starting pitching duties. His stint was brief as Fosston pushed across four runs, but only one of these was earned. Kampsen gave up just one hit. He walked two and had no strikeouts. He was succeeded on the mound by Tate DeKok and Hayden Sobiech. Both of the runs that Sobiech allowed were unearned. DeKok allowed one run which was earned. 

The winning pitcher was Cullen Norland who had his own problem with unearned runs: he gave up four runs total, just one earned. There's more than one Norland on the roster, so Aaron Norland pitched too. 

Luke Illies was the top hit producer for coach Ben Klaphake's Jaguars: three-for-four with an RBI. These Jags each had two hits: DeKok, Ethan Mueller, Casey Lenarz and Hayden Sobiech. Also hitting safely: Brett DeRoo and Luke Dingmann. 

Fosston's Carsen Boushee went two-for-three with two walks received, a run scored and an RBI.

New Ulm Cathedral 2, BBE 1

This was the third place game in Minnesota Class 'A'. It was a loss for the Jaguars, 2-1 score, thus the squad ends up fourth in MN, up in pretty rarefied air. 

New Ulm Cathedral got the key hit in the fifth inning. Brock Wellman singled to bring in the winning run. BBE scored its one run on four hits and committed one error. New Ulm Cathedral's line score: 2-6-0. Each team scored a run in the third inning. Then came the decisive Wellman base rap in the fifth. 

Four Jaguars each had a hit: Brett DeRoo, Tanner Shelton, Ethan Mueller and Luke Illies. NUC's Levi Franta connected for two hits and drove in a run. 

Luke Illies took the pitching loss. He had control difficulties with six walks. He allowed the two runs, one of which was unearned. Jake Finstad got the pitching win. He fanned two batters in his three innings of work.

Yours truly hopes to use his "Jaguar" logos for more coverage next year. I admire the work done by the newspaper guy for Bonanza Valley, Randy Olson. He makes his mark not only with the print product but with very dynamic work using the new media. He sets quite the example that could be followed here in Morris with the SCT. But alas, no dice thus far. The SCT just wants to "sell" its print papers, I guess. That's a narrow attitude. Ask Randy about this. 

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

Nothing gets bad enough with Trump revelations

An Apostolic church of Stevens County

Heaven help us if the people out here in Western Minnesota are representative. Hopefully we do not reflect the whole of the United States. I was at a hospitality establishment this morning when some Apostolic people began coming in. So easy to spot, of course. They have to look a certain way in order to get into heaven? Of course we have to fear "burning in hell." 

I have tried to cut slack for the Apostolics by describing them as likeable on a personal level. But as the headlines day by day get more scary, with Donald Trump's evildoing coming ever more into focus, I must worry. If the Apostolics and others like them are starting to feel reservations about this man named Trump, I'd like to see some real evidence of it. It is a most constructive human trait to be able to change your mind. But I cannot conceive of the Apostolics voting for anyone that has a "D" by his name. 

You don't have to like everything the Democratic Party espouses. But at a certain point, a U-turn from the Trump-obsessed Republican Party would seem wise, commendable. People out here in rural Western Minnesota are not programmed to make such a shift. Maybe we really are an extension of the Dakotas where the "R" initial has a near-monopoly. Jason Ravnsborg almost escaped getting impeached and convicted in South Dakota. 

Now Kristi Noem is calling for a boycott of Target. Since when did Republicans start thinking it appropriate to throw their weight around with private business concerns? As a young adult I learned that Republicans were quite oriented to leaving private business alone. "Laissez-faire." Today the Republican governor of Florida wants to run Disney. Were Democrats to try to put their hooks into private business, listen to all the "conservative media" people absolutely squealing. 

Whither the whole mess with this man?

There's another huge headline at the top of the Star Tribune Page 1 today. It continues the revelations about the disgrace that is named Donald Trump. We should feel relieved that the facts are coming out. In that sense it's a cause for true happiness. 

But the problem is this: a huge percentage of our population refuses to believe anything bad about Trump, a man they have never met. Somehow the Trump people have just become mesmerized, transfixed. 

I cannot see the local Apostolics changing their vote for 2024. Can you? Trump could get elected from prison. How many of you are willing to accept that possibility? 

 

Women must lead

Right now I hope and pray that our biggest hope - the female gender - will come through for us. And it wouldn't be just because of women's reproductive health rights. That's a major factor. Along with that is women's inherent nature to be nurturers, to make sure above all else that the U.S. is a healthy and safe place in which to raise their children. 

So we must elect people of fundamentally sound character, whether they be Republicans or Democrats. Sound character as exhibited by Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. There are just a few bright lights on the Republican side. 

Why can't the Apostolics and their ilk try propping up a fundamentally good person to be president, a person who espouses sound conservative principles? Conservatism at its core has a lot to offer - it insists on restraint in government spending, an impulse that is often needed. 

But conservatism at its heart wants society to stay on a predictable even keel, even if these people don't get their way on everything. South Dakota Governor Noem has spoken like she's receptive to Trump's face being added to Mount Rushmore. Why do "Republicans" insist on propping up someone like this? No alternatives? Why no alternatives? You can't score points with them by trying to point out Trump's immorality. I have a friend who thinks the whole Stormy Daniels thing should just prompt some laughs. My friend is an ardent Republican. 

We are going to be subjected to an avalanche of sensational headlines about Trump for the foreseeable future. Why do we even accept this? Why can't we place our focus on legitimate news and legitimate issues that really affect our lives? I swear that Trump has a psychological disorder that makes him simply seek daily attention, and it doesn't matter if the attention is good or bad. 

The attention seems so bad right now. Look at the top of Page 1 of today's (Saturday) Star Tribune. But would the local zealots including the Apostolics really interpret such headlines as being cause for concern? Can't they turn their heads toward someone like Asa Hutchinson now? His polling is near the bottom. But you can sense he's a truly good person. On gay rights he has said "I think there's a generational difference in attitudes about this." He said it with a smile. So he's perceptive enough to sense changes in our national zeitgeist, an important gift for presidents to have. 

But no, the tone out here in Western Minnesota marches on, that of interpreting the disturbing headlines about Trump as just being - to use Trump's own words - a "witch hunt." And they'll assail the Bidens. They'll assail Nancy Pelosi. Why? What do they feel Trump will deliver to them in their own lives? Don't they even care about that? So what does Trump represent to them? Whatever this is - however you'd want to describe it - it would appear to supersede everything, even the Christian faith which such people try to wrap their arms around. 

Are there three Apostolic Christian churches in the Morris area now? What do these churches really offer that the mainstream Protestant churches would not offer? And with so many people lining up with the Apostolic faith, far fewer people are left here to support the fine mainstream Protestant churches. Are we in Morris close to having a reputation as a "cult" community? The Catholics are another story. No special comment on that (although I could). 

 

Michelle Fischbach

Witness our congressperson

The tenor of political talk out here shows how we got a congressperson like Michelle Fischbach. She won't even answer my questions about why she made her statements on January 6. She voted against certifying the election results. Hell's bells, what if people like her had won out? An endless "investigation" into voting until finally Trump could be declared the winner? How long? 

Put attorneys to work on an "investigation" and how long do you think it would take? Often I get discouraged and I think to myself "they go home for the weekend too." Time marches on. Trump could still be our president. There would have been no inauguration in January of 2021. We have a congressperson who appears to have been receptive to such a scenario. You'll miss democracy when it's gone. 

I cannot imagine for a second that this love affair between Fischbach and Trump has waned one bit. I'll remind you all: We have made these choices. 

I sit here like the lone sane character in an episode of "The Twilight Zone." I have MAGA-oriented friends who would scoff at me, poke fun at me because of my attitudes, like I'm stupid. Maybe that is why I'm starting to get a little angry. Good luck, Jack Smith. People of sound character are praying for you. Yes, you can be a Christian and a Trump skeptic. You can at least have a clear eye. Get up tomorrow morning (Sunday), look at yourself in the mirror and take a fresh view.

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

Did "Hoosiers" (1986) reflect cultural watershed?

You cannot evoke more peacefulness than in the opening scene of "Hoosiers." First we see a car's headlights penetrating the darkness. A solitary man drives on. The actor is Gene Hackman who was a total master of his acting craft. He is extant but retired now. 

Jack Nicholson wanted the role. Upon learning that, we immediately wonder how that would have turned out. We imagine scenes from the movie with Nicholson. We cannot be sure of how such an alteration would have affected it. Hackman nailed the role. So at movie's start we see him as this very driven person - frankly so alone - driving across the country with urgency. He is truly alone with his sense of mission, en route for a high school basketball coaching opportunity. 

The movie is set in 1952. Was the movie trying to tell us that those were better times? I do think the movie had a message for American society. Do not take this as a pretentious thought. Movies reflect society or the American zeitgeist. And in the middle of the 1980s - Ronald Reagan's steadying hand in play - America was pining for times where we could trust authority more. To trust authority again. 

The zeitgeist through the '70s had been one of challenging orthodoxy on so many fronts. In many cases this became sheer fashion. Heavens, it seeped into academia in spades. "Discard everything you think you know." 

The origin of this had some legitimacy. All the kids who rose up against the Vietnam war turned out to be right. The war was a pretty big mistake by America's leadership. Stung by the war and its cultural upheaval, America was sort of gasping for air by the mid-1980s, wanting to believe in its real underpinning of values again. 

Here comes "Norman Dale" in the movie "Hoosiers." A very conventional-looking man imbued with conventional values that he would not question for a second. Short hair of course! You should know that men's hair length was once a matter of some restlessness. How can hair length possibly equate with meaningful political or cultural values? It's ridiculous but it happened. And by the mid-1980s, I think most of us wanted to move ahead without looking back much. 

We were emerging from a period that seemed reckless, when "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" passed for standard prime-time entertainment. The show was impulsive, silly and disturbing. But we consumed it. That is, until we came to our senses. "Hoosiers" and "Groundhog Day" were movies that sort of slapped the boomer generation (mine) across the face. "Look, this is the way we're supposed to live." We needed a framework of rules and norms that promoted class and good sense in our behaviors. 

So Hollywood felt that a movie evoking our way of life in the '50s would reflect the adjustment. Vietnam was long over. We could not forget Vietnam because we'd never want anything like it to happen again. It's tough. Iraq and Afghanistan justified? Good question. I'm inclined to say no. 

Hackman as "Norman Dale" arrives at this quintessential little rural town where Hollywood tries to remind of some stereotypes. The stereotypes are voiced by the young female teacher who "Norman Dale" befriends. Barbara Hershey is the actress. Her character still strikes me as an enigma. I wonder if the movie makers themselves were bothered by this. 

She gets right in coach Dale's face with pronouncements about how shallow is the enthusiasm for high school basketball. She props up the unflattering stereotype of small towns. She practically tells coach Dale to his face that he's a pathetic figure. She laments the middle age men who cannot get over their memories of their playing days. In contradiction to all that, she sure seemed content to live in "Hickory" and to show strong interest in the basketball. 

She rose to speak at the town meeting on coach Dale. Where did this newfound affection for coach Dale come from? An even bigger surprise later in the movie: a genuine Hollywood kiss between the two. If you research the making of the movie, you will learn that a scene that presaged the kiss ended up on the cutting room floor. 

If this woman thought that small town high school basketball really represented shallowness - was rather Neanderthal - why did she go to all the games? Why did she show such emotion at the end when Hickory beat the big city boys of South Bend Central? I wish Spike Lee would make a movie called "South Bend Central" that would tell the story of what it was like for African American youth in an American big city, circa 1952. Could South Bend Central be made to win at the end? Those boys were underdogs too, maybe even more than the hayseeds from Hickory. 

"Hoosiers" was careful to show that while "South Bend Central" was the team we should root against, the behavior of the team and its fans was commendable all the way around. 

 

It passed muster, yes

"Hoosiers" as cinema batted nearly a thousand, in my mind. Hollywood is the dream factory. We don't really expect movies to change the world. Hollywood reflects what is going on in society, can reinforce it. "Groundhog Day" started with the chief character being so turned off by the insurance salesman guy. Typical attitude of young people before they have acquired assets. What could be more boring than insurance? 

But hey, by movie's end we see Bill Murray most receptive. And he no longer pokes fun at his own job with its cliche-ish assignments like covering "Groundhog Day" in Pennsylvania. 

In "Hoosiers" we see Hackman as the classic authority figure - he has to be male? - who is to be taken 100 percent seriously. He told his boys that his word is the law. So didn't you find it strange at the end that his instructions for "Jimmy" to be the decoy for the last shot were disregarded? I'm champing at the bit to share my theory on that. 

Many of the most classic movies have a subtle parallel with the Christ-as-savior story. Hackman himself struck a pose like Christ on the cross when he died in "The Poseidon Adventure," remember? Why does Hollywood do this? I don't know but there has to be a basis. The alien in "E.T." rose from the dead. "E.T." performed miracles like Christ. And in "Hoosiers" the Christ-like figure was "Jimmy," so talented he could literally be a savior. He could save this small town with all its rubes from defeat in the championship game. 

I thought it was an odd scene: the players looking incredulous after getting their final instruction from the man whose authority was supposedly unquestioned. "Jimmy" suddenly says "I'll make it" (the last shot). Coach Dale then acceded and you know the rest of the script. For the sake of Christ we can put aside the anomalous nature of that scene. Christ supersedes everything. 

The rest of the movie hit us over the head with how a strong male authority figure demanded respect, deference. "This man has a job to do," a player's father said. Yes, a "man." Well it was 1952. Was Hollywood trying to tell us that men still deserve deference? Just speculation. 

There were three girl cheerleaders. They looked very nice but we did not get to know them at all. How about the pep band director? We see this individual in a fleeting scene only. Did Hickory have a wrestling team that winter too? So much focus on this obsession called "basketball." 

I love "Hoosiers" and sometimes we nit-pick the movies we love. It's the prerogative of the moviegoer. 

 

Wait a minute. . .

Did the thought cross your mind: For a team that was headed to the state championship, the "Huskers" sure played lots of close games. I'd expect an eventual state champion to be blowing people away regularly. Even with "Jimmy" back, the team played nail-biters like when they needed the short kid to make freethrows. 

Sheb Wooley as the wise principal "Cletus Summer" looked pretty old for someone who graduated from "Buffalo State Teachers College" in 1931. Dennis Hopper's character may have been a little overdone. I wish he had stuck it out along the bench through the end. 

Coach Dale took over for the stop-gap coach who was presented as a "heavy" in the movie. The stop-gap coach was shown as lax and doing things in such a generic way: lots of scrimmaging and zone defense. I happen to know these traits are plain vanilla, and sort of the lazy approach. This I gleaned from a couple friends I have in the sport. 

However, had the temp coach been active for the whole season, I'm sure the team even without Jimmy would have been over .500 and had a very fun time. There would have been less stress. Maybe the guys could have asked out the cheerleaders! 

Was winning at the end more important for the coach than for the players? So earthshaking was the end of the movie, I'd have to wonder if the players for the rest of their lives would simply not get over it. And that could be a bad thing. Sports! Such an opiate for us all, right? I have always been a mere observer and I feel fortunate. At age 68 I don't have to worry about the effects of head injuries, had I played football. 

The movie makers could totally celebrate the success of "Hoosiers." It hit the sweet spot. Audiences were not bothered by any plausibility issues. Movie makers lose sleep over that I'm sure. 

Did "Hoosiers" help steer Americans, particularly the youth, in a new direction? Back to conventional values, respect for our elders and authority figures? Maybe it did. But let's always put Christ first.

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