A tribute in verse to pitching great Vida Blue

Have you ever had the thought that the Baseball Hall of Fame weighs sheer longevity too much? We had to wait so long to see Tony Oliva finally get the call. It was sad. Players who have performed spectacularly have come up shy because they couldn't stay at the top of their game long enough or consistently enough. 

I think Rocky Colavito should be in the Hall. You look at the year-by-year stats of some of these people and then you realize why they are not. Seems you need a very long string of years with superlative stats to get the nod. And I extend hearty congrats to those players who have met the criterion. But we fondly remember so many other players who were not exactly a flash in the pan. 

So I put forward here the name of Vida Blue. Vida Blue! Should need no introduction for you at all. 

I can claim to have attended a game at our old Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington MN, in Blue's breakout season of 1971. I remember the game vividly because of Blue's spectacular form. Naturally he won. I begged my parents to take me to this game because I had already consumed much media coverage about this young prodigy pitcher, a lefty with such a smooth, natural pitching motion. My late parents always enjoyed these outings.

And my God, the young Vida Blue could fire "seeds." I remember Jim Bouton in "Ball Four" saying of Bob Gibson at his peak that he "fired seeds." Ball must look pretty small when it's thrown with such authority. 

 

HOF futility

Alas, Vida Blue lasted only four years on the Hall of Fame ballot. He topped out with 8.7 percent of the vote in 1993, whereas 75 percent was needed. He got 5.7 percent in 1995 and then disappeared from the ballot. I'll suggest that's just not fair. 

Blue passed away this year, 2023. RIP Vida Blue. 

We remember his magical 1971 season with delight but he came on the scene with the same impact in 1970. It was in late-season. My team of the Twins succumbed to a Blue no-hitter. He pitched this in front of the scant fan turnout of 4,284. Our Twins were on their way to the A.L. West title. The young Blue throttled us as a sign of things to come. 

And in 1971? "One of the best pitching seasons in baseball history." It would not characterize his whole career. Ups and downs? Yes. Some personal difficulties? Yes. Some adversity connected to baseball's growing pains with free agency? Yes. 

Blue is best remembered as an Oakland ballplayer but he went on to have stints with San Francisco and Kansas City. He retired with a career win total of 209 - not too shabby - but this in an era of lots of good starting pitchers with boffo stats. 

My opinion? A no-brainer: he belongs in the Hall. Justice will come along as it did finally with "Tony O.," I predict. So sad he left this life first. Roger Maris died before baseball's commissioner decided there should be one single-season home run record. 

Inspired by memories of seeing Blue at his peak, in '71, I have written song lyrics/poetry to commemorate Blue's career. Whenever I write poetry, I have a melody in mind. I invite you to read my tribute to the late Vida Blue.

 

"We Remember Vida Blue"

(by Brian Williams)

He was born in '49

Louisiana suited him just fine

As the oldest one of six

He led the batch of kids

He did

As a prepster he was great

In sports he showed his talent was first-rate

It was in the diamond game

Where he would make his name

Get fame

He was sent to Burlington

In Iowa on the Mississippi bluffs

Then he pitched for Birmingham

Still following the plan

So grand

It was nineteen sixty-nine

The young man was so energized and primed

Then he finally got a taste

Of being with the A's

Hooray!

CHORUS:

We remember Vida Blue

A pitching motion beautiful and smooth

He made it look so easy on the hill

As he reared back and let fly with the pill

He was boffo with the A's

A fastball that could leave the batters fazed

So we remember Vida Blue

He really was a jewel

He developed two more years

Before he heard the waves of boundless cheers

Making clear he was a star

He cleared the higher bar

By far

He put on the color green

When Oakland was a World Series team

They built up such winning ways

With Vida getting raves

In spades

Keep in mind those were the days

When players got so little in their pay

Just compare it to today

And you will feel amazed

Just sayin'

Vida had to state his case

And had to be a holdout come what may

You see baseball was behind

The ever-changing times

We sighed

(repeat chorus)

We remember him in green

But Vida got assigned a diff-rent team

He still popped the catcher's mitt

The Giants were a fit

So slick

Vida made a whole new mark

A diff-rent league, a diff-rent home ballpark

Now his home was Candlestick

And with the swirling winds

He'd win

Then the final chapter came

In K.C. he would still project his flame

Still commanding with his stuff

But time was catching up

So tough

He was not a perfect man

But who among us can make such a stand

Let's assign it to us all

To get him in the Hall

Our call?

(repeat chorus)

Seems the best that he can do

If Hall of Fame just never does come through

Are the plaudits from the press

And others who know best 

No guess

Oh to see it all get down

To see his name enshrined in Cooperstown

Weigh the World Series crowns

They're what it's all about

Just shout

In the '70s we heard

A disco beat around us to be sure

And the Gong Show on TV

Just gave us a release

Oh please

All the fashions come and go

But baseball will continue with its flow

Vida had a solid place

In heaven he's their ace

With grace

(repeat chorus)

 

 

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

Are we finally in endgame with Donald Trump?

Commanding our thoughts, still (wikimedia)

Well good morning everyone, TGIF. Went to bed early last night, went a long time before checking the news headlines again. A lot of time for new things to percolate. So the question is: Just how relieved should I feel this Friday a.m.? I mean, we sense the legal noose tightening around Trump's neck now, so maybe I needn't take it on myself to write with such strong thoughts any more. 

I have been trying to write in a revealing way about Trump since very early-on in this adventure, this crisis, this covid-like affliction in the populace. It has ravaged the rural populace for reasons I'm still trying to comprehend. 

So this morning is it all over? The fever has broken? The steadying accumulation of legal charges is now making the "Trump disease" so obvious? So I needn't write with such desperation to "open eyes" any more? 

I have had close acquaintances come down with the Trump virus. They lash out at people like me with expressions like "Trump-hater" or "Trump derangement syndrome," or to suggest I can't be a true Christian if I see any merit in the Democratic Party positions. Never have I wholly loved the Democratic Party. I was a "Reagan Democrat." We pine for the Reagan days, don't we? America gripped by such innocence, our biggest concern about the man was that he had been divorced. 

With Kennedy the hurdle might have been his Catholicism, with Reagan it was that he had been previously married. Why on earth did that mean anything? I mean, from the perspective of our 2023 America, wherein the Trump cult has persisted so hard up until now. 

And has the fever finally broken? I have learned never to feel that way. We could get into a sinkhole like 1930s Germany, end up with the same fate, with other nations around the world coalescing to crush us. I mean, if Trump kept power to align with his friend Putin to facilitate the Russian invasion of Scandinavia, we could feel disastrous consequences. There are other nations around the world that are now capable of weighing moral judgment in a clear way, unlike the U.S. Unless we can really start to pull out of it. 

So my big question on this Friday, July 2023, is: Is it finally over? Can U.S. citizens see with clearer vision now? Can people like those at our Morris area "conservative" churches begin to wake up, smell the coffee, admit they were wrong? The Apostolic Christians?

There have been so many hopeless cases all around of people with whom you cannot even engage in a conversation about Trump. The late Truman Carlson, God rest his soul, disappointed me at the end of his life this way. A younger Truman Carlson would not have even recognized this attitude, I would speculate. Toward the end of his life he'd just smile at me in a dismissive way. No matter what I had to point out about Trump. 

Oh, he was not alone among my contacts. A close childhood friend of mine who lives in Cold Spring drifted away from me. He was incensed by the Russia investigation, an investigation that really truly had legs, but Trump with his bluster and lying - his twin fortes - was able to extinguish. 

I have been accused in my life of being naive. In some respects I most likely have been. But on some matters I really truly can boil down the truth. On political matters I feel my vision is good. I can fully accept a Republican politician with traditional Republican values because we need the fiscal restraint sometimes. 

Reagan was "right on," the right person at the right time. Oh, but could he have lost because he had been divorced? Can you believe it? The concern about that, from our 2023 perspective wherein Trump is the leading candidate for the nomination, as a person with a mountain of troubling baggage? 

 

Nothing to see here?

Bring up "Stormy Daniels" and people like the late Carlson, who was an icon in our school system, would again just smile as if they were poking fun at me. "Oh, isn't that cute, Brian thinks Stormy Daniels was a big deal." The big deal was Trump's moral judgment or complete dereliction with that. This is but one tiny example of how the Orange Man is a contemptible human being. 

Judge Kaplan has ruled it is accurate to observe that Trump committed rape. To repeat, it is accurate to observe that Trump committed rape. A convicted rapist, then? To go along with the jury's ruling that he committed sexual assault? 

Why does the media always think it's important to quote Alan Dershowitz? I haven't heard as much from the crackpot lately. He has been known to use the reference of "Trump haters." As in, the jury in D.C. would be from a population of "Trump-haters." So that wouldn't work then? Trump would have to be judged by a jury from red states only? Really? Is that a truly unbiased legal system? 

Ms. Fischbach with smile

Trump is a total mob boss charlatan. Our own congressperson out here in western Minnesota is hardly echoing that. She was in Trump's corner following the 2020 election. How gullible and stupid. Will we re-elect her? Name is Michelle Fischbach. She was even more pro-Trump than Tom Emmer. Is she making public comments about this now? If not, why not? 

Chris Christie now says of Trump, "This guy has been a one-man crime wave." 

And Republicans are receptive to the idea that black people benefited from slavery? And they listen to the famous Greg Gutfeld of Fox News saying that Jews could increase their chances of survival in concentration camps by "making themselves useful." And he's not fired immediately? 

But we used to worry about JFK being a Catholic, or Reagan having been divorced. 

Ah, Bartleby, ah, humanity! 

Would I want to have sex with Nancy Mace? I don't know. We're supposed to think about such things in 2023 America, alas. I'm not sure she's that good-looking.

Addendum: Here's a comment I placed with a Yahoo News article a couple days ago:

The annoying elephant in the room: the failure by top Republican leaders to use their considerable influence to help guide the nation out of the swamp that Trump dragged us into. To expedite the proper legal resolutions to the many troubling matters and not just cry out "Hunter Biden" all the time. Seriously.

 

"Mike S." responded to me. Thanks Mike. 

If they did the right thing, Trump/MAGA would walk out, 3rd party. GOP destroyed either way. YAY!

The South Dakota governor says she would approve of the above. She is Kristi Noem, the "good-looking" governor according to conventional wisdom. I like to see more meat on the bones, frankly.
 

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

Country music needs to recognize good business

Trying to make a buck with ignorance

I shared an aside with a studio contact of mine in Nashville TN a few years ago. Wonderful artistic community, Nashville TN. Also very honest. They'll facilitate your music aspirations, for a fee of course, but they come across as genuinely friendly and feeling. Their sincerity is such, they will not "flatter" you with affected praise - your shortcomings will be made known to you. It's best that way of course. 

Over time I discovered an interesting trait of the country music crowd: if you tell them you write songs, their unhesitating response always is: "How many songs have you written?" 

A typical thought was offered by Doug Stone once, if I remember correctly. That is, you must write a couple hundred songs and then, just maybe - no guarantees - you'll write a good one! 

I respect the wisdom. I haven't counted up my own efforts. Not sure if the number should include songs that are unfinished or seem unfinished. Or, songs that I quickly realized weren't going to cut it. You have to slog through some of those in your development process - I believe it's actually an important thing to do, to endure the occasional misplaced effort, to try to complete it just as a matter of principle. 

So, what was it I said to my Nashville studio contact, a typical and exemplary person within his craft? I'll name-drop: Frank Michels. I communicated a thought to Frank that I had developed over time - I had watched the country music world develop such close ties with "conservative" politics. 

Yes, I put "conservative" in quotes. There seems less than a precise definition of the philosophy now. Should it encompass all the current reactionary stuff? The latter would be associated with you-know-who.

 

A call to action

A friend of mine tells me he's sick of my writing about Trump so much. This friend is an interesting case, frankly. He resents a preoccupation with Trump, has come to be almost offended by it. I have gotten him to actually confide that he does not support Trump. That is a really heavy lift for people like my friend, who is a businessman and a "conservative" when it comes to business/economics. 

I choose my friends wisely, as this individual respects true conservative wisdom as contrasted with the outright silly and dangerous stuff that has spewed from the usual suspects (Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro et al.). 

So why must I name-drop Trump with such frequency? Why do I risk redundancy? Why do I "beat the drum" as it were? Because the Trump phenomenon is not over yet, put simply. My friends who would castigate me would turn around and vote for Trump again. Yet they resent having even a reasoned conversation about the warning lights that are flashing. Torpedo democracy? Support a coup or insurrection? Allow consolidation of power in the presidency if Trump should get back in office? Just thought I'd mention some of these things. 

I cannot allow myself to drop the ball. Sorry if some people find my sentiment is grating at them. People of good conscience must bear down now with persistence, making sure the dragon is slayed. There's no hope in me getting through to the Morris area Apostolic Christians. I'm ready to see the flagpoles on front yards with the Trump name on them, again. 

It's tough to try to confront a cult. But the existence of a cult demands such absolute perseverance. We have our congressperson here in western Minnesota with a background of sympathizing with the insurrection. I mean, can you believe that? Again, many of my friends would chastise me for continuing to cite that. She is our elected representative. She voted against certifying the 2020 election results. Even Tom Emmer did not do that. She speaks for us. 

My recent effort to get her to explain her 2020 stance has gone unanswered from her. She talked about "alleged voting irregularities." Republicans have always talked about "voting irregularities." Of course, no one wants to see true irregularities. But the stuff that Rudy Giuliani et al. threw up against the wall? Heavens. And Congressperson Michelle Fischbach seemed in step with the Rudy Giulianis of the world, he of the dripping hair dye and problem with alcohol. 

Michelle Fischbach

That's the caliber of our U.S. congressperson now, Ms. Fischbach. We elected her. She could clarify any of her past statements if she wished, or to show the too-rare trait of humility and just say "I was misled" or "maybe my judgment wasn't the best." My email address is at the bottom of each of my blog posts. She could email me. But no. 

I stated with great concern to my Nashville friend that "maybe country music should get out of politics." I feared country music getting contaminated this way by association with the reactionary blob of bulls--t. Country music ought to be too good for that. Is it even about sincerely held beliefs? Or is it just an emotional reactionary sense about things? OK, rhetorical question. 

Country music is a business. It had better be careful. Be careful about attacking BLM. Stay away from the term "woke," please. Is climate change really "woke" politics? Be careful, show restraint. Better yet, try to break bread with people on the other side of the aisle. Relax, try to be relatable with them and vice versa. Can it happen? 

 

In the news now

Jason Aldean is the current flashpoint with what is happening with country music and politics. Check the news. This is bad for country music. I'm not interested in his denials - he's just scared now. 

I'll remind y'all that in 2008, country music gave us "Raising McCain" to support of all people John McCain. Seemed like a safe country song then because McCain was the GOP nominee for president. So he was "conservative" then, right? 

But not that many years later, McCain posthumously morphed into this villain in the MAGA world. Military officials had to shield Trump from even seeing a U.S. Navy vessel that was named for McCain, had McCain's name on it. See the kind of sheer ignorance we're up against? I recall "Raising McCain" being recorded by "Big and Rich" or one of its principals. I could look it up. 

Aldean recorded "Try That In a Small Town," and that's what is stirring up the tempest now. I don't need to elaborate - you know what's at issue here. If you don't, then maybe this blog isn't for you. 

I told Mr. Michels that country music needs to knock off this sort of thing. Is Aldean's song suggesting that small towns - our Morris qualifies, oh and Hancock - are just MAGA across the board? Granted this is true to an extent - I have spent time at our DeToy's Restaurant in early morning and heard all the talk - but we are not really such simpletons, not all of us. 

There is no breaking through with the Apostolics, or the good Shepherd flock and others - my what "Christians" - but those of us living in reality must remain vigilant. Can country music really get out of politics? At least the kind offered by Jason Aldean? 

I really truly think there is hope. We must embrace hope, pilgrims. I write all of this today with a smile. We must all pray for Jack Smith.

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

Inescapable reality of one's 50-year reunion

Willard and Karen obviously enjoyed our 30-year reunion in 2003! The photo was taken at the bowling alley in Morris. (B.W. photo)

 

We could not have conceived of our 50-year reunion, back at the time of our ten-year. Heavens, to be that old! Time indeed passes, we make the necessary adjustments and we end up being thankful to be alive. We're so thankful for our friends and family who made it all through the years, or a good portion of the years. 

Each year is something to be savored, to thank God for. We thank God too for whatever semblance of normal health we can maintain. 

In the ten years after high school, it is such a shock to learn of the death of a classmate. I believe my class lost three in that span. Par for the course maybe? How wonderful if it could have been zero. I think we all permanently remember the names of classmates who are lost so young. After that we begin accepting the grim reality, the inevitability of such things happening. The names might get filed more in the back of our minds. We say a prayer for these souls. 

 

RIP again

My class has lost three members in the recent past. This is the extent to my knowledge. Word spreads among our peers when such tragedy happens. You all remember Allen Anderson. A rather ubiquitous person at community events. Never turned away a free meal. We were amused by his proclivity for that. Then amusement gave way to more serious concern over the last stages of his life. Let's just say he faced challenges for getting around in public. 

He passed on. Despite his problems and social limitations, his funeral drew a "packed house" at his church. That always says something. 

Age can be hard on nearly all of us. It was moreso in Allen's case. God rest his soul. May God also rest the souls of Mike Eul and Dave Gausman. Mike would have needed no introduction, even though he did not stick around in these parts after high school. "Eul" gives us instant realization of his niche in the community with the hardware store family. His obit underscores what a tech geek he became. I could have foreseen that. 

Say the name "Gausman" and it rings of great familiarity with long-time Morris residents. Dave was in my high school class, Morris High '73. His obit described him as one of the four "rambunctious" sons in the family. That may be overstated but they had energy and have made their mark. I seem to recall that a brother of Dave was instrumental in designing the newest portion of our county museum. 

Dave was a photography buff when young. My, this was in the age long before digital, when photography could be so complicated and expensive, you'd have a hard time believing it. Now all of that has gone the way of horses and buggies. Dave was active in the little photo "darkroom" that was located behind Jean Peterson's desk at the school library. The library was in a different place then. 

It was a big deal when the library began offering cassette music for the kids to check out and listen to with headphones. Tape cassettes! Right in the same category with the old analog photography stuff. Jean Peterson let us kids listen to pop music on the headphones, probably just so we'd stay subdued and out of trouble. Many of us were "rambunctious." 

 

Not really uplifting

School could be unpleasant in those days. Many courses could be difficult and the "honor rolls" were nothing like today. Many were called, few were chosen, that is for the 'A' grades and maybe even the B's. So were we stupid? Of course that's not the point. 

School was set up in ways to be a difficult regimen much like being in the military. Well, the WWII generation was at its peak of influence then. They could have stood up to power with regard to the Vietnam war. But I sensed that a lot of them were in a trance about wars, thinking that it was necessary every so often for the U.S. to do that sort of thing. Shockingly, you could be stigmatized or vilified for even being a war skeptic. 

And today in the age of Trump, his vast following has suddenly done a reversal from the traditional so-called "conservative" ethos and decided that foreign wars are a crock for the U.S. You might be branded a peacenik, communist, hippie or low-life slacker in an earlier time. This scared off many people, I feel, from coming forward with their genuine thoughts about the war.

Imagine wanting "peace!" 

The war was a huge backdrop in the growing-up years for the Class of '73. Four months before we graduated, the Paris Peace Accords were signed which ended the direct U.S. involvement in the war. The "fall of Saigon" did not happen until 1975. Today the U.S. has favorable relations with the same people who we thought it so important to fight. 

The bottom line: it was none of our business being over there. But the older generation was fueled by memories of "the good war" of WWII which the U.S. so gallantly won. I guess that's what it was all about. And my generation got dragged along, miserably, in the wake. 

Makes us wonder if the human species is really that intelligent. 

To get an appreciation of what my generation had to deal with in terms of the zeitgeist, consider the song "Okee from Muskogie," Merle Haggard. The song criticized the young people who were protesting war, on the basis that we needed to support the troops who were "fighting to make others free." 

Where can we begin in deconstructing that?

My, our U.S. leaders had so much pride in its military, it directed the soldiers not to wear their uniforms on the way home at the end. As far as soldiers being "spit on" at airports, that is largely if not entirely myth. This has been documented. It's what you'd call a popular meme. 

Do you recall welcome-home celebrations for the returning troops from Vietnam? I mean, like the huge celebration here in Morris for the National Guardsmen when they got back from Iraq? What an unnecessary event. What an unnecessary commitment to even have these young men sent to Iraq. If nothing else, why could not the U.S. have used its regular military? George W. Bush ordered the whole thing and tapped into the old Merle Haggard ethos: let's brand the protesters as college counterculture types - that'll do it. 

Leading conservative commentator Laura Ingraham says today she "retracts her support for the Iraq war." War or invasion, whatever. Hey Laura, you can't "retract" that. More recently she has attacked the capitol police offers who testified for the Jan. 6 committee. So strange: I thought "conservatives" support law enforcement. And now they seek to demonize the FBI and DOJ. We are so human an animal. 

We step aside and let this elderly man named Rupert Murdoch control public opinion so much. Why do we allow that? We are fallible human beings. Might the very existence of the USA crumble because of that? We came so close to having an autocratic form of government take over in 2021. Our own congressperson Michelle Fischbach helped push that effort along, as she was seemingly in a trance of devotion to Trump. She refuses to answer my questions about whether she's proud of her public statement on Jan. 6. 

Michelle Fischbach

Even Tom Emmer did not go along with that. 

 

Think things through

You see, there are so many dangers inherent in just letting democracy die. Most Trump supporters have barely thought of that. Once democracy is gone, all bets are off, really truly. And the people would lose their license for recourse, whether the preferred prescription would be conservative or liberal. It's gone. 

And Fischbach was good with having a dagger applied to democracy. We might still have elections but they would be of the sham kind. Trump and his acolytes would cleverly pull the strings. He has "lawyers" do his bidding with every little thing. Like Rudy Giuliani, who appears too unstable to even serve as a local city attorney anywhere. Didn't this erratic person with alcohol issues go out like an attack dog for the former president? 

My Class of '73 was hearing about Watergate when we got our diplomas. A big difference was that Nixon in his fading period never stopped respecting the rule of law. Now? Heaven help us. 

My MHS Class of '73 is having its 50-year reunion this September. We pray we do not lose any more from our ranks before then. I had to survive my own rather serious health issues a few months ago. My presence at the reunion, if I choose to attend, would be credited to "Dr. Sam." I should write a song about him.

 

Addendum: Here's a comment that I posted with a Yahoo News article on Wednesday:

 

Why do some of us allow this fellow named Rupert Murdoch to be a "kingmaker?" Can't we all think for ourselves? Let's see, so many Republicans have an issue with Joe Biden's age. What is Murdoch's status on that count? What's wrong with just enjoying a nice comfortable retirement at that age? Biden too? Well touche. But Murdoch aggravates me. He is not elected.

 

 "Eddie" shared a response. Thanks Eddie.

 

Exactly. Why are we allowing an old wrinkled Australian billionaire steer the Electorate to HIS candidate pick? You can thank Reagan for fast tracking his immigration to the US. Enough already.

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

We are all just sheep watching Trump's rise

We walk hand-in-hand with him.

We can conclude that something profound has happened to America. Odds appear good that Donald Trump will rumble back into the White House. This will make our congressperson Michelle Fischbach giddy with happiness. She voted against certifying the 2020 election results. 

One can assume that Torrey Westrom will click his heels together. Jeff Backer is still in the legislature, though he no longer represents us. He is the most extreme type of Republican now. He voted against condemning the violence of Jan. 6. 

The Morris area has a state representative whose name sometimes escapes me. It's common to hear talk about how this representative is a more traditional, normal and tasteful type of Republican. If that's the word on the guy, why do area Republicans choose to elect the other kind? But they do. 

Our rep is Paul Anderson. Couldn't get a more typical name than that for out here. Would Anderson click his heels together if Trump gets back in the White House? I think he'd be more low-key about it. But in the end he'd be approving. I think he'd have to. 

So what has happened in America for this weird spell to have taken over? I have reminded about the quaint times of Ronald Reagan, when there was concern about his electability because he had been divorced. How to explain the massive cultural shift, the shift in our collective values leading up to today? Now we have this brazen and dangerous Trump leading the way for Republicans, the party which once stood for temperate behavior. Our behavior should be kept within guardrails, the Republicans of old proclaimed. 

The younger generation tended "liberal" and pushed the boundaries for culturally edgy stuff. The younger people wouldn't give a rip about who had been divorced. We didn't give a rip about who used marijuana. High school kids tried to get dress codes tossed out. 

Republicans and conservatives believed in the conventional values and norms: boys should have their shirts tucked in. Girls should wear dresses and be happy in their home ec. classes. You'd be sent to the counselor if you were caught using a profanity or obscenity. Trump has caused our values to plunge right to the bottom. His quotes underscore how America cannot get dragged any lower. 

But this is the conservative Republican leader of today. A depraved individual who has been found responsible by a jury of sexual assault. We agonize over how slow some of the investigations are proceeding vs. him. Our legal system might need some overhauling. I might add "when this is over." Yes, some overhauling "when this is over," but that presupposes it will end, and that a more conventional set of values will return to America. America as we've known it could end.

 

Would be so easy

Republicans could change horses right now and adopt Asa Hutchinson as their banner-carrier for president. Should be a lead pipe for them. A happy, optimistic and positive person by nature who would realize that Democrats are at least human beings. That's how Ronald Reagan was. He was a mature individual who had experience with a union. He and Tip O'Neill could break bread.

The conservatives who I knew when I was growing up would say of Donald Trump that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. They'd have some other choice words. They'd be flummoxed by Trump's sheer crudity. The crudity flows at us literally daily. It sure happened over the July 4 holiday. Trump's rally in South Carolina showed that if anything, his momentum is picking up. 

I'll remind you that we here in the Midwest should not aspire to be like South Carolina. We have more proper standards here. I wonder what the private thoughts of Mike Rounds and John Thune are. Yet they probably have to stay zippered on that. The Trump wave is building among a considerable portion of America. It must have been like this in Germany during Hitler's rise. Are we prepared to be accountable for ourselves if the same outcome happens? 

History shows vividly that when the masses of people get pushed down long enough, autocracy cannot hold them down anymore. This is just history: an oppressed people will turn to violence. The communists caught up with Mussolini, had him executed and then had his body hung up on meat hooks to be mutilated. 

We need to pray that the proper venting of political sentiment would be through our democratic voting process. All bets are off in America now. How could we reconcile celebrating July 4 with wanting an unstable person like Trump to make his rise again? 

What if Fischbach had gotten her way?

 

Obvious alternatives

It's plain as the nose on your face that there are still decent people seeking the Republican nomination for president. Take Trump out of the picture and we'd get considerably more media attention for the likes of Tim Scott. Trump sucks all the oxygen out of the room. He is an attention-grabbing machine. The media takes to his outrageous quotes like a bear to honey. The sheer outrageousness ought not build up his political stock. And if it does, it speaks volumes about us. 

Most people still have good sense inside of them. I still cannot get Congressperson Fischbach to respond on whether she still stands by her public statements of Jan. 6. She alleged "voting irregularities too voluminous to ignore." Really? If true, that's very concerning. We have a legal system that is tasked with looking over this sort of thing. Is Fischbach saying we can no longer trust our legal system, that is if Democrats are still able to win some elections? Republicans are veering in that direction now. Tear down the FBI and DOJ, for example. 

Jim Jordan

In favor of what? In favor of a system that would get the blessing of Jim Jordan? OK then, we'd have an autocracy. And what does history teach us about that? 

Republicans have effectively contaminated the Supreme Court. They cry out for book-banning which I think is just a ploy to take funding from all publicly supported libraries like in our schools. Conservatives show up at school board meetings with a scary demeanor. Then if legal authorities decide that such behavior is too threatening and needs to be watched, the Jim Jordans of the world will erupt in a tantrum of rage against a "politicized legal apparatus." 

So the political apparatus just needs to step aside and let the most maniacal conservative people run roughshod? De-fund our schools and libraries etc.? 

The striking down of affirmative action by the Supreme Court was just a way of making life miserable for our institutions of higher education. Republicans have long felt that such institutions tend to be left-oriented. Unleash the pit bulls. The headlines suggested yesterday that Republicans are so emboldened by the current direction, they are going after scholarship programs for minority young people. 

 

Fallout felt here in Motown?

I have raised the question about free tuition for Native Americans at our University in Morris. I have said that unless this is based on an actual old treaty - a literal treaty - it could easily be on the chopping block. Because absolutely nothing is restraining the Republicans now. People who should know better like our local Apostolic Christians should insist on conservatism with a higher set of standards and ideals. 

It won't happen. Some of us are just going to have to hunker down. And then God help us, if we deserve it. 

Reminds me of the lyrics of the well-known Greg Lake Christmas song "I Believe in Father Christmas." He wrote that "we get the Christmas we deserve." A subtle hint there that maybe we in America did not deserve such unbounded joy. It was the time of the Vietnam war. So many dead in that war, a war that America lost. 

Sad aspect of so much anti-war messaging then: it had to be subtle. Even the original "Star Trek" TV series had subtle messages in this vein. When the Smothers Brothers came along with a less-subtle approach, they became targets of the John Wayne crowd. Very different times. The World War II generation was at its peak of influence. When they thought of war, they thought of the "good war" of WWII. A myth that any war could be "good."

Greg Lake was part of the famous group "Emerson, Lake and Palmer." The group popularized so-called "progressive rock." It was really just great, refined music. Some critics called it "pretentious." They could go sit under a cow.

Many of us learned the term "synthesizer" from "ELP."

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