Meanwhile yours truly can report on the football success of last Saturday. This was another game against the boys from Missouri, Fulton MO to be specific. Quite a long trip here for those boys. We're talking Westminster College. The big occasion of Senior Day for the Cougars. And we won 14-7.
Westminster is the "Bluejays." I don't know what Westminster stands for, its purpose in the universe. I could research but I do not feel sufficiently motivated. Perhaps I have exhaustion from following the Epstein files story in the national news. Can you imagine the day when the "fever breaks" and we're just able to "move on" from Trump?
Once the fixation ends, we'll all feel bewildered about what came over us. What came over our Christian faith, to allow it to be co-opted by this most flawed human being? Today is just another day as the fixation continues. It's hard to assume that the fever will ever break. The Democrats now have their "surrender caucus." What will happen to health care in America?
Are we really going to take military action against Venezuela? Why? Drugs? Oh but it's not about drugs, it's about oil. And why are Americans choosing to buy drugs?
 |
| Sean Keley-Chinanga |
But let's get back to football. Is Westminster a football program to be taken seriously? I don't know. I wish the days would return when we played the likes of Moorhead State. But my wishes go nowhere. The U of M is big and powerful. Don't tell me we could not get the resources here. People are fond of telling me I'm wrong in this community. And they often are not very civil about it. Even high-level professional people can use foul language.
I just try to air opinions without respect for "the party line." The party line rules in Morris.
UMM football has a 3-6 record now, 3-3 in the UMAC.
We scored both our touchdowns in the first half. Bryson Drake scored our first TD on a 13-yard run. Logan Ahlers kicked the point-after. Then it was Drake scoring again on a 19-yard pass reception. Throwing the football was Hayden Charboneau. Ahlers' toe delivered.
Westminster's only score came in the second quarter. It came on a three-yard pass from Trey Thomas to Conner Coffey.
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| Hayden Charboneau |
Our leader in tackle points was Gregory Ohman. Chayce Meyer had an interception with a return of 22 yards. And Juan "JT" Garza had an interception with a big return of 58.
Don't forget hoops
Tonight's (Friday) women's basketball game is against St. Catherine. You can get a Snickers bar from concessions for $2!
New guy here soon
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| Michael Rodriguez |
Word on the street is that Janet Schrunk Ericksen wasn't willing to go along with some specified things. Well she got a reminder of who is in charge. And Cunningham answers to the legislature. I'm not sure how the regents even figure in. Would the regents ever go along with any substantial cutbacks in the system? Don't they always just want to "go for it?"
There's always "spinning" by certain individuals. So someone told me that teaching is Ericksen's "first love." The idea is to be happy about Ericksen being "home" with her first love or priority. I would have thought she'd be thrilled being chancellor of a college in the U of M system.
Maybe Rodriguez feels the thrill. And he really ought to, even if he is called upon to engineer cutbacks. You see, the idea now is to keep UMM afloat. We can assume that any cuts are consistent with that. At the end of the day, Rodriguez ought to feel satisfied and inspired. That is, if it's "mission accomplished."
Frankly there is some "doomsaying" out there. Perhaps the healthiest attitude was voiced by a friend of mine in an email to me:
I think the UMM situation will fall between the status quo and doomsday. The school won’t get the death penalty, but will have some programs, majors, and faculty cut. However, I’ve never been good at making predictions (or giving advice), so take it or leave it (to Beaver).
DPS
Another positive note was struck by friend Randy Olson of Bonanza Valley who has strong UMM ties. He responded to an email I sent him in which I expressed joy over Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa volleyball taking third in state. Randy is the Bonanza Valley newspaper guy. So Randy answered my email:
Hello Brian, good to hear from you.
I
still have hope for UMM. Maybe I'm naive (yeah, I probably am) but I do
love that college and will always cherish the years I gave to Morris. I
don't regret one second of my 4 years there.
And never is heard a discouraging word? Let's hope. I will conclude here by sharing an email I sent a few days ago to my fellow UMM advocate Warrenn Anderson. I go afield which I am wont to do.
Hello
Warrenn well it certainly seems that a mood of angst has taken over in
connection with UMM. Seems everyone is assuming now that something
drastic is on the way. I wonder when we will get word of exactly what.
I'm wondering if this Rodriguez fellow will just quietly move into his
office without the usual ballyhoo or fanfare of a "new chancellor." The
fact that the U actually had to "dismiss" Ericksen is concerning because
it kind of stains the image of the place. I think many of us wonder why
Ericksen couldn't have just continued but with a little more oversight
from above. Remember when we were led to believe that the Crookston
chancellor had executive authority here? Evidently there was nothing to
that - it was in name only. And you wonder why I get cynical?
So
Blaine Hill had to come back? Do we need to vote out the whole city
council? Wow, the waste of money "investigating" the library. And what a
negative distraction for all of us.
Back
when I had my meeting with Schrunk-Ericksen, which I felt so privileged
to have, I let her know how I wished our sports teams could still be
competitive with the state universities. I have always been given
detailed answers why we just cannot do that. My response to that is that
we're part of the big and powerful U of M and the U could come up with
the resources to get us in the Northern Sun again if it wanted to. Good
grief, St. Cloud State is almost going out of existence. I continue to
listen to talk programs on WDAY Radio-Fargo where they go over all the
Northern Sun teams, and how great if we could hear references to
"Morris."
We
have allowed athletics to go into retreat. We have allowed music to go
into retreat. The music groups are billed as "community" now. So we look
just like Crookston. All this shrinkage of what we do, so then it's no
surprise we're suddenly in position to panic now. Les Lindor once said
"it's easy to say let's cut this or let's cut that, but every time you
cut something, you lose a constituency that can help you get funding."
Do
you suppose there were people at UMM who were cutting corners and the
central adm. got suspicious? So Rodriguez is here maybe to put
everything under a magnifying glass?
I blogged about BBE volleyball this morning: third in state Class A.
Morgan Harstad is not going out for MACA girls basketball. She is six feet-one.
Is the
U of M women's basketball team going to break our hearts again? Again
they are starting out very impressive. The U looked super through early
and mid-season last year but then faded just enough at the end so we
didn't even make the NCAAs. I see they have some familiar names back.
I
was fearing my dr. appointment of a couple days ago but it was better
than I could have expected: I am no longer a diabetic, I am
"pre-diabetic."
Did
you know that Dr. Sam didn't want to do surgery for anyone whose
primary care physician was Dr. Busian? Dr. Sam would refer people
elsewhere.
- BW
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