Friday home wins in boys, girls hockey

The puck dropped for a long and mighty successful day of hockey Friday here in Morris. So, the Lee Center was "the place to be." Lots of goals and more importantly, lots of success for our "Storm." A day for both genders to be showcased. 

The boys put away Fairmont 10-0. The girls' story was a 6-3 win over Fairmont. 

The boys needed some time to summon momentum. The first period ended with MBA having crept in front 1-0. But the second period was all Storm. Six goals got added to the total. Suspense gone. We added three goals for good measure in the third. Our first period goal was by Tucker Blume at :36, assist from Kaleb Breuer. 

Bring on the second period and its rally! It began with Zach Wrobleski getting the puck in the net at 1:47, assist from Charlie Goff. MBA went up 3-0 when Blume did the job unassisted at 2:35, shorthanded style. The score became 4-0 as Braeden Mattheisen got the puck in the net at 4:50, assist from Caden Olsen. Goff struck unassisted at 10:39. Then it was Wrobleski's turn to do the unassisted thing at 13:40. 

Our last goal of the period was power play-style, scored by Logan Hadfield with assists by Jackson Gades and Breuer (16:59). 

Eyes returned to the Lee Center ice for period No. 3. Bryce Lehman got assists from Alex Claussen and Blume as he scored at 8:13. Alex Carlson got our ninth goal with help from assist-producers Hadfield and Kye Suess (10:10). Lehman finished the scoring work at 12:40 with the assist from Olsen. Our goalie was Nate Bratton who had saves on all 12 of his attempts. The Fairmont goalie was Carson Johnson.

 

The image of Karlie Bruns at right is from "Minnesota girls hockey hub."

Girls: Storm 6, Fairmont 3

Quite the dominating force on the ice for the MBA girls cause. Karlie Bruns played with a real flourish. Bruns scored all six of our goals in the win over Fairmont. She's a senior forward. She came out of this flurry of success with 33 goals on the season, seven assists. 

Bruns and her mates took charge in the first period as they fashioned a 4-1 lead. Fairmont managed to shut us down in the second period before we came back to score two more goals in the third. MBA achieved its sixth win with the 6-3 winning score. 

Bruns began her barrage with assists from Sadie Koehler and Gabby Schneider (1:51 of the first). Then she did the job unassisted to put us up 2-0 (7:22). Fairmont got on the board with a goal by Isabella Laarson with an assist from Maia Goerndt (9:44). Bruns scored twice more in this period, first with a goal that had assists from Charli Erdahl and Elizabeth Day (10:43). Then at the 16:26 mark, Bruns sent the puck in the net assisted by Molly Jones. 

Fairmont had the only second period goal. It was by Larson with an assist by Karissa Newville (0:37). 

Fairmont struck first in the third period as Goerndt and Larson showed good chemistry, Goerndt with the goal, Larson with the assist (2:33 power play). Then Bruns struck again for the home team, unassisted-style at 7:01. Bruns worked her magic again at 8:46, unassisted, to wrap up the scoring. Quite the memorable day for Morris Benson Area. 

Our goalie was Ava Breuer with 21 saves in 24 attempts. The Fairmont goalie was Llana Moeller.

 

Fans at basketball games

I remember how many years we waited before the bleachers got pulled out on both sides of the gym for girls basketball games at Morris Area High School. The Tigers played at the 1968 gym. Memories of the '68 gym as the varsity gym fade ever more. You should know that the '68 gym was touted as the cat's pajamas when it opened in the late 1960s. 

As with many new things, the novelty fades over time. We saw this in the macro picture with Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington: seeming like a miracle at the beginning, a rusted-out relic at the end of its run. 

Our '68 gym was a true focus in our community for so long. I attended countless games there, thought that the drum section of the pep band got too loud sometimes! And I also clearly remember how, year after year, girls got second class treatment by playing in front of just one section of bleachers. The other section stayed compressed against the wall. 

For a time we could surmise that fan interest sort of justified this. Girls sports didn't hit its stride until maybe the mid-1980s. Oh, it could have happened earlier but the MAHS girls teams did not distinguish themselves. I was taken aback at how detached and disinterested our community and even the school staff was, in the face of a lack of competitiveness and intensity. I saw it as hugely ironic because our Mary Holmberg was definitely a strong advocate for equality for girls sports. But for whatever reasons we languished a lot. 

Hence, no strong need to accommodate large fan turnouts. You know, it really was a shame. 

Things didn't really change until the fall of 1987 for volleyball. I was stunned to see for the first time, an MAHS girls team in volleyball or basketball being truly competitive, being taken seriously on those terms. We were not out of the doldrums permanently. Some sputtering still lay ahead. 

Today, even though the won-lost is not always impressive, I think we can describe our girls teams in the high-profile sports as mostly competitive, certainly worthy of being taken seriously on competitive terms. Don't remind me of how there are still games like what our girls played vs. 'Waska and BOLD. On the whole, I think the teams are holding their own. 

Keep in mind that I can remember too many years when we were not like that at all. Worse yet, if I tried sounding some alarm bells around town about this, the reaction was mostly enmity against yours truly. Occasionally I'd run into someone who knew exactly what was going on and our talk would be guarded as with a whisper. You know what small town life is like. But at times I could not help myself. Looking back I am not ashamed. 

So yes we had a girls advocate in MAHS athletics, Ms. Holmberg. So you'd think she and the administration would be eager to have the bleachers pulled out on both sides of the gym. But so much time passed before it happened. As for the loud drums, I'm not sure anything was ever done about that! I'm only partly kidding on this. 

Why am I thinking about the bleacher thing today? It's because a friend recently gave me the heads-up about how UMM is doing this with men's basketball games now! Wow! It used to be a given that all the bleachers were available. My tipster friend asked, what would Perry Ford say? Ford was a coach and quite the promoter for the men's program. He and I really "clicked." Sadly he has passed on. He would have a very hard time living with the low competitive level of UMM sports today.

Note the curtain covering up the withdrawn section of bleachers at the UMM basketball gymnasium. (UMM sports website image)

 

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

Confrontation with the Natives in the year 2024

Not very subtle

Native Americans may have had the "best light cavalry in the world" when they closed in on Custer's poor troops out West. Have you seen the movie "Son of the Morning Star?" Custer gained great fame posthumously partly because of the efforts of his wife. (The same can be said about General George Pickett of the Civil War.) 

But that aside, do we really wish to admire the Indians' "success" from the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Maybe Native Americans would. I doubt that the European culture of America would be inclined that way. 

I'll just say "war is bad." I grew up during Vietnam. 

So why have sports fans out here on the prairie been subjected to the "Braves" name for so long? It has been the garden variety type of Native American-based high school sports nickname. The Benson school may be claiming that it has tried to "tone it down." They also fall back on how certain Natives in the area had no problem with it. Even approved of it. 

Oh man, just consider basic human psychology. The Natives would not want to be "difficult" about this, would they? They would be aware that the local school authorities were "seeking their help." They'd feel an impulse to be in good standing, not to throw a wet blanket on it. The school could claim "everyone seems good with this." 

 

Look at the trend

People can be wrong. One by one states have been passing laws against the idea of treating Natives like they are mascots. Any cause for this being a big deal? Here in Minnesota with our vernacular, we think in terms of things being a big deal or not being a big deal. Think Marge Gunderson. 

I remember the "Braves" nickname from when I followed our high school sports here in Morris, as Benson might have been our top rival. I also remember the legend of how a lot of the Benson kids were "druggies." I digress. 

Just not defensible

Schools in Minnesota are extremely hard pressed trying to keep vestiges of the old Native American imagery with their sports teams. My take? This is absolutely not a battle worth fighting, but with one exception or one "caveat" to use a trendy word. It probably comes down to money! The Benson school will go to the ends of the Earth to try to keep from spending its own money. Otherwise why on Earth would they try to draw battle lines on this? Why be like Custer? Oh my, might be an impolitic statement. 

(Custer was not that bright, really very vain and pugnacious, and he got away with his faults in the Civil War. You might say his approach "worked until it didn't." It sure didn't.) 

I most certainly understand how school superintendents think. I'm sure the Benson guy rues the day that his school ever adopted "Braves." He's anything but a cheerleader for it, would prefer the school had no "nickname" at all. Such a silly custom at the root of this. If the Benson school ends up wanting to make a statement, they can announce that they have no nickname. 

"We'll be Benson High School. We have a Benson boys basketball team and Benson girls basketball team." Oh and incidentally those basketball teams are doing very poorly. So maybe Benson should work harder to upgrade these programs rather than to keep making a stink with the "Braves" nickname. The nickname impresses no one. It's ridiculous if anyone thinks this is a battle worth waging. Unless it comes down to money. 

Benson wants to toss the matter into the state's court. Hey, the state can get money, sure a lot easier than the local school district can. And if you go higher than that, the Federal government can print money! Best deal possible. The Feds can use deficit spending. Nice work if you can find it. 

Below I share a news tip email I just sent to the Star Tribune of the Twin Cities. 

Good luck to all? Well, Benson has dragged its feet way too long on this. Maybe some of the adults over there are druggies. I will say one thing for Benson: it has always had that nice Dairy Queen on the outskirts of town. Beyond that I think it's a "blah" place.

  

Hi Strib - Looks like Benson High School of western MN has gotten a "no" answer on keeping their Native American imagery/logo. There's a story there I'm sure. Let me just tip you off: these things can come down to money (!). So Benson was never going to do anything pro-active on this, in other words spend their own money. They want money from "the state." Presumably they'll spend their own only when they have to, when hell has frozen over or whatever.

The school adm. has some "spin" prepared like claiming there is some imagery (not all) that has been removed in various places, and that they don't insert the contentious imagery themselves. Well maybe, but the contentious images are still floating around the Internet from past use. Like, I have an image saved in my downloads folder because I sometimes blog about area high school sports. If the "Braves" name were simply eliminated, all the old imagery would become dated and have no value.

It looks like the Native American organizations were not unanimous in deciding on Benson's situation. The way I look at it, Benson had the garden variety Native American nickname and if they get a pass, well then maybe everyone should have gotten a pass.

Good luck.

"Benson Bobcats?" 

"Home of the Braves," Benson MN

 

Addendum: Man, I don't have a prayer trying to guess successfully on spelling of "posthumously."

 

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

Not exactly "morning in America"

("the hill" image)

It is 1:47 a.m. as I begin writing first draft of this post. Just another in a pretty long stream of obscure  posts that likely do not find much daylight. Was going to try to put aside politics some. But it is the morning after the fabled Iowa caucuses. 

Somehow it seemed different when Jimmy Carter surprised in Iowa. Jimmy Carter! Mention of whom dates me most surely. But didn't we have a different America then? So we've changed. 

We might really sit back and try to think about the massive change in our U.S. culture. Shall we feel discouraged? Any sea change in our culture is not completely bad. It probably reflects progress in a number of ways, as it's a response to tech innovation all of which is designed to build efficiency and convenience. Which can only be a good thing, right? I guess not entirely. 

America began turning to Jimmy Carter because we wanted a definite person of character. And we even seemed to prioritize that over capability when in office. America had been chagrined by Richard Nixon. Merely stating the obvious there? It was so easy to identify Nixon's shortcomings at the end. And here's the deal: Americans made the sensible deduction based on that. We had control of our proper faculties. We had moral compass. 

We believed what the mainstream news media was telling us about Nixon. Nixon had been vice president for eight long years under the most conventional president "Ike" Eisenhower. Eisenhower helped lead the Allies to victory over the hellish Nazi regime, right? Moral compass of our nation was 100 percent on course. We had our wits about us, even though we were pulled into the biggest hell imaginable of WWII. We don't hear enough about how sad it was that war became inevitable. We hear about the grand nature of our sacrifices. Just attend a Memorial Day program. 

We don't get to hear from any of the countless souls who lost their lives at a young age. Let's say there's a "bias" there. 

We hear a lot about "bias" today. Consider it a buzzword. As in, how we have "the fake news media." The huge Republican leader of today railed about "fake news" in 2016. And he had so many believers. I remember when talk of this kind was marginalized in America. It's not so terrible that we hear it here and there. I came to expect it from the fringes. And I was always willing to consider it some. Frankly I think we ignore conspiracy theories at our own peril. They can carry weight. But as with anything else, they can get way carried away. And if they get carried away, it is only because a big chunk of America is receptive. 

By contrast with today, Americans had a decent sense about things in the mid-1970s. We basically believed the revelations about the shortcomings of Nixon. My generation thought Nixon was fundamentally bad. It is never pleasant to have such thoughts. 

Could you picture Nixon or those around him shouting into a microphone "fake news!?" (Well, we did hear "nattering nabobs of negativism." Huh?)

 

What if?

What if we had learned that Nixon had sex with a porn star and then paid her off to try to keep it quiet? Can you imagine the reverberations? Even the self-styled "conservatives" would have been open-mouthed and said it's time to move on, quickly in fact. And they would show profound embarrassment. 

There was a moral compass in America. Yes, gays were still in the closet. Moral people should never countenance such a thing. So you might say we had a moral compass in other ways. Strange. But human beings can be strange. 

 

Legal system on precipice?

Consider this also: If Nixon had had a dizzying amount of legal proceedings tightening the vise on him, as we are seeing at present, well my goodness, people would have reacted with a sense of respect for our legal system. People would have said we should get out of the way of our cherished legal system. Today we see leading Republican Marco Rubio, a lawyer, saying he has lost faith in the jury system. Lost faith in the jury system? Because, Trump might be judged somewhere where we happen to find a high percentage of so-called "Trump haters?" 

Well, the cauldron of politics often includes "hate." It's our free and fair political system in which the pols often say "politics ain't beanbag." So are we supposed to dispose of our legal system norms just because people in certain places have developed a high degree of skepticism about the current Republican leader in the U.S.? We used to respect our foundational U.S. systems. It applied to justice, ethics and fair play. It was a given. 

Jimmy Carter (wiki image)

What Nixon did was small potatoes compared to our current GOP leader. But America had "grown weary of Watergate," made fundamental conclusions about Nixon's character and came forward to approve of this fundamentally good man Jimmy Carter. It was a statement of values by the American people who were willing to live with a little "incompetence." Such as - we can say with a smile - Carter wanting to manage the White House tennis courts on his own. 

Such anecdotes are surely benign. But there is very little benign about the U.S. Republican leader at present who is storming back toward the White House. Here I am trying to issue a warning about it once again, in the middle of the night after the Iowa caucuses. I went to bed early as is my habit, thus I'm not tired when perusing headlines when most of the world around me is sound asleep. So peaceful, tranquil. It was once common for people to get up in the middle of night for an hour or two, if you go back to the days before electric lights. I have been fond of rediscovering the custom. 

I can peruse all the headlines about Donald Trump and his ridiculous comments, and retain a calm state of mind. I alone cannot do anything about this. I have lost friends because of the Trump phenomenon. They just drift away from me. They make statements about my alleged unreasonableness, like how I took seriously the Trump ties with Putin and Russia, was disturbed by them. I was supposed to dismiss the estimable Robert Mueller as borderline senile, when in fact his hands were tied. 

And now we hear proclamations all over the AM Radio dial about how our current U.S. president, elected totally legitimately, is hopelessly senile. And it gets woven into our U.S. fabric. So as an alternative to our allegedly senile and hopeless U.S. president, we are supposed to open the door for Trump again. That's what the sea of opportunistic commentators are telling us. 

 

The consequences

Four more years of power for Donald Trump to do heaven knows how much damage to our nation. He is back to talking "repealing Obamacare" after the program has become a bedrock of insurance for so many, to be replaced by what? Here Republicans just start doing their usual hemming and hawing. No longer do they really get called out by the news media. Not like in "the old days" when America actually decided on a man like Carter. 

Nikki Haley (axios)

It isn't enough to say we need our old moral compass established again. It is too late for that. Would be wonderful to have a woman president. Nikki Haley? Well, does she support women's reproductive health rights? You know the answer to that. 

Haley thinks we are still playing by some of the old rules in America, and that we can in the end make decisions based on people's character at least in part. What a rude awakening Haley has at this time, morning in America. Morning in America? Where have we heard that before? I really wish it was "morning in America." 

Do you suppose Republicans believe that Haley's "blood is poisoned?" Why am I even having to share that question? Elon Musk is a racist. Charlie Kirk is a racist. They stay afloat with their reputations in the media. Not how it would have been in the 1970s.

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

Local "commercial media" looking more outdated

(SCT file image)

Went to our wonderful Morris Public Library yesterday (Wednesday) to get a little enriched, hopefully to deal better with the dead of winter. We most certainly are there now. The library is where I take at least a quick look at the newspapers: local and state. Really, I must question the value of the local newspaper in the Internet age. 

The Internet has become so ubiquitous and relied-upon, we hardly hear the word "Internet" any more. Years ago it was a novel thing. Today it is most certainly not a novelty. It is fully blended into our lives and can satisfy any of our needs. Maybe a dozen years ago we could not have said that. Back then as a defense of newspapers, some advocates for the print industry would say "not everyone is online." Hint: So local government entities would have to keep paying what newspapers demanded for "legal notices" pertaining to meetings. 

Like we could not trust such entities to simply report themselves. I think today, we have become pretty trusting on this. I really do. And to what extent does our local paper behave like a "watchdog?" It does not, not even close. Newspaper people at the local level have the common impulse of not wanting to step on toes. So protective they are of their business model, they want their product to be seen as "positive" in the community. 

Our local office-holders like the mayor are elected by the people. It is not wise to alienate such folks. Not if you know what side your bread is buttered on. 

Maybe there's no real risk in alienating the Donnelly folks. The local newspaper behaved like a bear with boxing gloves on that one. The paper was trying to put itself forward as the "watchdog" in this instance. It did nothing more than irritate people IMHO. Why the scrutiny of the humble little Donnelly city council? Is there a basis for being suspicious of those people? Can this be documented? 

Picking on Donnelly? Why?

I didn't understand the fuss to begin with. The paper had a big heading on its website for a long time, about how its "reporter" had gotten "abusive treatment" by the council. Makes the council come across as real scoundrels. Certainly that was the impression readily gained. Well I have no such suspicion. Nobody abused anyone. A guy used a couple profanities. My God, no great indiscretion there. 

I might suggest a little background here: My generation of the boomers got accustomed to hearing profanities because our fathers of the WWII generation found such talk to be, to a degree, fashionable. We were happy to give them slack on this because of all they had been through with WWII and before that the Depression. So we got rather numb to it, put up with it with no consternation, though we knew such talk was not exemplary.

 

Vices, unfortunately

Worse than such talk, was the custom the WWII veterans developed of drinking alcohol to excess. The younger people were happy to give them slack on that too. Doubt me on this? Just consider the term "Legion convention." Ray Stevens mined that imagery for some of his humorous music. The Legion, VFW and even the Shriners were notorious for having gatherings where guys ended up stumbling around.  And us younger folks responded with. . .amusement! Yes, we joked a about such things.

On a more serious note, we unfortunately reflected the drinking habit ourselves, and this migrated to drugs like marijuana. We had no excuses like our fathers had. I can think of not one constructive reason why we did it. The outcomes were destructive in a variety of ways. 

Then MADD came along (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and there would be hell to pay for people who consumed alcohol and then got behind the wheel of a car. An incredibly rude awakening for so many. Well, they "had it coming," right? We must realize that some pretty big cultural norms had been established, norms that equated drinking alcohol with "maturity." I guess we can look back and feel dumbfounded. Then again we can look back and feel dumbfounded by lots of things. 

 

On another front

How else might the local newspaper be counterproductive? I thought it was totally out of bounds in connection with the Morris water treatment plant. Here, instead of being a watchdog, the paper acted like it was a cheerleader for the City of Morris. Or more accurately for the state, because as time passed it seemed evident that the plant was really a state project. 

This was a question that the Morris newspaper could have helped answer: is the plant truly a city project or basically overseen by the State of Minnesota? The newspaper acted like cheerleader with effusive advice: You'll be "violating the law" if you continue to have a certain kind of water softener. As time passed I realized that the city had no such intention of being so heavy-handed. The whole thing seemed so unfair anyway, as you'd have to give the local citizens time to deal with it, more than a little time in fact. 

My parents had a name-brand Kinetico softener in the basement that was operating according to manufacturer's recommendations. Was I going to be suddenly at risk of having authorities show up at my front door? Our city manager had to go to Marshall Hoffman at the radio station to try to assure everyone that no such panic was called for. 

What would happen today? Because, so much talent has been lost at the Morris radio station. Hoffman was so incredibly helpful keeping us informed on various local and state matters. He explored topics, finding various nuances. Nuances? We can expect no such quality in our local news reporting now, whether from the radio station or paper. These vestigial institutions are scared every day of shrinking further due to the obvious pressure from the online world. We all ought to just move on to a world without them. 

But old customs or conventions do hold on, just like the customs that were bequeathed by the WWII generation, of men "drinking and swearing." But we loved those people. Few remain among us.

 

Paying attention

My little "adventure" of taking a look at the Morris newspaper ("Stevens County Times") prompted this email that I sent to friend Del Sarlette:

 

Del - I was at library this afternoon. Have you looked at the Morris paper? The photo at top of page 1 of the New Year's baby, the caption does not identify the two SCMC people. One of them is Dr. Barnstuble. Plus there's a nurse. I wonder if the paper will re-run the photo with a complete caption. This is harder to excuse these days when the paper publishes just once a week. They have time to touch all the bases. We did more than double the work. I spent all day Friday loading the Ad-Viser which does not exist anymore. Canary is only eight pages. 

Cute how Michael Bjorklund of First Luth. brought the Ad-Viser to you.

 Top half of page 1B is devoted to Hancock girls basketball. I wonder what the Morris fans think of that. What does Shelly say when she gets a complaint about that sort of thing? What does she say when people complain about the useless website? I wonder how many calls they take each day from people who say they didn't get their paper?! This could be a real nightmare now.

I saw the article about the Morris teacher who went bellyaching to the board about teacher pay! People like me who are benefactors do not like seeing an article like that. I'd feel insulted if I was on the school board, because I as a board member would know all the facts and I would expect teachers to be happy with their compensation. If they don't like it, they can look for another job, Kemosabe.

What if our teaching staff starts to get disgruntled? This happens. It happened here in the 1980s with the notorious penny-pincher (according to legend) Fred Switzer.

We shouldn't be under pressure to pay more just because certain other schools apparently are. Where would this "race" stop?

 

Oh, and I was prompted to send the following email to Jim Morrison who was once in charge of the Morris newspaper. Never a dull moment, eh?

 

Jim - Well it is fun to second-guess sometimes, so I notice the photo at top of page 1 of this week's Morris paper, New Year's baby, where the caption fails to identify the two SCMC people in photo. I can guess how this photo was acquired: it was "contributed" and the contributor didn't bother supplying those two names. So, it was up to the paper to go get them, whatever it takes. I'd hop in my car and drive up to SCMC if I had to, and I did that kind of thing on occasion, sometimes under deadline pressure. I did too much under deadline pressure, but I always had to justify my timesheets. I couldn't sit on stuff. In retrospect that was a mistake.

I wonder if the paper will re-run the photo next week with the names of Barnstuble and the nurse. 

I remember when I arrived at the emergency room a year ago in a crisis state, Barnstuble came along with a student observer. And then along came the doc whose last name is pronounced "Robby." I found out he's their emergency physician. And then most important, Dr. Sam just happened to be in vicinity, so now I had three expert doctors standing over me! Dr. Robby burst out "you have diabetes!" He could tell just by looking at me. Dr. Barnstuble had been Mom's physician. I can't say enough about those three guys.

The whole top half of page 1B this week is Hancock girls basketball. They must get complaints about this.

I see in the school board article that teachers are bitching about their pay. Benefactors like me do not like to see this kind of coverage. We want teachers to be happy, otherwise they might get disgruntled, which is what happened here in the 1980s. The teachers hated Fred Switzer with a passion and they stated this all over town. There had to be a better system than that.

 

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

Wrestling Tigers vie in "Border Battle"

So much wrestling at the Milbank (SD) "Border Battle." That was the name for quite the showcase. Our Tigers of MAHACA were in the midst of it all. Thanks to the wrestling publication "Guillotine" (not a very appealing name) for having quite detailed reviews. 

I guess "guillotine" is a wrestling hold. Outside of that it does not conjure up very favorable thoughts or images, does it. 

Didn't the Jan. 6 rioters set up a big guillotine prop outside the U.S. capitol to show what they wanted to do with Mike Pence? "Hang Mike Pence." Seemed like a sordid state of affairs in our nation's capitol - just my opinion. What if the assaulters had actually gotten ahold of Pence or his wife Karen? They came extremely close. Some of the security people sent "goodbye" messages to their families. 

Thank the Lord these attacks were not pulled off successfully. It was all done on behalf of Donald Trump. Who is in prison now? Well I guess not. Disgraced? Not that either, I guess. Looks like he's the prohibitive favorite for the Republican presidential nomination. 

Iowa could stop that. But it won't. The "evangelical Christians" are too strong in Iowa, a very backwards state. And extreme Christianity is what is buoying Donald Trump now, according to various credible news reports. Christianity! It has come to this. "Nationwide abortion ban." You'd think a female candidate like Nikki Haley would stand up for her gender and "reproductive health care rights." She does not. The first woman president of the U.S. would have to be a Democrat. 

We can feel thankful that neither Pence nor his wife lost their lives on Jan. 6. The "guillotine" prop ended up being just that, a "prop," an incredibly stupid and offensive prop. But the person who inspired all that behavior looks like he may be headed back to presidential power. 

With the help of our Stevens County? That looks to be the case. With the help of our local Apostolic Christians? This too looks to be the case. We reap what we sow. Maybe it's time for all good people to start turning their backs on Christianity. I write this with the utmost seriousness. The ELCA of the Lutheran faith cannot fight these battles alone. 

 

 The poster says it all! (Facebook image)

Sioux Falls Jefferson 42, Tigers 21

The MAHS wrestling Tigers unfortunately did not fare well on a team basis at Milbank. That's how it goes sometimes. Nevertheless the program obviously has lots of vitality and enthusiasm. Wrestling is not my cup of tea but I enjoy writing about it. The wrestlers can torture themselves to lose weight. I don't have to do that. The Tigers were defeated by Sioux Falls Jefferson 42-21.

Let's roll up our sleeves and look through this dual. Let's stay familiar with many of the names gracing the wrestling mat this winter. 

I do see a problem with forfeits in this matchup: three of them right away in the bottom weights. "Double forfeits." That is a downer.

The individuals

Xavier Kleindl at 126 pounds lost by fall to Aidan Wells in 1:34. Then we see two more forfeits in the next two classes going up. Downer again - total pet peeve of mine in the wrestling sport, ranking up there with weight loss. The two Sioux Falls Jefferson winners were Graham Wilde (132) and Brady Kuhnert (138). 

We get some good news at 144 pounds. Here it was Tiger Grayson Gibson winning by fall in 3:20 over Benjamin Neilan. Success continued at 150 where Andrew Marty was the victor over Austin Osborn. The "Guillotine" reports this bout outcome as "Inj. 4:00." So, caused by injury?

Andrew Marty (Facebook)

Jefferson's Carter Dahl won by forfeit at 157 pounds. At 165 pounds it was Jefferson's Sam Glesiah pinning our Ryker Erickson in 3:05. The 175 bout saw Jefferson's Anneyso Ahmed pin our Connor Duncan in 4:57. Connor Olson of the Tigers was the fall winner at 190 over Landon VanRoekel (5:48). 

Our 215-pounder Issac Lhotka came out on the short end by fall in 2:21 against Landon Duran. Our "big guy" at 285 was Javon Johnson and he prevailed by decision 5-1 over Noah Duran. 

The Tigers were on the short end of their duals in this "Border Battle." But it was an invigorating event for competition.

 

Girls basketball

Let's take a look at our Morris newspaper website to see what's up with sports. Here we go - wait a minute, you'd think all our sports here involves "UMM Cougars." What's up with that? Shouldn't our media outlets prioritize our own local kids who are growing up here? And if not, why not? Besides, doesn't UMM athletics have its own high-quality website for reporting with all the bells and whistles, pictures etc.? 

So what gives? Can anyone answer me on that? 

I scroll down and I eventually see a heading about the MACA girls basketball game against Minnewaska. That's nice, isn't it. It actually isn't, as this was a game the media ought not prioritize. It was a very "down" night for the Tigers with an embarrassing final score. But it gets attention on the Stevens County Times website. I feel kind of insulted and I'm not even a parent. 

How can we not feel insulted by our local paper on this, because since the infamous 'Waska game, the Tigers have picked up three wins. The three most recent games have had these outcomes: 74-72 over Rocori, 53-37 over Paynesville and 55-44 over CGB. We have lifted our won-lost record to within one game of .500. Why can't the Stevens County Times website stay on top of things better? 

I give a rip about these things and I am not even paid to do so. The paper has people who get paid, Kemosabe.

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

On the threshold of big change in 1960

Washington Senators, 1960! Familiar names, faces? From left: Billy Gardner, Lenny Green, Don Mincher, Jim Lemon, Harmon Killebrew, Earl Battey, Billy Consolo, Camilo Pascual. Thanks to Del Sarlette for emailing me this photo.

 

Think back to the year 1960 and how much change was coming at us here in Minnesota. And, most certainly in our community of Morris. 

It was so far-reaching. Is anything relatable today? 

Certainly change comes at us today as in politics. Middle-age people remember a time when it was assumed that presidential hopefuls were fundamentally good people. We might reject them completely if we were to learn of any character defects. Ronald Reagan a divorcee? That was a touchy subject. JFK attracted a fair amount of suspicion for being a Catholic! Would the Vatican exercise undue influence? Such was the talk. 

We learned of Richard Nixon's defects with time. But in the end he respected the rule of law, accepted his fate. He still waved his "V" for victory sign when boarding a helicopter at the end. Still, there was an assumption about the basic decorum around national politics. Nixon was made to pay a price, albeit with his "pardon" from Gerald Ford. 

 

The "Q" word

You want to see the definition of the word "quaint?" You need only consider the presidential debates of 1976 with Ford and Carter. Total decorum. Disagreements but with no great hostility. Ford was a gentleman in defeat. Holy cow, quaint. 

In 1960 JFK of the Catholic faith overcame that possible burden to defeat Nixon. Nixon had his suspicions about the election. He vented a little. Then we all moved on, because, this is America. Nothing like in the year 2023. And will the excrement hit the fan at some point, with all the dysfunction that we are allowing, countenancing? We seem hardly aware of the immense abyss we have fallen into. 

Even with the scary revelations exposed right in front of us, we may select the "orange man" president again. We in Western Minnesota are hopeless about this. We have fallen in line with the Dakotas. 

What theory to present? We have become embittered by "globalism," is that it? "The coasts" have reaped the benefits of globalism? While small towns have gotten boarded up across the Midwest? So, we need a despotic leader to lead us out of this? 

Well in 1960, you might say we still had Norman Rockwell's America. Minnesotans had to live without big league sports teams before 1961. Isn't that hard to conceptualize? I gather that the U of M football team was our only real showcase for big-time sports. People my age have a faint recollection of when the Gophers with the likes of Sandy Stephens were truly big-time from that era. They fell several rungs after that. 

Meanwhile my goodness, we got a full dose of major league sports entertainment! Twins and Vikings, both as newborn babies as it were. Well, the Twins were not a totally new franchise. Yes, we could have been assigned an "expansion" baseball franchise. It was definitely a possibility and hardly an appealing one. In those days expansion teams could be extremely bad news with their performance. Pro sports has seemed to lighten up in more recent times. 

I think there was a fear that if Minnesota had gotten an expansion team, the people would have abandoned their support. Too much losing. Not that winning came easily for our team in the seminal year of 1961. I was six years old. 

At the "micro" level for here in Morris, what drama: the School of Agriculture was phasing out. What on Earth was going to happen? Destiny smiled on us: the U of M with its considerable assets was branching out to this outpost on the prairie. Would the U make such a commitment now in the year 2023? Well I might suggest "h--l no." But it's here and the campus is fully developed, so it certainly will not be abandoned now. We might sense that the place is "in flux." It's hard to say what the true long-term prospects are. 

Some smart people are going to have to weave some persuasive arguments with the state to keep UMM in a viable position. Let's do this with fingers crossed. 

 

Bereft, yes

So before the fall of 1960, we in Morris were looking at a situation with no Twins, no Vikings and no U of M-Morris. Can you imagine it? 

Our new baseball team was the former Washington Senators of the Griffith family. A rapidly-fading institution: the family-owned big league baseball team. Many people lamented the team having to leave the nation's capital. They lamented how the team started improving its won-lost fortunes too late. There were encouraging signs with the 1960 season, although fifth place hardly seems scintillating. By the standards of the franchise then, fifth was encouraging, it really was. But the strides were not happening in time for making the argument to stay in D.C. 

The team would leave and be replaced by a true "expansion" franchise, the "new" Washington Senators.

 

"Cookie" at the helm

The 1960 Senators of the Griffith family had a W/L of 73-81, good for fifth place in the American League. Their manager was Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto who would move here with the team. He would not fare well in Minnesota. Welcomed as a celebrity at the start, the promise faded and he and the Twins paid their dues in '61. 

Minnesotans did not sense all that much futility. If they had, the bottom might have fallen out with enthusiasm and attendance. Fans saw more than a kernel or two of potential. They were right! 

All this excitement was augmented by the new Minnesota Vikings with of course Fran Tarkenton and Norm Van Brocklin, the latter the coach who did not stay on good terms with the QB. There will always be drama with personnel. 

 

It wasn't a dream

So just imagine: after the barren landscape with no pro teams and with our School of Ag in Morris biting the dust, look at the embarrassment of riches that blessed us! My father took his UMM men's chorus to two World's Fairs. The Twins surged to second place in the A.L. for 1962 with first baseman Vic Power. But the superb accomplishment of that team would be eclipsed in 1965: the pennant! 

 

East coast provincialism

The great writer for The New Yorker, Roger Angell, wasn't sure how to present the Minnesota story of 1965. Condescending, yes. He felt he had to constantly remind us that our team was the "old Washington Senators." His frame of reference, you might say. 

Angell gave us sort of a "Fargo" (the movie) stereotype when he said of Game 7 of the 1965 World Series that the atmosphere was "like a big family wedding" in Bloomington. He recalled being certain that day that the Dodgers with Sandy Koufax were going to win. Well they did win. But we were never "out of it." Lou Johnson's home run hit the foul pole. What if it had been foul? Could we have simply worn out Koufax's arm? We'll never know. 

But what exciting times in the early '60s from our position here in Morris. Today we are totally in MAGA country. I am greatly concerned. We should just count our blessings.

 

Addendum: My father Ralph directed the first-ever UMM music concert at the old armory in 1960. That building was where the public library is today. The concert was for the Stevens County 4-H. What better way to tie together the U of M and community! My father was never a stuffed shirt academician type. He had grown up in rural Glenwood. He developed his big city "creds" in Minneapolis with the U, later to be music instructor at the U of M-St. Paul School of Agriculture. I was a preschool tyke then. Dad really became a big city guy over a considerable stretch of his life. He directed the Apollo Male Chorus of Minneapolis. You should see his scrapbook. 

But he adapted back here totally!

 

Addendum No. 2: Angell rather notoriously described Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington as an "airy cyclotron!" Somehow when you read that, you never forget it.

 

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

When a question comes out of the blue

Better know what "E-85" is

A pure "gotcha" question always seems rather unpleasant. Memories for me come back to when we had a DFL candidate who was pretty well positioned to become governor. Guy's name was Mike Hatch. Remember him? He had a lot of energy and would have been good for the state. 

That is an extra-difficult statement to make now in 2023 when Democrats of all kinds face so much adversity in this strange climate of public opinion. 

The "gotcha" question I am thinking of was not even directed at Hatch. It was directed at Judi Dutcher the lieutenant governor hopeful. As I recall, it was a Morris native who asked the question in his role with an outstate TV channel. And let me emphasize, this interview did not appear to have a motive of wanting to sink the Democrats' campaign. His question still came off as a "gotcha" type. 

Dutcher herself sort of flinched upon getting it because she did not have an answer readily available. Was that a negative for her? I would not consider it as such. So you want me to remind you of what the question was. The media guy asked about E-85, what its potential was. Was it a good thing? That I recall was the gist of it, pretty general. I suppose Minnesota farmers were pretty well invested in this. 

Well then I'd ask: if this was simply a product available through the private marketplace, why not just let market forces determine its value, its merit? I mean, we don't have a "command economy," do we? Republicans would be revulsed at the idea, right? But Republicans like everyone else always know what side their bread if buttered on. 

Republicans used to complain about the Farm Bill: big, bloated, expensive, draining of private initiatives - you know the rundown. Republicans continued with such talk until they realized they were losing elections because of it. They then just decided to accept it, move on. Move on to other issues, perhaps the social issues which now have become the ticket to getting people to eat out of their hands. When will this end? Trends come and go in politics. 

Judi Dutcher (MPR)

Minnesota history has it pretty well recorded - not just legend - that Hatch and Dutcher lost the political race because of Dutcher's obvious fumbling. She initially was flustered by what she thought was a "quiz bowl" question - her words as I recall. I cannot disagree with her. I would suggest that if someone wants to go out and buy E-85, help yourself, go for it. Not sure that politicians have to pull the strings with this or other products in the marketplace. 

There are times I guess when Republicans really do like a "command economy." 

The political landscape is even more sensitive for Democrats today. I mean the tiniest misstep can blow up in their face. People out here in Western Minnesota are so eager to elect any Republican, we may even throw out Michelle Fischbach because she isn't conservative enough. I'm merely stating reality and would like to add: "Be careful what you wish for." 

Try to be aware of the consequences of your vote. Do you want to see programs like Social Security and Medicare endangered, I mean their very existence? Do you want to see a political party - the Republicans - seize absolute power by taking every little step to improve their odds and destroy the Democrats, this through what would become "sham" elections like we see elsewhere in the world? Please think carefully abut this. 

So many of you have been influenced by the gay rights issue. Many of you do not like abortion and I'll be the first to say it is a troubling subject. Let's blame God for how He created the human body and our reproductive systems. 

But if you believe Lindsey Graham and yell for a "nationwide abortion ban," do you realize how simplistic and ill-advised this is? When in fact "reproductive health issues" are complicated and could end up affecting your very own family? And when this happens, conservative Republicans do not simply stand back and allow for the possible suffering and death of a female family member. No, not when it affects them. But they use the issue to get votes. And it works. Rural Minnesota is full of churches that go right along with them. 

We are in suspended animation with ignorance. I would like to think it will just pass as political fashion. But I'm worried. 

Haley represents the old Confederacy (Salon)

So why am I thinking of the little Judi Dutcher anecdote pulled from the musty archives of our state's history? Well, the recent news brought us this little nugget about how Nikki Haley got asked the question about the Civil War. I cannot hold Haley's answer against her. 

My defense of her involves how far back in time the Civil War has become. Why make a big deal out of slavery now when it would only serve to blame Southerners who have become reactionary enough the way it is. Leave them alone - let's all just try to get along. 

Of course the Civil War was about slavery. The people alive today had nothing to do with it. Haley disregarded slavery in response to the question. She talked about freedom in a rambling and general way. Oh, the freedom for Southerners to own other human beings? Well no, she wouldn't have intended for her answer to mean that. 

But to just say "slavery" would have been such a downer. Haley is going to lose to Donald Trump anyway. And Trump has very high odds of going on to become U.S. president again. It could well mean the end of the U.S. as we've known it. I am troubled and I disapprove. But I am in a very small minority out here in Western Minnesota which might just as well be described as "East Dakota." The new reality has completely taken over. 

Judi Dutcher has appeared to leave politics. All I know about "ethanol" is that it's terrible for small engines and I'm sick of dealing with this issue. And farmers vote Republican.

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